Wise Advice from Emma Baines
Hi, everybody. This is Emma. Emma b. Emma Baines. Baines.
Speaker 1:Baines y. Whatever you want to call me. I respond to all of them. I'm here today to take over the one day at a time podcast and hopefully share with you some of my little tips and hints of things that I have now learned and developed over my time with Turtle. Now I joined Turtle, which was once upon a time Live Like Louise back in October 2019.
Speaker 1:I saw a fantastic advert of Ryan Louise waddling down the street in Santa Outfits. And I thought that'll do me. I will do a nice little Christmas challenge, and it'll get me through the Christmas period as I done probably every year, twenty years prior to that. I'm 44 this year, and I have been dieting for as long as I can remember. God.
Speaker 1:If there's not a diet, haven't tried. And I was at one point very large. I was at one point, I was nearly nineteen stone, which for my height and build was quite a lot. So I tried everything. And the thing that got me started for a long time was I joined likes of Slimming World, Weight Watchers, all of the above.
Speaker 1:And I used to do it with a friend who lived in Dubai at the time, and we used to swap notes and whatnot and carry on. So I'd lost quite a bit of weight already, but I didn't know what I was doing. It was way off, put it all back on again. Weight off, put it all back on again. Every time I lost weight, I would put it back on again.
Speaker 1:And so I saw this challenge, and it was something a bit different. It was about counting macros. I didn't have clue what counting macros was. I'd heard about it. I thought it was something really complicated.
Speaker 1:And so in the past, I'd always gone, oh, no. That's way too complicated for me, so I'm not gonna do it. But I signed up with what was then, like I said, Live Like Louise and completed this challenge, however long it was, six weeks, something like that. And I loved it. And I found it really easy.
Speaker 1:And I thought, do know what? I'm gonna carry on. So I signed up for the next challenge, which was another however many weeks. I don't know what it was. It was a January to April challenge.
Speaker 1:Again, tracking macros, doing live workouts with Ryan and Louise, and I loved it. And actually, I won that challenge. I couldn't believe it. So I stayed and I became a member. And then we went into at the end of the last challenge, we then started a new one, which is the Octagon, just as we went into lockdown.
Speaker 1:And do you know what? It got me through lockdown because I had a focus. So I'd gone in. I was starting to feel better about my physical appearance. I was starting to feel fitter, stronger.
Speaker 1:And so we went into this Octagon Challenge where I learned loads and loads of new skills. I started to read books. I started to journal. I started to have routines, mornings, evening routines, and it was a new way of life. I'd gone from not being a runner to running however many times a week and completing a 10 k.
Speaker 1:I mean, I'm not sure if I can do 10 k right now, but at the time, I was doing alright. So one of my questions I got asked was, what is my why? Why do I do what I'm doing every day? Why do I keep going with all of this? And I suppose my original why was, as I previously previously mentioned, one of my best friends from uni, Sarah, she had cancer.
Speaker 1:And we used to speak every day, and she would been she'd been a slimming world ally for me, and she'd seen me lose quite a lot of weight. She saw me get into fitness a bit more, start having PTs and things like this. And she said to me, you know, you've gotta keep going with what you're doing. You've got to keep getting up every day and and don't stop because you're on a roll now, and you found this thing that you really enjoy. And you've just got to keep going.
Speaker 1:And we used to speak every day, and I remember even when she was at her lowest, her real lowest, she'd always say to me, like, what have you done today? Have you got your steps in? Because when she was well, we would compare notes all the time while she lived in Dubai. I mean, she moved back to The UK for a final month. But when she was in Dubai, she she didn't really speak to anybody else.
Speaker 1:When she moved back to The UK, it was just her husband and her because her family lived abroad and she her father passed away. She didn't really speak to her brother. Her mom lived in another country. She didn't know anybody back in The UK, so it was just me. And her husband didn't deal with her illness very well in the fact that he didn't like talking about the the horrible stuff that she went through every day, so she would talk to me.
Speaker 1:And so when I said I was doing this, I remember saying to me one morning, she she woke up and she'd lost the use of her legs. Her legs her body was shut shutting down. She had a sarcoma, and her body was just giving up on her, basically. So a cancer of the bones. And she said to me, my legs have gone.
Speaker 1:I can't feel them anymore. And I remember thinking, God, I take my legs for granted. Here I am moaning that I've got to walk here, there, and everywhere. Here I am moaning about going for a run. But actually, I have legs that work.
Speaker 1:And she turned it around for me, she made me think, actually, I'm very grateful I've got a fully functioning body and that I am able to do these things. Rather than I have to do them, I can do them. I have the opportunity to do them. And so why should I waste that? And she just made me swear.
Speaker 1:She said, promise me you will keep going, and you'll just see how far you can take it and just be the best version of you that you can be. So that's what I do. And I might not be exactly where I want to be right now physically, but when I started this, it was all about losing weight. Because I'd been such a big size, and I didn't think of it as being anything else other than, oh, I've got to lose weight. I want to be this.
Speaker 1:I want to be that. And I used to have this mentality of having, like, a certain size in my head, a certain well, not even size. It was more weight on the scales. But I've learned a lot. And what I've learned over the last three years is you've got to appreciate what you've got.
Speaker 1:We're all different. Don't compare yourself to the next person who's trying to do something else. For me now, it's not just about weight. It's about the way I feel, so feeling healthier. I remember a time when I would struggle getting up and down the stairs.
Speaker 1:And now I just wanna charge around with my kids. I want to be the mom who's on the play equipment with the children, joining in with the games, not just watch watching from the sideline, which is what I did do for a long period of time and certainly at the start of my children's lives. Who knows? One day I might even join in the the mom's races if they ever bring if they ever bring them back to school. Something else I've learned, another value is I I'm trying to be honest with myself, honest with my tracking, honest, you know, the fact that if I'm going to drink a load of booze at the weekend, I've got to accept that the following week my scales are gonna look very different.
Speaker 1:Just just about being honest with yourself because I'm not in competition with anybody else. I'm doing this for me. It's not for anybody else. And I think I used to think, what does that person think of me? What does that person think of me?
Speaker 1:If I go into a room and I don't feel right, are people looking at me? I used to go to the gym and, like, oh, people must think, oh my god. What's she doing in here? She's so fat. She's so this.
Speaker 1:She can't do the other. I don't give a fly monkeys anymore. I do it for me. And if people are watching me, they're not focusing on what they're doing. So let them look.
Speaker 1:That's what I say. Let them look. Another value I have because Ali asked me about my Ali Fincham asked me about my values is I always try and treat people how I'd like to be treated back. So, you know, if I if somebody needs support, I will give it to them. If they want encouragement, I will give it to them because I'd like to think that somebody would be there for me when I need that support and encouragement too.
Speaker 1:So be kind, be supportive, and like I said before, don't judge other people in a different way that you would want people to judge you. I always try and just focus on what I'm doing. And if I know that what I'm doing is is kind, it's right, it's for me, then nothing else really matters, I suppose. So something else I got asked was what is the biggest change I've experienced since joining Turtle. For me, it might not actually be so much a fitness thing, but more the habits I picked up along the way.
Speaker 1:So like I said, when I started the Octagon Challenge, I didn't really read. I didn't actually, say I didn't really read. I would pick up the odd book while I was on holiday, and I would always say, I haven't got time to read. I haven't got time. And now, without fail, even if it's just few pages, I read every single day.
Speaker 1:So in an ideal world, I'll have a wonderful morning routine and part of that will include sitting down on my sofa with a cup of tea in the morning when nobody else in the house is up. And I'll read a non fiction book. Something that's gonna help me with, you know, mental health or mindset or something. Something productive. And then on evening, I tend to read fiction.
Speaker 1:Even if it's just two pages, it's my body saying to me, okay, we're reading, and then we're gonna go to sleep. So try and read something a bit light hearted or just fiction anyway on an evening. And so I've always got about three or four books on the go. I just love to read, and I love seeing my shelf filling up with books that I've read. And I think, I've done that.
Speaker 1:I've done that. I've read that. You know? And it's a love I didn't know I had. So I've discovered this love of reading.
Speaker 1:Also, something I've learned is journaling. Apart from apart from when I was a kid, and I used to write in a diary, dear diary. I saw John Smith today in the corridor, and I still fancied him. Apart from that, I didn't really do any. So for me now, I'm just counting my bedroom shelf.
Speaker 1:I've got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. I've got 12 journals I've completed in the last three years. Well, two and a half years plus I've got a couple more downstairs. I have been known to buy new ones and not quite finish them. As long as I'm scribbling down somewhere and journaling for me doesn't have to be pouring my heart out onto a page, there's no system to it, I might brain dump and just stick some stuff on a page.
Speaker 1:I might track what I've done in the day, like how much how many steps I've done, how much water I've drunk. Three wins. Like, you have on the app, I always write down three wins for the day. I'm always writing some gratitude. And, again, in an ideal world, I would get up and I would do some journaling in the morning.
Speaker 1:I would set my intentions, maybe some affirmations, maybe some thoughts in my head, get it on paper. And then at night, I do a reflection. So before I go to sleep, before I do my reading, I would write a few pages or a few notes down on a page, or I might do a brain dump if if I've got a lot of noise in my head. I'll literally just write words on the page. Anything comes into my head, to do list, anything like that, get it out of my head, shove it on a piece of paper, close the book, it's done, it's dealt with.
Speaker 1:And that has really, really helped me. And so part of that is my evening routine has changed massively. Once upon a time, would sit up till gone midnight easily on a weekday before work the next day, and I would scroll through the television looking for something to watch. Nothing specific, just looking for something to watch. Whereas now, I try and turn the television off, come upstairs, and I just have that bit of wind down before I go to sleep.
Speaker 1:And the difference it's made to my sleep is brilliant. It's it's huge. So I would strongly recommend for everybody, put your phone down, turn your CV off, and just have a bit of quiet time before you go to bed. So that has been a big change for me. As well as, yes, I've taken up a bit of running, but I'm never gonna be a runner.
Speaker 1:I am a runner. I'm just never going to be a lover of running. I'd always rather do a million other things, especially strength training, which is my favorite. So I've also been asked, how do I stay consistent? I don't always.
Speaker 1:I do my best, and so that includes journaling, planning, habits, and accountability. If you can buddy up with somebody and check-in every day, that's really, really gonna help you. Massive thing for me. Someone else asked, how do you start again after two week binge? You just start.
Speaker 1:That's the best advice. Just start small steps. Don't try and come back in with four workouts a week, trying to track everything, trying to get my water in. Do my reading. Do my journaling.
Speaker 1:Don't. Just start simple. Start with your steps, or just start with your water, and just start with day one. And then the next day, do it again. Rinse, repeat, keep going.
Speaker 1:And, eventually, you can start adding after a little while, start adding other things back in when you feel ready. But if you can plan, prep, go back to those simple habits, everything else will fall back into place. But you've just got to start. That's all you've got to do. Just start.
Speaker 1:And how do I stop self sabotaging? Don't press the fucking button. Have the pizza. Just have it. But don't then go, oh, I've had the pizza.
Speaker 1:Therefore, I might as well have burgers tomorrow. I might as well have the chips. I might as well drink all this booze. If you're gonna go out drinking, you know you're going out drinking, then have stuff in the fridge the next day or have a meal ready the next day that isn't all the grease in the world nor the fat in the world. And just draw a line under it and move on.
Speaker 1:But it's all about balance, and balance is a massive thing. That is what I'm trying to develop now is balance. So my current goals on that note are me now just trying to fit into my size twelve jeans pretty much. I gained quite a lot of weight back over the last six months. Oh gosh, now we're in October, so it's more than that.
Speaker 1:That would be ten months since Christmas. But I'm still going with all my other stuff. So for me, it's not the be all and end all at all. And that's probably a big change for me actually, is the fact that I'm not that bothered about what the scales say now. Yes, I'd like to be able to fit in.
Speaker 1:I can fit into my size twelve jeans, but I'd like to fit into them comfortably. And I just working out is part of my life. Reading is part of my life. Journaling is part of my life. And I wouldn't have it any other way.
Speaker 1:For me, my exercise is my medicine because I suffer quite badly with anxiety, and it just really helps me level out. And even when I don't wanna do it, I never regret it afterwards. I've never done a workout and gone, I really wish I hadn't done that. There are some that make me feel like I wanna vomit, and while I'm doing them, I hate every single minute of it. But afterwards, I guarantee you're gonna feel better.
Speaker 1:So my top tip, just keep going. Just keep every day one little thing that improves your current state of mind any way you can. If that means just pick up your book and read it, then read it. If that means go and do a workout or run, go and do it. But just keep going every day.
Speaker 1:One day at a time, peeps. God, that was a cliche. Anyway, I'm over and out. I hope you've had a good listen. I hope you haven't bored.
Speaker 1:I haven't bored you too much. If any of you ever wanna ask me anything or want some advice or some accountability, knock on my door. It is always ready to be opened by one of you lovely turtles. So go forth today. Have a great day, and remember, one day at a time.
