Derval O'Rourke: This turkey and ham bake is one of my favourite leftover recipes  (2024)

I have prided myself on being committed to providing affordable healthy options on my platform Derval.ie. I have also made it a priority to offer options that anyone can find in the home to use for working out. For example, instead of using dumbbells, a bottle of water is a great option.

The more I thought about it, the more I realised money was not necessarily the only barrier to a healthy lifestyle. Time. Time is the one commodity we cannot buy, obtain more of, or get back. The real luxury item is time! You could have all the equipment, recipes and exercise routines in the world for free, but if you don’t have the time set aside to do it, there is no value to these things.

Christmas is often a time when we reflect on the year just gone and as we start preparing for New Year’s Eve, we start to think about the year ahead. What do we want to make a priority? We often feel we have to “take things out” of our life to be healthy. My advice is to just start by adding something in. By adding in some exercise or adding in some healthier options you will start to feel good. As time moves on, you will automatically reduce any bad habits, they will become your new trade off!

If your life was a shopping basket and you could only carry essential items, what would you put in that basket? For me the first few are easy, my family, my friends, my career, inspiring others, my health. Ask yourself the same question and then ask yourself, does it reflect how your life looks? I struggle every day to carve out some time for a bit of exercise or some self-care. But I do it, because I know I will feel better after.

I spend so much of my day wearing so many different hats, mother, wife, daughter, friend, business owner, mentor, coach; when I take 30 minutes for a walk, I’m just me.

Just as we consider milk, bread and eggs to be essential items when we go shopping, a healthy lifestyle should not be considered a luxury, but an essential item in your shopping basket of life.

If your life was a shopping basket and you could only carry essential items, what would you put in that basket?

Movement of the week: Try for 5. Start off this week by doing 5 minute’s exercise every other day. Increase to 10

minutes the second week and keep doing this until you have 30 minutes carved out three times a week.

Wellness Tip:

Spend some time deciding what you would like to achieve for 2022. Jot a few things down and keep it somewhere that you can check in during the year to see how you’re doing. A New Year is a great chance to make room for some new habits.