The wellness edition
No, I'm not starting a podcast
I don’t know about you, but I feel like everywhere I turn I’m being told how to ‘live my best life’. And it’s as simple as doing yoga, drinking vile-looking green liquids, giving up (insert your favourite food), drinking bovine colostrum (omg seriously?), sculling a glass of okra juice in the morning, counting the calories in every scrap of food that goes into your mouth, having a ‘no days off’ mentality - pushing yourself all the time, avoid wrinkles (which is like saying avoid blinking), track your fitness with a fancy watch (so you can panic and feel guilty if you didn’t get enough steps in today), using ‘natural’ (i.e. smelly) beef tallow as a moisturiser for your skin, and finally, stuffing garlic cloves up your nose to alleviate stuffy sinuses.
I didn’t make any of those up, by the way. You can do a quick search on Google to see some of the (even more) crazy things people did in 2025 to try and Get Healthy.
As I write, millions of people are observing Lent, a Christian tradition of fasting, prayer and alms-giving in the lead-up to Easter.
For forty days, people choose to go without something ‘important’ in their lives, and instead of doing that thing, or eating that food, they practice their faith more. How does that look?
Pope Francis describes it this way:
(During lent we should be) “learning to change our attitude towards others and all of creation, turning away from the temptation to ‘devour’ everything to satisfy our voracity and being ready to suffer for love, which can fill the emptiness of our hearts.”
Lent isn’t just about what we’re willing to ‘give up’, it’s also about what we’re willing to ‘take on’.
As I grow older, and my body goes through the wild machinations of peri-menopause (I always think of Nando’s chicken when I read the words peri-menopause), I’m sometimes at a bit of a loss as to how to take care of myself. A blood test I had done late last year (after passing out at a public event - embarrassing!) indicated that I might be eating too much sugar. Having self-medicated with cakes and slices since my marriage ended, it wasn’t an overly-surprising thing to hear. Who else has come home from a hard day at work and got stuck into a strong cup of tea and a piece or three of gooey chocolate brownie? Anyone?
After a routine medical procedure last month required another blood test, which my GP wanted me to make a ‘non urgent’ appointment to discuss, I thought - right, it’s the sugar thing. I have to give it up. Lent is coming up. Perfect. I can give it up for forty days and see how much better I feel.
Because how many cookbooks are there decrying that very thing? ‘I gave up sugar and have a new lease on life!’ ‘I gave up sugar and lost 230kg!’ ‘I gave up sugar and wrote this nonsense cookbook and am making lots of money from desperate people like you!’
(That last one wasn’t real.)
So I started thinking about what I eat. What has sugar in it? What can I control that has sugar in it? I bought a different yoghurt - a natural one that has no sugar (I LOVE yoghurt. I think I could possibly exist eating just that, it’s so good), and I chucked out all the bits of cake and slices I had sitting in my fridge that I was going to get around to eating ‘eventually’. Now I’m on my own, cakes take a lot longer to get eaten, and it’s up to me to eat them. Yikes. The pressure.
I even told my work colleagues about my Lent goal to lose some of the sugar in my diet. I’m doing this thing. I’m not going to stumble over the line into pre-diabetic-ness.
But when I saw my GP, she said everything about my blood test was perfect, excellent in fact, including my thyroid levels, blood sugar, and cholesterol. Great!
But my iron levels - what the actual heck is going on with those?
Somehow my iron level has halved in the past couple of months, which is possibly explained away because I’m a female, but I had a hysterectomy 14 years ago, so have been relieved of the monthly curse for quite some time now.
My GP has come up with a plan to monitor things, and I’ll let you know how it all goes (if you’re interested).
All of this made me stop and think.
I don’t have to give up sugar for Lent anymore, but in thinking about the food I’m putting in my body, it’s made me think about the food I’m putting in my body.
Does that make sense?
We’re all creatures of habit. We all eat and drink the same things, especially in the morning when we know we have to ‘break the fast’ and eat something to replenish the stores of energy and nutrients in our bodies. First the coffee. Then the jam toast. Or the bowl of Cheerios. Or whatever gets you functioning before your day begins.
I love Just Right cereal. I have liked it for years, and recently rediscovered it, devouring a little bowl of it most mornings because it’s yummy, and at 5am, I’m looking for Easy.
For every 100g serving of Just Right, I’m also consuming 5-6 teaspoons of sugar. Plus the vanilla yoghurt on top. Plus the spoonful of sugar in my Earl Grey. Heck, the sun is barely up and I’ve potentially eaten 8 teaspoons of sugar already.
Okay, so I’m apparently not wobbling close to the diabetic threshold anymore, but is eating that much sugar in the morning good for me?
Probs not, right?
So for Lent, I’m taking care of myself for 40 days. I’m giving up my reliance on sugar. I’ve changed my cereal (it was hard - so hard!!!), I’m back to 1/2 a teaspoon of sugar in my tea, and I’m not eating cake every day, leaving it to a treat time on the weekend.
I’m also mindful of eating plenty of iron-rich foods, and drinking plenty of water. Since I’ve been on my own, I’ve stopped making the homemade iced tea I made every single day for 29 years. I now drink mostly water with my meals. Wine on a Saturday night. Maybe.
I’m mindful of my body when it’s aching. Work has been super busy since I went back at the end of January, and my knees, feet, right elbow, and lower back were starting to complain. Are we seriously doing this nonsense again? - says my poor, battered self. Previously I would have just powered on, asking more and more and more of my already over-worked body. So for Lent, one of the things I am taking on is gentle exercise. I’m doing stretches (some of them are basic yoga moves, others are movements my physio worked out just for me), and regular walking. I forgot how good walking is. After striding it out for about ten minutes, your body falls into a rhythm and your brain stretches out. It’s the only way I can describe the feeling of wholeness that a good half-hour walk brings me.
And amidst all this mindfulness and taking care of myself, I am also learning to be thankful for my life. Thankful for this new chapter, for the freedom, for the joy. Thankful that although I don’t know what my future holds, and there are still battles to be fought and hard things to be done, I have a strong faith that allows me to believe that I’m not fighting alone.
God has shown up in my life in very real and tangible ways over the past six months, and I fully trust that He’ll continue to show up in the future. Although I’ll still have dark days of doubt - not because of my unbelief, purely because I’m not in control of a lot of the things I’m worried about - I know that all things will work together for my good. That’s the great and the not great things. The great things will bring me joy and happiness. The not great things will strengthen my faith and teach me to not rely on my own strength.
In the ‘alms-giving’ part of Lent, I am giving my life over to God. Here it is. All the messy, dodgy, uncertain bits. All the comfy, pretty, lovely bits. All the frightened, dark, scary bits. All of it. Take it and use it as You see fit. Because what’s the point of being thoughtful and mindful and healthy and fabulous if I just keep the ‘fruit’ of all of that to myself? What kind of a person am I?
‘Do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased’
Hebrews 13:16
I hope you have a fabulous week!
Talk with you next Wednesday,
Maggie
What a wonderful, positive witness you are, Maggie! Inspiring writing, as ever.