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Micro wisdom delivered to your ears every morning in voice notes ranging from 3 to 15 minutes long. Wisdom on how to live a healthier and more fulfilling life. Every podcast will ground you in the present moment to ensure you know what's important, the here and now.
Hi, my name is Melanie Chandler, I'm a Turtle Method member and I'm pushing myself way out of my comfort zone here, because I don't even like using voice notes for anything, but I will try and record one of those podcast episodes for you today. So who am I? I'm a nearly 45 year old German wife and mum and in house lawyer who's very much into fitness and staying healthy. And what I want to talk about to you in this podcast is first of all very, very brief overview of my personal fitness journey and how I got here, how Turtle Method has made a real impact and what I hope you can take from this. So starting off with my personal journey, really as long as I can remember, until a few years ago I didn't really like my body.
Speaker 1:I went up and down with my weight a lot, starting out as a little chubby child, only really liking to swim in terms of exercise because I was weightless and not sweating. Then hitting puberty, growing quite tall and developing curves in the right places, so the weight shifted, but also developing some very, very unhealthy habits and views in terms of food. And then it continuously went up and down my size and body weight throughout adulthood. I would lose some weight with some new plan or diet or system, whatever I would try and get just about the healthy weight range, not quite there, still a little bit overweight before I give up eventually and gain it all back. So that went on for quite a long time until just after giving birth, I reached my heaviest weight, which was about a 150% of what I am now, so quite the number.
Speaker 1:So I'm only about two thirds of what I was back then. So again, I lost a lot of weight during maternity leave, just exercising relentlessly and restricting what sort of foods I would eat, thinking the cleaner I eat the better, and again brought my weight down to an almost healthy level, then went back to work and the whole up and down cycle started again, until I finally came across Total Method. In the early days it was the macros plan and some exercise plans which I followed, and anyone who knows me, I do like to follow some rules, but it also really, really worked for me. And pretty quickly I lost three stones, which was more than I was actually hoping to lose when I signed up. And then I maintained that for a good year until life happened, frustrations happened, and I was about to lose it again and go into a bit of why does it matter, what am I doing this for, and sought it all.
Speaker 1:And I thought, nah, something needs to change here before it gets to that point. So then I joined the Christmas Challenge twenty twenty and then became a full member and wouldn't look back. So how is it that this change came about? Yes, the macros approach is a brilliant one, because it is a new way to educate yourself. Obviously going slightly away from calorie counting but not fully.
Speaker 1:And it has really worked, but I think what has made more of an impact is really the mindset development aspect of it, because what it comes down to is setting priorities and are you acting in line with your values. That I think is the most important element for me now. And it does apply to fitness, it does apply to nutrition, what I put in my body on an everyday basis. It's not changing, but it has also applied to a lot of other other areas. So my family life has improved my communications and generally living with my husband, with my daughter, and also work life.
Speaker 1:I have changed employers. I moved from working in the construction industry to finally making a move into the non profit sector. Something I had always dreamed about, but never really pursued because I thought it would be something I'd do when I retire or be lucky enough to win the lottery, that I don't need to work for a living necessarily. So and all this has come from working with the coaches and really figuring out what is important to me and how can I live that every single day? Now to give you an example, to illustrate it maybe a little bit better, what are my values?
Speaker 1:So I consider my main values to be kind, supportive and loving, to be honest and act with integrity, to live healthily and balanced, to be charitable, to be courageous, to live organised and disciplined, and above all, and that is the most important one to me, to love myself and always show self compassion. So with the best will in the world, things go wrong every day. I try to make time and set myself up for success by putting down some affirmations, which are based on my values and reminding myself of how I want to show up for myself, how I want to come across to other people. It doesn't happen every day, sometimes I rush out the door, but I do feel the difference if I do it in the morning or I don't. And like I said, one of my big values is to be honest and act with integrity.
Speaker 1:Now, as a Total Method member, you use the Macros app and we all like the sometimes guesstimating or chucking in some little nibbles, some little bites here and there, but does that really fit in with my value of being honest, especially being honest with myself and showing some accountability for my actions? So I am still working on that mindset where I sometimes think if it's not in the app, has it really happened? Yes it has, and I know it has, so don't feel rubbish about it, don't go against what you should be doing, just put it down and yes, if sometimes things don't go to plan, if a day doesn't go as planned, if I'm not living to my full values, maybe I wasn't as kind as I think I could have been or maybe I let something else slip, wasn't as disciplined, then it's okay. We all make mistakes, it's important to learn from it and move on. So how have I found all these values?
Speaker 1:How have I established those retains? Obviously it has been a long process, nothing that a fifteen minute or so podcast will completely give you the tools to do. But one of the really, really good exercises that Dean Leach, the mindset coach, went through with me was think about if you pass away whenever it might be and or somebody is asked in a different context to describe you how you want that person to describe you. So this is how I came up with my values because I thought of my daughter and how I want her to see me and what I also want her to take hopefully as inspiration for her own life when she grows up into the person she's going to be. So this is why this is really important and why I want to demonstrate to her, as well as to myself, that this is how I'm living every day.
Speaker 1:It's not just lip service for me, it really really is important and one of those things for example is being courageous and now recording this podcast episode. And finally, what do I want you to take from this? I would like you to realise that there is no quick fix and all these unhelpful beliefs and thought patterns and automatic behaviours learned and repeated over years and years and years are not being replaced overnight. That won't happen and it has been a long process for me as well to see myself in a different light and learn to show myself overall that kindness and that self compassion. I've read somewhere before that in order to learn new vocabulary a word has to be learned seven times on average.
Speaker 1:And I can certainly vouch for, as I said at the start, I'm German, I'm not a native English speaker. When I learned English, especially working in the legal profession when I had to learn a lot of that vocabulary, I think it was more like 70 times than seven. But also it applies in other contexts. I think a lot of the advice, the values based work or strategies for overcoming those cravings, trying out meditation to explore your mind. All these things I had to hear over and over and over again, and sometimes I had to try them over and over and over again.
Speaker 1:So listen to advice you get and then try it out. Listen to the advice again and again and again and again, and if you try something out, doesn't work, then park it for a bit. It might not work for you at all, but sometimes it just needs a bit of development and you might be able to use it at a later time. But important for me and what I really want to get across is listen to advice and listen to it more than once. Even if you think I've heard that before, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1:Hear it again, listen to it again, and try to really take it on board because sometimes something just clicks when you hear it often enough. And the second thing is, once you've listened to all the advice and you listen to it more than once, just try things. Don't wait until you've got the perfect plan, until you've got the perfect conditions. Life will happen and that's okay. You fail, you stumble, you fall, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1:You get back up and you try again and that is what's important, and you keep going until you've got there. And it's a continuous journey. It is not quick, and it doesn't need to be pretty, it doesn't need to be perfect, it just needs to be what it is. So those were the things I wanted to say. I hope it has all made sense, and I would really love it if you take something from it.
Speaker 1:If you want to chat further, please do get in touch. I would love to hear from you. Thank you.