New Year, New You? – Bryony Gordon
Bryony Gordon, author of Eat, Drink, Run talks about her feelings on ‘new year, new you’.
It’s January 1st, and all you can hear are companies and brands reminding you of a ‘new year, new you’. Which makes me want to gag. I mean, excuse me: What was so wrong with the OLD you? For a long time during my twenties and thirties, I compared myself to others – and it only made me sad. I was tormented by thin, happy, healthy people. I would see joggers whizzing around the streets in the early morning as I returned home from a night out, the self -loathing seeping in to my bones as their sap seemed to rise. I never dreamt I was a runner. I (am) a dawdler, a loafer, and a smoker. Until one day, I decided enough was enough. I didn’t want to think about what I couldn’t do – I wanted to think about what I could do. And so began my journey to self-acceptance. Last year, I ran all 26 miles of the London Marathon – in my underwear. For the record, it was my second marathon. And this new year, I’d urge you to do the same. You don’t have to run a marathon in your knickers, obviously. But every time you find yourself thinking you need to be a new version of you, stop yourself. And remember: this new year, you just need to be fearlessly, unapologetically you.
12 tips from Bryony Gordon on how to be the best version of yourself in 2019:
- Eat: a piece of cake every now and then – BUT don’t punish yourself for days afterwards.
- Drink: a glass of wine if you feel like one. Just maybe not 5 or 6.
- Run: just once this January, and see how it goes
- Be: fearlessly and unapologetically YOU. Do not compare yourself to the person sitting next to you at work
- Dance: to a Beyonce to a dance work-out. Ditch the spin class if it’s not working for you
- Enjoy: A few sober evenings at home each week
- Walk: If you can’t make it to the end of the race, walk. The most important thing is getting there in the first place.
- Reward: You and a girlfriend to a weekend away every now and then. But watch out for the wagon …
- Wear: A new pair of fun leopard print leggings to the gym. Lycra needn’t be boring
- Sleep: before 11pm at least 2 times a week
- Join: A gang of like-minded people to share your problems with
- Accept: Your body and your mind, and never be ashamed of it
Find out how to achieve these things through Bryony’s hilarious and brave new memoir Eat, Drink, Run
‘A courageous account that will inspire us all – bloody brilliant’ Fearne Cotton
‘An honest and damn funny book about daring to dream, about chafing and Vaseline, and running through the pain. I raced through it without getting a stitch’ Matt Haig
‘The woman who made talking about your thinking not just acceptable but imperative’ Daily Telegraph
