Fighting Fit for the Catwalk Queen.
New Year’s diets tend to have that ‘I’ll start tomorrow,’ or ‘I’ll start once I’ve finished all the Christmas chocolate and leftover mulled wine and celebration champagne and I can’t go to the gym without some sick sports kit and new Nikes,’ mentality. But 22 days in, all the Christmas leftovers are gone so you don’t have to wait until tomorrow or 2014 to get back into the New Year new you mindset! Nadia Narain is yoga guru to the stars, she’s calmed Kate Moss and wound down Lara Stone whilst dressing them with LOVE in fully Fairtrade, organic threads and now she’s guiding i-D online into 2k13 with her five tips on how to feel good and shape up for the new year:
1) Be kinder to yourself! This is something I’ve been really paying attention to: how hard I am on myself and then on others. Learning to like yourself a bit more and notice when the negative thoughts creep in is important, in order to try and change them to something positive.
2) Meditation. It’s a hard one and has a lot of misconceptions attached to it but I’m learning that it’s not important whether you go to a class and learn or just sit for 5-10 minutes a day paying attention to your breathing and noticing what chaos is going on in the mind, coming back to your breath and to your heart. It’s one of the best ways to reduce stress and make space in your head. Takes practice but the benefits are incredible. When we are stressed in the head the body gets sick, when we are sick in the body it affects the emotions it’s all connected!
3) Exercise. Of course I’m a little biased toward a yoga practice just because it covers the spectrum of well being from focus and attention to breathing to the well being of the body and nervous system all in one go, but any form of exercise that makes you inspired to do it is important, even if it’s a walk in the park! Or getting your skateboard out.
4) Diet. I notice that when I’m tired I eat shit and it makes me more tired and I feel low in energy but when I pay attention to eating well I have more energy and generally feel much better. Try to cook or prepare fresh food as much as possible and no more sandwiches at the computer!
5) Discipline. All of the above things take some form of discipline. It’s a word that is associated with punishment so I try and see it more as consequences; if you don’t look after yourself, you are not going to have energy and feel good
and if you do, you will, simple! So I guess it’s about making choices about how you want to feel each day and taking small steps towards your goal.
Text: Felicity Kinsella
Images from top: Kate Moss, Lara Stone, Jools Oliver
Buy your LOVE racerback here! And watch Nadia’s meditation video here.
