The sea came in fast,
The family of 6 were up to their waists by the time the coastguards arrived,
Both the kids were being held up by their parents,
Their heads would have been covered by the waves had they stood alone.

5 minutes earlier we’d strolled past a family on a sandbank in the sea,
Surrounded by water but dry,
I asked my friend,
Should I call the coastguard?
Someone’s probably already done it.

Yep,
I thought,
You’re probably right.

We did it anyway,
Just in case,
Because I’m aware of the bystander effect,
The phenomenon where the greater the number of people present,
The less likely people are to help a person in trouble.

Once the hovercraft had rescued the family,
Who’d simply walked too far out of the beach to enjoy the sunshine,
It made me think about our lives,
And how so many of us with challenging food relationships,
We let them escalate quickly,
Moving from a simple disordered habit picked up through dieting or a tough time,
To eating disorder territory within months.

We’re surrounded by so many people,
Yet none of them know how to help us.

They watch on like we did,
Relatively helpless,
Although I was about to whip out my 15 year old lifeguarding skills
Not because they don’t care,
But because we don’t know how to help ourselves.

We are stuck in the ever surrounding ice cold and ferocious sea,
With our loved ones watching on,
As we fall deeper into habits that get repeatedly more entrenched,
Quicker than we'd even realised was possible.

I have some people ask me questions on Instagram for years,
And I love and appreciate said people,
But 2, 3 years down the line,
They’re often asking the same questions they did back then

Because they don’t implement my advice,
Don’t find it in themselves to do the work,
Yet hope one day they’ll wake up,
Be ‘healed’,
Be ‘normal’.

We all find ourselves in overwhelming situations sometimes,
Most of you find yourself in disordered habits,
Poor body image,
Missing out on flourishing through life,
And I can’t stress this enough,
You can’t wish your way out of it.

There are no self-help books that do the work for you,
No Instagram posts that will change your mindset forever,
No number of days that will magically change your habits,
No explanations of energy balance that will lead to fat loss,
You have to do the work.

You have to dedicate time each day to your habits,
You must change the way you choose to eat,
It’s imperative that you unlearn past habits and re-learn healthful ones,
That you challenge your thought processes and internal dialogue.

You have to take action,
Stop waiting for things to miraculously change,
I can assure you they won’t,
You can’t think your way into a better relationship with food,
Fat loss,
Or the return of your period.

What’s that cliché?
If you’re waiting for a sign,
This is it?

Whatever it is in your life that you hope to change,
If you’re not choosing to change,
You’re choosing to stay the same.

It might feel safer to you,
You're probably holding on to those disordered habits for a reason,
But did anything great ever come out of feeling comfortable?

When you’re ready to make the lifelong change to your heatlh,
To be your own hovercraft,
Drop me an email,
Some of the ETPHD coaches have spaces.
Until then,
Continue helping others like I wish you would help yourselves,
And remember your sunscreen.