I feel guilty sometimes.
My daughter is a nurse.
So we all know that nurses work hard, and are unsung heroes and all of that.
Everyone can remember a time that a nurse showed a special kindness.
Or went the extra mile.
Or dealt with something that we just couldn’t possibly do in an breathtaking way.
‘Normal’ people can’t work out where nurses get the stamina or the inner resources from, or remember all of the life-or-death technical stuff while alarms are sounding and people are rushing around… and all whilst looking like impossibly calm, like gorgeous, genius angels floating effortlessly – just casually saving lives!
You kind of cling on to them, like a lifeline while the consultants breeze in and out. (Yes, consultants I am teasing – and you get to be the sexy Overlords of everything, so quit your moaning)
But we all know it’s the nurses that fix people on the front line.
Superheroes, right?
And people are really ill, and in crisis and families are distraught…
Then they leave the hospital and get on with their lives.
Whilst the nurses deal with the next crisis, the next impossible conversation to have with a family member.
The next person cared for, second by second from Intensive Care, to HDU, then the ward, then home. Or not.
IC and HDU nurses often don’t get to see people go home
…and often wonder what happened next; the person they kept alive minute by minute through gruelling long nights.
They can often miss out on seeing that recovered person put their slippers and dressing gown in a bag, take their cards down and go home smiling and waving.
And the next. And the next.
I wonder if people write many heartfelt thank yous?
To let them know how their 4am efforts and tissues, and quick thinking, skill, intelligence and kindnesses had helped them?
How with their care, and skill, and support – they had changed the course of that family’s life, forever?
I wonder if the nurses would even get time to read them?
Or would even have the energy left at the end of a shift…
And so we have just finished reading the feedback from the last group of women doing The Project with us
We spent the last few months with them pretty much constantly through their ups and downs, struggles and successes. Gave them recipes and workouts and meditations and challenges, and everything we could think of to help them succeed.
Everyone helped each other and it was just BRILLIANT. (Much more brilliant than we even dared hope)
People can be so excellent.
We taught the WHYs as well as the WHATs
So that they wouldn’t need us any more and had ‘sorted things out for good’.
Told them the truth and the science in plain terms, so people weren’t deliberately confused by big marketing machines and could make their own informed decisions.
Actual. Real. Tested. Science.
Treated them like the wonderful, unique intelligent adults that they are.
We said we would’t just sit at the computer being frustrated with Slimming Clubs.
That’s easy.
Criticising things is really easy…
We set out to offer you something that wasn’t a Slimming Club or a diet
We weren’t going to flog you meal replacement shakes and pretend it was food.
Or a long term solution.
We just told everyone the truth.
And they embraced it.
And several are in smaller clothes sizes.
But that isn’t actually that important.. in the scheme of things.
Yep – lose a couple of stone now – have a skinny Christmas but be bigger than ever in March???
Not on our watch, sunshine.
Women – have drastically, permanently changed their relationship with food, exercise and their bodies.
They have reclaimed control.
They achieved what they didn’t think they would.
The feedback is HUMBLING
And it is so lovely to be thanked, and praised and all of that…
But we just told people the truth.
You can see why I feel guilty…
Seriously – if you know a nurse….can you just send them some flowers, or a thank you note…
Maybe a John Lewis voucher?
As a very brief summary…
Ladies started The Project not feeling happy.
THEN
They stopped to think.
They learned.
They took control.
They established new routines
And they made amazing NATURAL new choices.
THEY CHANGED SOMETHING. Lots of things actually.
And now they are so proud of what they’ve achieved. Quite right.
Tanya and Claire x
Here is a little something, just for you – start your day right