Right. I'm gonna get in there before January and try to fight the diet bullshit. Behold: the books and the thinking that helped me like and appreciate and feel at peace with my bod!!

(In terms of credentials, I was a health and fitness journalist for most of my twenties at Runner’s World and Women’s Health, am a qualified personal trainer and have done all kinds of running races. But I'm not, like, GOOD at sport. I hated it at school so it’s been a journey.)

1) Your body IS you, and it is your vector to experience the physical world. Appreciate your body as it was built, and treat it well - soak it in the tub, lather it with posh creams, feel the wind on your face and water between your toes, feed it good stuff that you like eating.

Helpful reading
- Constellations by @sineadgleeson (a memoir of the body, esp the Irish female body)
- The Natural Health Service by @issybryonyh (how being in nature can help your mental health)
- Blair Braverman’s thread about her sled dog team: https://twitter.com/BlairBraverman/status/1150130975730483201

2) Focus on what your body can do. Ironically I’ve always ended up in better shape when I’ve been focused on fitness (targeting a certain 10K time for example) than how I look. Think of all the things you can do in good shape - I am dreaming of dancing for hours at Glastonbury...

Having said that, it doesn’t just have to be marathons and medals. I’m not at my fittest right now, but this year I’ve taken up two activities I love - cycling as a way to get around, and winter outdoor swimming for my mental health. (I also started a boxing course in March...)

Helpful reading
- Anything by @Hemmo - on running, swimming, and now having a family
- @LadyVelo's Back in the Frame
- I’m also really looking forward to @poornabell’s new book on strength

3) For women, exercise is a political act and one we should RELISH. Reject joyless self-denial in pursuit of heteronormative attractiveness! Learn about the women (very recently!) before you who couldn’t do what you do, and then feel free, and grin.

Like how the women’s marathon wasn’t added to the Olympics until 1984, because women were considered too fragile. This is runner Katherine Switzer being yanked off the Boston Marathon course by the race manager back in 1967.

Even now in the UK, women have been campaigning since 2018 to run the same cross-country distances as men #runequal
(you can sign the petition here: https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/equalise-cross-country-races-for-men-and-women-in-england)

At the first women’s Boat Race in 1927, The Times reported that “hostile crowds” lined the bank to heckle the competitors. The women’s race took place on a different course to the men’s until 2015 - and only changed because the sponsor's female CEO insisted on equality.

Helpful reading
- Eat Sweat Play by @Anna_Kessel (an amazing manifesto and history of women’s sport)
- @BillieJeanKing on Desert Island Discs
- @hcjewell's 100 Nasty Women of History (good on explorer types)
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Black Panther, Wonder Woman

4) Finally, please remember that celebrities and influencers have professional bodies. It takes a lot of time and money to look like that, and they’re probably miserable (see: Zac Efron crying about pasta)
Don’t put pressure on yourself to look the same!!

Helpful reading
If you want to change your lifestyle, the book I feel good recommending and I wish didn't have 'diet' in the title, is The Last Diet by genius @ShahrooIzadi (she also wrote The Kindness Method about other kinds of behaviour change eg drinking, smoking)

Happy new year :)