RETHINK REFRAME REBOOT

It should have been a year for smashing goals. Fitness goals, healthy-eating goals, getting-to-summer- and-being-bikini-ready goals. But then 2020 happened. After being subjected to one too many ‘Avoid lockdown weight gain with this simple diet’ headlines, these aspirations slowly became irritating and unpleasant reminders that my New Year’s resolutions were creeping further out of reach. While my inner critic was becoming increasingly intrusive, those close to me offered perspective. I’d taken on a great role at FQ in the midst of a very difficult market. I’d made a major health breakthrough: after years of crippling, undiagnosed pain, at the age of 36, I was finally diagnosed with stage III endometriosis — if you’re one of the one in 10 Kiwi women who suffer from this crippling disease, you’ll know just how life-changing this is. Dwelling on appearance could be considered trivial even at the best of times – let alone during a global pandemic – yet I still found myself self-flagellating as bikini season loomed.

“There is no doubt that lockdown has lasting impacts on many aspects of our life. We can’t ignore that some of these are very significant,” says Sarah McMahon, psychologist and director of BodyMatters Australasia. Instead of being over the moon with what I had achieved, I felt annoyed and disappointed with myself. Why