Erin O'Hara: naturopath and wellness expert on preparing for the spring reset

The winter blues are over for good, daylight saving has officially kicked in and spring is here.

People are more likely to feel unmotivated in the winter, so experts consider spring the best time to work in new healthy habits.

Naturopath and wellness expert Erin O'Hara explains why drinking water, eating better, and getting more exercise feel easier to do in the warmer weather and longer days.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talk.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Sedb Righty host springers Here. Not that you'd necessarily know
if you head outside. Daylight saving, of course, is kicked
in today, which means we've got a little bit more
light in the evenings. It makes us feel like we've
got more time to do things. You might be thinking yourself,
what a good time to sort of reset some habits

(00:31):
heading into summer. So Erin O'Hara is with us, good,
good morning. We get a bit lazy, don't we over winter? Yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:41):
I think people get unmotivated over winter. I think the
days are shorter, it's a bit grayer outside, more rain,
and people think, oh, can't be both to go for
a walk, for a run or any exercise today, And
it kind of gets becomes the winter habits have been
a little bit lazier and maybe a bit more comfort
food as well.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
Nothing like a good pie in the middle of winter.
I know you're not going to be happy to hear that, Erin,
but it's true.

Speaker 3 (01:07):
And I think now we're kind of getting that little
bit lighter, especially yesterday, I know most of the country
was really sunny, and it's that kind of little bit
of pop of inspiration of people go oh, look it's sunny,
let's get outside, let's go move our bodies.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Frock up a bit of imond D and feel good
about the world.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
Absolutely, And I think with those longer days, it's such
a good time to reset some habits, some healthy habits,
because having that extra hour in the evening makes such
a big difference, especially if you've really dropped out of
routine with some exercise. Is actually using this time to
create new healthy habit, whether it's getting outside for some
fresh air at the end of the day before we

(01:44):
have dinner, and creating those new healthy habits and habits,
you know, the things that we do repetitively every day,
and some of them we have good habits, and we
have bad habits, like things like brushing our teeth. Most
people just go and brush their teeth every day. They
don't even think about it. It happens. But actually we
do sometimes have some unhealthy habits, and this is a
good time to review those and look at what you're doing,

(02:06):
what you could do better.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Okay, So how do we create a healthy habit and
stick to it?

Speaker 3 (02:10):
I think the best thing FIRSTU is knowing your habits
and knowing what you want to create change and actually
being quite pacific, not just I'm gonna eat healthier, because
that's not really pacific enough to attually create a change.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
I reckon she'd start small to go Actually, I'm just
gonna have better lunches. I'm gonna just work on my lunches.
I'm going to take lunches and just make them more
healthy and interesting.

Speaker 3 (02:31):
And that's a great way of doing it. Or if
you know one of your focuses is maybe weight loss,
I usually suggest to people look at your snacks or
maybe go for a couple of days ago no snacks,
just like breakfast, lunch, and dinner, good old old fashioned eating.
Or maybe it's looking at your water intaking, being like,
actually I only drink one glass of water a day.

(02:51):
That's probably not enough, and then putting in sort of habits.
And usually my suggestion with that, with creating the habit
of drinking more water is morning tea and afternoon tea.
Be like, okay, I'll have two glasses morning tea, two
glasses afternoon tea. And if you're trying to bring in
the habit of like exorc make it that something small.
So usually i'd suggest starting with a ten or fifteen

(03:12):
minute walk every day. And if you say every day,
it can become a habit where if you try and
do sitt of half an hour three times a week,
you'll be like, I'll do it tomorrow, I'll do it
tomorrow and tomorrow and never comes.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
You're just gonna make a decision. It's not shallow goos day,
it's oh, I have to I'm going today.

Speaker 3 (03:26):
Yep, And just every day, like just getting in that
routine and then you can move your body more and
you'll feel healthier.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
What's habit stacking.

Speaker 3 (03:33):
Habit stacking is where you already have a current habit
and you pair it with another habit. So I would
pear like two things together like as soon as you
wake up in the morning and creating the habit of
like get up in exercise or get up and do meditation.
So it's the first thing you do it and it's
kind of part of that routine and it becomes part
of the flow of the day.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
I love it. Erin some motivation for us there this morning.
It is a six to eleven news Talks EVV For.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
More from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudgin. Listen live
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