Below the surface of much of the health industries, ads and campaigns are a set of subtle messages based on fear and shame. They try to tell you that:

• Fat is shameful and makes you sick

• You ought to be thinner

• You ought to be fitter

• A strict exercise and eating routine is the optimum way to live

• Joining clubs/membership programmes guarantees you results

• The experts know best (especially the beautiful ones)

• If you don’t exercise you are lazy (or stupid)

• If you are fat you must be lazy (or stupid)

• You should be trying harder/doing more

• Everyone else finds this easy and is having more fun

• If you lost weight you would feel better about yourself

• If you were more fit you would be more confident

• If you had stronger will power this would be easy for you

If you buy into these messages they are unlikely to produce sustainable health and they will steal your JOY! The proof of whether wellness psychology (the beliefs behind health programmes) is effective is the sustainable healthy results it produces AND the way it affects your mental health (hint less stress not more!).

Your body is one of the greatest gifts you have and looking after it can be natural, fun and satisfying. So why does looking after it so often feel like a heavy weight, a chore and a life sucker?!

What we are not often reminded about by health experts in the media is that our physical bodies (including our food preferences, fitness, illness profile) are mostly governed by genetics. This doesn’t mean that health behaviours do not matter (they do) but it does mean that even if you follow the workout routine or diet plan of your favourite health influencer you are not going to have their results because you don’t have their genes.

We mustn’t swallow the messages we are being fed whole. Many of them are simply unrealistic and the effects are toxic.

These are some empowering messages that improve health and are not toxic for your mind:

• Body acceptance reduces stress and improves immune function

• Mindful awareness empowers you to know what your body needs and how to maintain health

• Smart habit creation automates your body to repeat the behaviours that are most effective for health

• Meditation heals and integrates thinking, feeling and choosing patterns

• Old toxic cycles don’t need to predict your health behaviours NOW (you are a new you)

• Knowing your motivational style equips you to curate patterns of thinking that promote the behaviours you most want

• Low control and high self-trust enables the right behaviours to grow NATURALLY

• Mental detoxing gets rid of negative and shaming health messages

• Less is more - unplug, unsubscribe and unfollow the most damaging influencers