The sense of change

‘The sense of change’

The weekends weather has given us a real sense of ‘change’. I have in the past considered having ‘all four seasons in the day’ usually quite a negative but I must say having all seasons spread out over the last two days have been a delight.

The roaring sunrise on the crispy, crunchy cold beach would give anyone this sense of change. It has not all been positive. We are still in lockdown, there is still a lot of work to go in order to prevail and overcome but we must remember, to acknowledge what we have already overcome, what we have achieved and refocus to the new stage of this battle.

The snow has managed to be a sprinkle of joy among communities nationwide this weekend. It was a moment for everyone to be distracted just even for that one moment, to be present in that moment and get away from all of the chaos for even for a split second cause otherwise you never know who is around the corner with a perfectly sculptured snowball.

For anyone interested how I am trying to overcome and keep focused. I have a list of my non negotiables in my week to help me look forward and feel a real sense of achievement ;

3 core fundamental non negotiables;

· Exercise - I am limited with equipment (absolutely have used this as an excuse at times) but I thankfully have been able to stay focused on fixing past injuries , being held accountable from my brother with his knowledge and staying up to date and connected with my off field training with my rugby club.

Eoin Maguire and Aidan Shovlan at Old Belvedere RFC have designed a programme for us and have taken everything into consideration (5km restriction, access to equipment, access to a pitch) to make the exercise appealing and have a sense of accountability. Sport is again another example of how important a community is and in particular a team sport (in my experience) but for those of you who do not have this luxury, you have to find out “what your why is ?” in order to set out, what it is you want to do and when you are going to do it, the trick is, action, and you are in control of this.

Your why just has to be specific enough.

· Reading - I have not always been a huge reader but have absolutely caught the bug. It is allowing me to not only give it full concentration to make sure I am fully understanding a topic (or allow me to google words I don’t understand!) or painting the perfect picture, but it is sparking my creativity in this current environment and I am absolutely loving it (the challenge will be to create this habit over long term).

· Diet Keeping on track- I have a food is fuel mentality and slowly changing this. Tracking my food has been a great way to keep me focused on making sure I am getting enough of what I need to get to where I want to go. Having the knowledge of knowing what you eat and how much the component of food is and how to measure it’s energy levels by macronutrients and micronutrients is beyond beneficial, but, what I experienced in the past was allowing it to dictate my mood, my relationship with food because the number wasn’t always good enough and would get frustrated even if I physically felt good. This has led me to looking up new recipes and cooking healthier and mood expressing meals. I have found a lot of help in particular from my old nutritionist @daveynutrtion to re-establish my new relationship with food. Lockdown has given me the sense of time back and re learning to cook from and be in control and organised and not living “on the go” all the time and burning out and making questionable food choices.

I haven’t got a sense of a reset (even from a weekend) in a long-time like I have from this.

I truly believe the sense of change is one to be positive about. I hope all of you are keeping safe and sane throughout this. We always have an open door policy for a “yarn” a question about any fad saoil related projects, but just remember, once we stick to the process and listen to the guidance that is being communicated to us the results will come.

The change is near.

Fad Saoil x