You're so welcome to today's podcast episode. I have loads of water beside me. You'll have to excuse me. I'm really dehydrated. So you know that we went to Spain for the month and for the first three weeks, I brought all my work with me and it was great. I got to experience what working away. In Spain was like again for a second time. I did it last year too and it was wonderful. However, I took the last week off. Oh, it was absolute bliss. We just hung out relaxed. I read loads of books, did lots of sightseeing, did lots of sea swimming. It was really, really nice.
We got home yesterday, I couldn't book a direct flight from Malaga to Shannon because it was all booked up and because we were away for the month, we just wanted to book our return flights while we were over there. So we had to book Malaga to Manchester, Manchester to Shannon and my God. From the second, we arrived at the airport yesterday to the second. We got back to Shannon last night. There was just queues all the time, so much. So we were supposed to have a five hour gap between our two flights. S
o five hours sitting in Manchester, which was going to be a bit of a pain, but we were ready. We were good. Um but we didn't have to do that because there were so many delays and there were so many queues. So there were so many delays getting into Manchester and then there were so many queues in Manchester that it ended up being, we nearly missed our flight. We nearly missed our flight. Our flight was at 5 p.m. Ryanair. Of course, we had to queue for ages because we had bought a little bit of clothes last week and we were over in wait on the on the suitcase. So of course, we got charged extra, of course, there was extra queues, then we couldn't drop off our bag at the regular desk. Um and we got to the final call at a quarter to five.
Our flight was at five. We made it by the skin of our teeth. I was never happier to get home. Being away for a month. It's really great because you really get to experience being homesick, being homesick. I was so homesick for a period of time. I missed Ireland so much. I absolutely love Ireland. I know there's nowhere in the world now that's safe, completely safe, but I feel safe here. I feel it's peaceful here. I love Ireland. I love the people and the weather. If you stick on some rain gear and just get on with it because that's all we can do. It's ok. I love it. I feel like we live in the nicest place in the world. So onto the today's podcast episode.
I want to talk to you today about the number one thing that so many of us definitely me seem to do when we get back from our holidays and that is the post holiday criticism on our bodies is exactly what I want to talk to you about today. And I want to give you some simple tips to stop hating on yourself and how to get back on track quickly when you are away for a holiday. You know, the crack. This used to be me for absolutely years. I would work out, eat healthy, really look forward to my holiday away. I would work really hard as I always do in all the areas of my life. And that by the time the holiday rolled around I would really, really need it. I would take off my, on my trip. Have lots of lovely ice cream.
Relax, enjoy, have lovely food, take the time out and be happy and live in the moment. And then I would come home and rather than be filled with this post workout, relaxed glow. I stepped straight in to absolutely hating on every single part of my body. I would look in the mirror the first time I got home and think, oh my God, you look so chubby. I would get on my pajamas and I would feel, oh my God, they feel really different. Then I would look in the side and the mirror at the side of myself and go, you look wider. I would pull apart at my stomach and think you're so fat. You're so disgusting. I can't believe you ate ice creams or you ate what you did on holidays. And so the self criticism started and it wouldn't stop until I got back all the results that I had pre holiday. So I would just be hating on myself right up until I lost the weight again.
And I'm, I'm here to tell you in this podcast episode that that way is just absolutely cracked and you know what? It's so unfair on all the memories you've created with your family or with your Children. It's so unfair for me to have gone away and to have such an amazing time and to have lots of lovely ice creams to almost like ruin the memory or detract from it by hating on myself. I do this. I know so many women that do this and you know what? We can simply choose not to do this anymore. We are so hard on ourselves. We expect everything. We look for perfection and we get so irritated and annoyed with ourselves when we don't see it. So you head off on holidays and you feel like you're in good shape and you enjoy yourself like you should and sample different foods and probably have starters and main courses. Gorgeous and desserts.
Lovely and different types of food throughout the day that you might not normally have when you're back home and that's all amazing. Those memories are precious. I want to remind you that you're not a robot you can't expect. And I think we do to head off eat all this lovely stuff. Move less, do no strength training. Of course, I hope you're not doing all your usual stuff when you're away on your holiday, come home and then be like the perfect you the most in shape. You, your stomach should be smaller, your hips should be smaller, you shouldn't look like this. We're not robots. We come home from holiday. We've had a nice time. We've taken a break. We've eaten tasty foods our clothes are going to be a little bit tighter. Maybe you've gained a little bit of weight, a weight around your chest and your stomach. It's really not important. So this little short episode is just to remind you that you can come home having gained weight being more unfit than when you left off and still be happy. You can struggle to fit into your genes, struggle to get the top button of your jeans done up and be happy. You haven't failed. You've done nothing wrong. It's ok for your body to fluctuate a little bit up and a little bit down. It's absolutely ok.
And this episode is just a reminder that it's ok that you can forget hating on yourself. You don't need to turn to the side in the mirror. You don't need to pull apart at your stomach. If you enjoyed the ice creams, if you had a wonderful time, there's no reason for you to detract from that. And I want to say to you that you are detracting from it. You're detracting from the wonderful ice creams that you had and the wonderful memories that you've made by hating on your body when you get home, why not instead change the script and it might take a little bit of practice, but why not come home and be so happy that you got out of your routine, be so happy that you ate lots of different foods and simply don't think about the weight that you've gained, just get straight back into an action plan. And it's that action plan that I want to help you with today.
So, number one, you're back from your holidays, you have gained weight, you're out of your routine. First things first, what we're going to do is you're going to make a really solid plan following my five step framework. PMSs, you're going to make a really solid plan when it comes to your physical movement, your accountability and support your hydration, your mental health and your self care. You're going to have action steps from all those different areas. You're gonna grab a pen and paper, get a cup of coffee or a cup of tea and write out all the action steps that you are going to follow. Having a plan is the number one key to success. And you know what my favorite thing about having a plan is, it's that it takes emotion out of everything and rather than you spend your weeks having gained weight, post holiday wondering if you're doing enough thinking you should be doing something else.
You have a plan, you've spent time on that plan. You know, that plan is going to get you where you want to be so you can let it go. It's black and white and it's factual, you don't need to get all emotional about it because you have a plan in place. So number one, create a really good plan that takes into account all the different areas of your health. I think what we can sometimes do is we can get like super obsessed about the food and think that food is health when we are getting back healthy, we are just focused on our food. However, if you start from with the workouts, you're going to feel much better straight away, you're going to feel calm, more productive and in control, you're going to get sweaty, you're going to feel really good. So from that point, you're going to make better choices anyway.
So first things first, create a really good plan. Know when you're working out the times the days if you've been listening to me for a while and you're a woman over 40 you know, the crack 3, 30 minute workouts every week, resistance training is going to get you a 10 out of 10 and all the results you want, that's going to get you a high metabolism. You're going to burn fat at rest, you're going to get fit, strong, manage your osteoporosis or prevent osteoporosis. Um It's just a really great way to work out if you're a woman over 40. So have your plan number two. My, my second tip is, is to do with nutrition, know that you're going to have so many cravings. So I was away last week and I had lots of ice cream and I shared a dessert with Joe every single night of the week. It was amazing. We had like tiramisu, oh, we had meal for loads of stuff.
Um, really, really good, really just tasty, loved sharing a dessert. Um, because those of you that know me and know my story, I used to be a big comfort eater and I wasn't able to share a dessert. I would probably have no dessert or a massive dessert. So it was just so wonderful to sit there after dinner, have a cup of tea and share a dessert with two little teaspoons. And I must say now it's kind of a dream for me. I remember when I was back at that horrific place. I remember like it was yesterday. So specifically, um God, there's so many memories I have of doing this of sitting with my family in a restaurant, drinking wine, comfort eating while I was drinking, like just eating, eating off people's plates and just eating and looking at another table beside me and seeing a woman similar to my age with her family and she would have like a sparkling water or water in front of her. And I, there are so many memories I can recall so many times of just looking over at her and going, wow, that's the dream. That'll, that'll never happen to me. But that's the dream.
And sometimes I, I really have pinch myself moments now when I'm in a restaurant and I have a sparkling water in front of me. I'm like Wow. I'm that woman that I always wanted to be. I always wanted to not drink alcohol. I always wanted to be able to share a dessert and a cup of tea after dinner. I just think that's the most lovely thing from somebody like me coming from excess, excess alcohol, alcohol, food, food, food. It, it's, it was just, it's just a dream. So anyway, I digress. You're going to have cravings this week. If like last week I had desserts and ice creams. I have so many cravings today. Today is like my day. One of no sugar. I have so many cravings. If you like me, enjoy yourself while you're on your holiday. Know that you'll have cravings when you get back and if you come home and you're craving sugar, I know it sounds really simple, but don't eat any, don't give into those cravings or I promise you you're just dragging out the inevitable. There's going to be some point where you're going to have to give up the sugar during the week.
So rather it be now when you haven't gained too much weight than one month down the line when it gets so bad and you've gained so much weight and your clothes feel so bad that then you have to do it. Don't wait for that moment. So with this step, with this tip number two, of, know that you'll have cravings what I like to do and I hope you find this helpful is like I went to Tesco last night with the kids and we bought loads of fruit because they have two treat nights at the weekend. Same as me. They don't eat sugar midweek anymore. Um, but they did on their holidays. So we kind of made it a fun thing that we're all on the fruit and get lots of fruit, whatever fruit that you like, we got fruit, we got bananas, berries, red apples, green apples.
And I'm going to overeat and fruit this week. I probably am. I'm probably gonna have more fruit than I normally do. However, that's ok, which would you prefer to overeat a little bit on fruit or to give into those cravings? So, things that are gonna help me this week with my cravings are having a hot chocolate at night time if I want it, which I probably will. I like to have them all the time once a, once a day in the evening time and lots of fruit. I can feel the cravings now. Um distracting yourself because remember this is only temporary, it's only like three days. The sugar cravings are can be bad. So you're not going to be permanently having to distract yourself with going for a walk in the evening. However, temporarily while you get through the first three days of getting rid of your post holiday, sugar cravings, I do recommend distracting yourself if you have to going for a walk. Um playing a board game, having a hot chocolate eating fruit and get through those three days.
So get your food in order, have your three meals, have your two small snacks and snack on extra fruit if you need to and know that you're not the only one with sugar cravings. I mean that in a nice way like that, what we will all go through them if we've all had lots of sugar over the holidays and you come home and you feel like you're craving sugar, just say to yourself out loud, that's just a sugar craving because I've been eating more sugar than normal. However, I don't want to get overweight. I don't want to be super unhealthy. Have my blood pressure up cholesterol up sugar is bad for me. I am going to not eat sugar. I'm going to have my treats at the weekend and leave it at that. So tip number three, your negative self talk. My negative self talk automatically switches on when I come back from a holiday.
My clothes are tighter. I have to get in front of camera. I can feel it in my stomach, my chest, my face and I used to be really hard at myself. I used to hide myself with baggier clothes. Um You'll see even with the online workouts that I do just a couple of years ago, I used to be hiding my body all the time. I don't do that anymore. I'm not a robot. I love holidays. Of course, my weight is going to fluctuate up and that's ok. And I want to be a good role model for people. I am so sick and tired of looking on youtube, looking on social media and seeing stick thin people that are dieting their way to look good to look thin. And I don't want that II I really want to fight against hating on myself and trying to change myself. I love being healthy. I love going on holidays. I love eating more when I'm on holidays and having sugar. And I really want to embrace that and like show it off, like embrace it, like keep the same clothes, keep wearing the same clothes that I had on pre holiday. Embrace the weight gain, embrace what my body looks like after a week of eating ice cream to get to that point for me would be amazing.
Like the holy grail. If I can stop drinking. If I can stop comfort eating, I can get to a point where I'm also loving myself when I am more weight when I have more weight on me. Like it's the dream for me to love myself unconditionally. That's the dream for me and I'm not there yet. I want to love myself so much when I've weighed on and when I've weighed off and when I'm unfit and when I'm fit. So step tip number three, watch your negative self talk. Listen to how you're talking to yourself? Like listen to what happens when you see a mirror. Watch what you do. Do you automatically without even thinking about it? Like turn to the side, lift your top up, look at your stomach. Do you automatically put your pajamas on or change your clothes and feel around your, your, your body for, for weight gain?
Do you look in the mirror when you're washing your hands and give out about yourself? Like watch what you do, first of all and then change it and reframe and, and change what you say. And what I find helpful is I listen to myself and then I say stop, I've had a wonderful trip and I'm not a robot and that kind of helps reminding me that I'm not a robot, like I'm not a robot that doesn't gain weight after having had nice food on their holidays. So just whatever works for you, listen to your negative self talk, tell yourself to stop, say something empowering instead or say something like, yeah, I've had a great time and I've had wonderful food and I'm back healthy now. Whatever works for you, you have got to stop that negative self talk. No, you're not a robot. Accept your body changes. Accept the fluctuations in weight gain and weight loss. Except that if you're going to eat more food, you're going to gain weight.
Accept the fact that if you eat lots of ice cream, you're going to gain weight, accept that it's really messed up. But I think a lot of the time we don't really accept these things and, and, and talk them through, we expect to eat more stuff and stay trim. But the lovely thing about that is that it shows you that, that science and weight loss, it's just science and I love that because it reminds me of when I am healthy and when I'm on track that the things I do work when I eat more food, my weight goes up. When I eat less food, my weight goes down. When I eat more ice cream and sugar, my weight goes up and when I eat less it goes down and it's really lovely to see that you're in control of that really, really great. Excuse me. So tip number four is to get off the weighing scales. I say it the whole time, but you don't need the weighing scales to lose weight.
Weighing scales are so demotivating, you know, that they don't take into account muscle mass, water retention, your height, your whether or not you've had a big meal the night before or, or a smaller meal. Like there's lots of things that make your weight, the number that it is and all the weighing scales does is tell you your weight. It doesn't tell you your lean muscle mass. It doesn't tell you if you are losing fat, it doesn't tell you what your fat percentage is and I don't like those fat percentage machines either. Um, so it doesn't tell you any of that stuff. So if it's not really telling you if you're losing fat or what your body fat percentage is, then why go on it to use it as a measuring tool for your fat.
Rather instead pick a jean size that you love. I love my jeans from Marks and Spencer's. I have a certain jean size that I love when I fit into that jean size. I'm good when my jeans are tight, which they are right. The second shooting this episode, recording this episode because I'm just back from my holidays. I know that that weight is going to go when I start eating healthy again. So let your genes be your marker, your measure. And if you're a size up, you know, you've got to get a size down if you're fitting into your jeans, you know, you're all good and it's such a much healthier way of taking care of your weight. It's not super specific. You don't start getting obsessed by numbers. It's a jean size, it's a dress size and it's just much more healthy, in my opinion, to be focused on your jean size than the weighing scales.
Um, ok, so what is my, my last tip, my last tip is to enjoy yourself. Enjoy yourself with your action plan, being healthy, ideally for you is about being fit, being healthy, having peace and calm in your life, enjoying nourishing foods, loving yourself and feeling really good. So if that's what health means, good health means to you, then let's turn off the kind of default narrative that can sometimes happen by accident because it's been so programmed into us as women. Let's turn off the default. I need to diet. I need to restrict. I need to hate on myself for four weeks until I've lost weight. I need to not have fun until I'm thin. I need to not have fun until my genes feel a bit better. Everything's canceled until I feel ok. No, treat nights until I've lost weight. No, we're not going to do any of that. We're not going to do that at all. We are going to follow our plan, follow our action steps and then let go. We're going to let go.
We're just going to follow our action steps and have fun and let go of the idea. You, you don't need to be telling yourself you're less fit than you were. You don't need to be telling yourself in less shape than you are. You know that you were on holiday. Of course, if you hear, if your mind starts saying that just be like, yeah, I know I was on holiday. I had a great time. Shut up. So, um, I hope you found this podcast episode helpful. I really hope you did and I would love to hear from you.
I'm hearing from more of you these days, more of you are sending me messages on Instagram about the podcast episodes and more of you are emailing me and I love that so much and I do try and I hope I have gotten back to all of you. So if this episode resonated with you, I would love to hear from you. And if you know of somebody that, yeah, they would find this podcast episode helpful that you know, that they can sometimes get a bit negative after the holiday on themselves and they might find this episode helpful. I would love for you to share it with them. I know with myself. I love listening to episodes that people have recommended for me. They're the ones that get listened to first. My coaching program is full. However, if you want to become a member, you can get on the waitlist here, you can go to Jessica Cook dot IE forward slash coaching. Thank you so much for listening and all my love.