Friday with Heidi: The IKEA effect…

For the last 35 odd years I’ve lived in the very happy and smug place of being able to say that I’d never been to IKEA. 

I had it in a list alongside, and including, never eating a Krispy Kreme doughnut or watching The Goonies. 

But, within the last 7 days I have not only been to an IKEA but also had to build the resulting purchases. Whilst I don’t feel sullied, I do feel that I am quite happy to leave it another 35 years or so until I do it all again 🙂

It was in the making of the two chairs that my mum got that I realised that there are a few parallels between the Swedish Wonderful Everyday and some good old fashioned health, fitness and weight-loss advice. 

1. When you go to IKEA for a chair, you know where in your house you want it, what it needs to go with and probably, how much you’re prepared to spend on it. When you want to change your eating you know what you want to do, what results you’ll get and how much effort you are prepared to put into it. However you can waste a lot of time in IKEA deciding which chair to go for. Spending time deliberating over which ones is best and not actually making a decision. Choosing diets, reading diet books, buying diet ‘stuff’ is just the same. Lots of indecision. 
2. I asked my Facebook feed what the attraction with IKEA was and several comments were that they only ever seemed to row with their partners in IKEA. Sounds like choosing a diet to me. As soon as you tell someone what you’re doing they’ll have a better idea for you, an option you really should consider and, in some cases get quite militant about it. 
3. My mum’s trip to IKEA last week was not a laid-back affair. I asked her what she wanted, looked at the store map, aimed for the first department, got the chair. Aimed for the second department, got the chair. Aimed for the warehouse. There was no wandering, distraction or deviation from us. But we were the only ones. Everyone else was meandering, mooching and oohing and aahing. If you want to get results, you need to get the job done. Avoid distractions like cakes in the office, seconds at the weekend and finishing off the kids dinner. Distractions slow you right down. 
4. After all this indecision, arguing and distraction you can still eat your way back to the car. Hot dogs, Daim bars, meatballs and more were all key reasons why people love IKEA. How many health regimes have been interrupted by an unnecessary meal or snack or sugar binge when things don’t quite to plan?

You could be forgiven for thinking that I’ve now got it in for the Swedish powerhouse…but no. 

Because they’ve continued with and nailed this analogy with their ‘self build guides’. 

After you’ve bought your package you need to build it. It’s perfect. 

1. You get a plan telling you what to do. 
2. It’s simple, easy to follow and requires no special skills. 
3. They provide you with all the tools. Usually a very simple allen key
4. You follow the diagrams.
5. You get a perfect result. 

Fitness, weight loss, health can all follow the same principles. 

1. Find a plan to suit you. 
2. The simpler the better so you can hit the ground running.
3. Find something that requires nothing fancy to get you started. No special clothing, equipment, kitchen utensils or weird food stuffs. 
4. Follow the plan. 
5. Keep following the plan. 
6. See the results. 
7. Keep with the plan. 

So, how are you on the IKEA scale? 

Are you still in the cafe choosing between meatballs or hot dogs? 

Are you arguing over which rug to bring home? 

Or are you all built, in place, rubbish chucked away and using this healthy new body every day?

If you’d like to learn more about our Metabolic Balance nutrition programme we are running an information evening on Wednesday 18 March at the Wokingham Cricket Club between 19.00-21.00. 

Click the link to reserve a place to find out more. 

Tomorrow I will be hosting our first Fitness Event of the year. 

Our inaugural one day Wellness Rebellion event at Stockton House Fleet is looking to be a damp but exciting day with speaker guests all helping me to help our guests release their inner rebel for health, wellbeing and confidence.

Don’t forget too that you can join us every Sunday at 9am at Bearwood Recreation Ground, Winnersh for our pay-as-you-go Sunday Wake Up! session. All are welcome and all you need to do is bring along a mat, or something to lie on, some gloves and water. Sessions are £8.00. 

I’ve not really been able to spot a sunrise this week, however I was utterly delighted on Wednesday to get to Henley Early Risers at 06.00 and see this! Dawn breaking before we started. It’s coming chaps, Spring is on it’s way!