I have always thought September feels rather like a second New Year. After the long days of summer, holidays, later nights, more meals out, perhaps rather more rosé than usual and exercise routines that have quietly disappeared, September brings us back to normal life.
There is something about the beginning of autumn that naturally makes us want to reorganise. Children go back to school, people return to work, diaries fill up again and suddenly the routines that disappeared over July and August become possible again.
From a health perspective, I think that makes September one of the most useful times of the year to take stock of how you are actually feeling.
What happens to our health routines over the summer?
For most people, it isn’t one enormous change. It is lots of small ones.
We stay up later, eat later, drink more frequently, exercise less consistently and lose some of the structure that normally governs our days. None of those things needs to be viewed negatively – holidays are there to be enjoyed – but collectively they can leave us arriving in September feeling rather less energetic, strong and in control than we did at the beginning of summer.
The answer isn’t to compensate for August. It is simply to put back the things that make your body function well: regular exercise, sensible eating patterns, good sleep, adequate hydration and less alcohol.
Small changes made consistently over the next few months can make an enormous difference to how you feel by the time the Christmas party season arrives.
For a deeper look at how sleep, stress, alcohol and reduced movement can affect your body during midlife, read Why belly fat increases in midlife and what actually helps.
Why does getting back into a routine matter?
Our bodies rather like consistency. Regular sleep and waking times, predictable meals and movement throughout the week all give the body a degree of structure.
Exercise becomes easier when it is simply something you do rather than something you continually have to decide whether to do.
The same applies to alcohol. Summer can turn the occasional glass of wine into something surprisingly habitual, particularly when we are away or socialising more often. September is a good opportunity to notice what has become a habit and decide which parts of that habit you actually want to keep.
This isn’t about living an impossibly virtuous life. Health has to coexist with restaurants, holidays, champagne and everything else that makes life enjoyable.
It is about having enough structure that those things remain enjoyable parts of your life rather than quietly becoming the structure of it.
If pressure and exhaustion have begun influencing your routines or food choices, I explain that relationship further in Can stress stop you losing weight?.
Reclaim Your Life
Perhaps that is why September feels such an appropriate month for me to be celebrating the revised and updated version of my bestselling book, Reclaim Your Life in Seven Simple Steps.
The principle behind the book has always been much bigger than food.
Reclaiming your life means looking at the different things that determine how you feel and function – nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress, alcohol, habits and behaviour – and understanding which of them you can change.
After 16 years of working with clients in nutrition, exercise, eating psychology and behavioural change, I still believe that some of the most powerful changes we make to our health are remarkably ordinary.
Going to bed earlier. Moving our bodies properly. Eating well. Drinking less. Building and maintaining muscle. Recognising behaviours that are no longer helping us and changing them.
Maintaining muscle is particularly important for our strength, body shape and long-term metabolic health, as I explain in Weight loss vs body composition: why the scales don’t tell the full story.
There is no dramatic January-style reinvention required. Sometimes we simply need to get back to ourselves.
Celebrating a new season in Notting Hill
On Wednesday 9 September, I will be celebrating both the revised and updated book and the beginning of a new season with Augustine Jewels on Ledbury Road in Notting Hill.
I’ll be giving a talk, signing copies of Reclaim Your Life in Seven Simple Steps and meeting guests over champagne and nibbles, surrounded by some very beautiful jewellery.
I’ll also be personally analysing guests’ individual body types, looking at their particular combination of ectomorph, mesomorph and endomorph characteristics and explaining how these can influence natural figure and shape, where we tend to carry fat and build muscle, and how we respond to different types of exercise and nutrition.
This kind of personalised approach is also at the heart of my private Reclaim Your Life programme, which brings together nutrition, eating psychology, exercise, motivation and accountability.
We already have 37 guests joining us, which I’m delighted about, but there are still a few invitations available.
If you’re in London on Wednesday 9 September from 6–8pm and would like to join us at Augustine Jewels, 75 Ledbury Road, Notting Hill, please email Thomas at thomas@augustinejewels.com to see whether there is still a place available.
September doesn’t need to be about giving things up. It can simply be the point in the year when we decide to pay attention to ourselves again – to our health, our strength, our habits and how we want to feel for the months ahead.
And perhaps that is what reclaiming your life really means.
