Why #5stepping

So, why #5stepping?

I got the idea earlier this year, when listening to the Chris Evans Breakfast Show on Radio 2.  He was talking about ‘Blue Monday’, apparently the most depressing day of the year … it’s late January, Christmas is over, Easter is miles away and the New Year’s Resolutions have gone to pot – “As they always do,” I added mentally, which is why I gave up making them decades ago (in fact, ‘I will never make another New Year’s Resolution’ is the only New Year’s Resolution that I have ever managed to keep).“

Of course they always fail: they involve giving up the things we like the most – so how would it be if, instead of giving up stuff, we did something positive, something small but effective … or several small but effective things that would make little difference to out every day activities but, together, could turn our lives around.

So, How #5stepping?

Simple, easy, effective, positive, proactive: they were the rules.  So what was a chiropractor doing dishing out lifestyle advice?  That was he question the Western Gazette asked when I suggested that their readers might benefit from a monthly health column featuring ‘Five Steps to Better Health’.  Well, chiropractors are surprisingly well-educated – most chiropractors train for five years (physiotherapists train for three) to Masters Level (doctors train to ordinary Bachelor level).  Their University training includes physiology, nutrition, orthopaedics, epidemiology, microbiology, general medicine, neurology, psychology and their approach to health is both holistic and aimed at optimisation rather than being constrained by NHS budgets and pigeonholing.

Quite a few patients took up the challenge – and all of them succeeded in losing weight, felt better and saved money … and the weight has stayed off, unlike the ‘boom and bust’ diets that keep the dieting industry in business (same time next year?).

The articles were combined in the County Magazine over the summer, and several more people joined up … by then, we were taking tentative steps into social media and I was discovering how I could find the time to blog, tweet, post, and write articles, research and books whilst treating 130 patients a weeks in four separate clinics (without abandoning my family).

So, it works!

I’ve been practicing what I preach and have lost two stones – back to my fighting weight when I was playing representative rugby and running the 100m in ten-point-something and reckon I’ve saved the best part of a grand this year, which mirrors the slogan Paul Wilkinson at the Western Gazette coined: ‘Lose Two Stone; Gain A Thousand Pounds’.

So, When #5stepping?

If you want to Change Your Life, without having to change your life, I reckon I’ve come up with five simple steps that anyone can manage and, when taken together, will make you feel a lot better about yourself … and make your self feel a lot better – and you don’t have to wait till New Year to resolve to take part: the first Sunday of Advent is November 30^th and THAT is when you can start #5stepping your way into a happier and healthier 2015 (Step 1 is guaranteed to make Christmas less of a headache).

So follow us on twitter @5stepper to get #5stepping; read my blog via www.yeovilchiropractic.co.uk or find us on Facebook http://tiny.cc/tw8kpx and you’ll increase the quality of your life … and the quantity!