My mission (and why my blog name has changed)

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about what my blog is all about lately because I’ve realised that it’s no longer just about being fit and eating gluten-free food…which I’m sure many of you will agree with.

My blog is now taking a much more holistic approach to health (bringing to attention the importance of looking after both your mental and physical health). The days when I used to basically just write about how to get fit are long gone. Now I promote an overall healthy approach to life, and I think it’s time the name of my blog reflected that.

I want to educate people about nutrition and exercise so they can make informed decisions and not just rely on the latest fad diet or newspaper article stating what superfoods they “should” be consuming in copious amounts, or how many squats they should apparently do per day to get a bubble butt. FYI, it’s not just about growing “dat booty”. 😉

Giving nutrition and fitness advice is something that carries a wealth of responsibility with it, and although I certainly don’t claim to know everything (partly because I’m a strong believer that you should never stop educating yourself on a topic you’re passionate about because you can never know too much), my mission is to remove the bullsh*t from nutrition and fitness advice to help everyone to develop a healthy relationship with food, exercise and their bodies in general.

No scaremongering. No guilt. No bullsh*t. Just factual information to educate people and help them on their own health and fitness journey.

THAT is my mission.💚

Fit and Gluten-Free is a name that (although I love it), no longer represents what my blog is all about. It’s about being holistically healthy – mind and body. Not just being physically fit. The gluten-free part obviously still applies because my decision to accept this mission hasn’t magically cured my gluten intolerance (surprise surprise), so you can still rest assured that every recipe I post on my blog and social media will always be gluten-free (yay). But my new blog name captures the essence of what I’m doing much more.

I hope you will support me in my blog mission because, although I’ve always known that I wanted to provide credible advice, it feels amazing to have finally chosen exactly what I want to do with my little corner of the internet, so please help to share the love letting people know about Happy Healthy Nat.

Oh, and although my name is in the new blog name, it’s actually all about being a happier healthier YOU. I’m just leading by example.

[bctt tweet=”It’s time we all embraced a healthier approach to life in general. Starting now.” username=”happyhealthynat”]

And if you’re wondering, my new blog name certainly isn’t claiming that I’m always happy or even always healthy. It’s just what I think we should aspire to be, and happens to be one of my most used hashtags of all time (#happyandhealthy).

Anyway, although I am an eternal optimist (and writing that makes me feel like I’m filling in an online dating form), everyone does have off days and that’s totally fine. Helping to motivate people and encourage them to be the best versions of themselves is something I love doing (if you haven’t already noticed from my social media posts which I hope help you in some way), so that’s where the happy part comes from. We all deserve to be happy!

The healthy part doesn’t necessarily mean that everything I eat or do is totally healthy either – you all know my mantra of everything in moderation. Enough said!

Happy Healthy Nat is about learning to make the most of your life and your body. Creating happiness and learning to live a healthy lifestyle which involves no guilt attached to food, and finding forms of exercise you genuinely enjoy!

So why the tagline of Never stop playing? That’s because I genuinely don’t think we play enough as adults. I’ve lost count of the number of times people have referred to me as childlike. At first I thought it was because of my height or that maybe they were saying I was immature, but someone thankfully assured me that the immature term would’ve been childISH not childLIKE – phew! Anyway, I love being a plonker. It’s as simple as that. While I accept responsibility as a mum, a hardworking career woman and an adult in general, I also realise the importance of having fun! And I want to help other people to see that too, and get on board with it. This also applies to exercise – allowing people to see that exercise can be fun and that if you choose the right form(s) of exercise for you then (you guessed it) it can actually feel like playing.

#Neverstopplaying also happens to be another one of my most used hashtags or all time – see what I did there?? Linking my two top used hashtags to create the name and tagline. Yeah, I’m feeling pretty smug right now. 😉

Anyway, when you become an adult it doesn’t mean you have to stop playing! Obviously be responsible and mature when needed, but never forget to have fun. THAT is what Happy Healthy Nat is all about.

So many of us are afraid to start eating healthy or to take up a new form of exercise because we fear failing – so we don’t even bother trying. But I want to shake things up so we all accept that it isn’t failing if you have a chocolate bar or miss a few workouts – it’s just part of the journey and you can pick it right back up tomorrow.

Less negativity – more positivity.

Instead of striving to fit in a certain clothing size or beating yourself up because you can’t lift as heavy weights as you’d like or run as fast as you want, Happy Healthy Nat is all about learning to love and accept your body for what it can already do while pushing those boundaries and discovering just how incredible it can be! It’s about looking after your body and being the best possible version of yourself. Fit, strong, happy and healthy.

If you believe in this approach please help to promote a healthy lifestyle by sharing this post and letting people know they don’t have to fear food, they don’t have to dread exercise, they don’t have to hate their bodies! Together we can destroy those awful concerns that control so many people’s minds (one of which used to be mine).

Let’s work together to encourage a happy healthy community.

Oh, and if you’ve taken the time to read all of this post then thank you for your amazing patience – when writing with passion it’s hard to know when to stop!

By the way, I still have a few kinks to iron out on my blog and social media with regards to moving the old name and changing any mentions of it, so bear with me – this blog name change malarkey takes a while to sort out. 😉

Exercise doesn’t have to be boring

What should/shouldn’t I eat? Do I really need to eat superfoods?

Just make generally healthier choices

Gluten-free doesn’t have to mean missing out

If you make it enjoyable it becomes sustainable

A number does not define you – be kind to yourself, always