Wellbeing with Lee Moroney: Gratitude and loving yourself

From Tallaght, Lee Moroney has been coaching adults, teens and children for over 20 years, specialising in tutoring for DDLETB in sports, exercise and fitness QQI level 5s, along with many community education courses around wellbeing. 

As Lee contributes his final column for The Echo, he looks back on the past six years. 

In January 2017 I was asked by Emma Kennedy to do a 4-week column as a once off – six years later I am still writing this article.

I am very grateful for the opportunity, and to Liz Kennedy and Gareth Mockler who edit and put the piece together for The Echo each week.

It was a great asset to have a column based on health and fitness, plus all the other topics and interviews from postnatal exercise, cessation of smoking, chair aerobics for 65 plus, to managing your budget with an interview with MABS – we all know how stressful managing your money can be.

I was given free rein to be honest by The Echo, over 200 columns and at least two dozen interviews were published during that time.

I often bumped into neighbours and friends of friends who would ask for advice or tell me they had read my piece.

In 2019, I was contacted by an Echo reader who asked for one-to-one help with weight loss and improving fitness – I am glad to report despite the global pandemic this person is still very active and all her health worries which prompted her to reach out are no longer a worry and she also joined a local Gaelic4mothers and others LFGA club locally.

One thing I have learned is that body confidence and loving yourself first go hand-in-hand.

Learning to accept where we are at, and move one step at a time rather than giant steps, is better than doing too much too quickly which sets you up for failure in the long run.

You have to love yourself.

When I say this, people often say it’s a bit “wishy washy” but until you do, love yourself first, losing 10lbs or, for some, putting on 10lbs, will not make you feel any better.

The scales are just a number and weighs every ounce of your body but it does not tell you that you’re intelligent, a great karaoke singer, a strong weight lifter, great at 5-a-side, that you can walk 5km under an hour, or how great a mother/father/friend you are.

It will not measure your kindness, charity work, volunteer coaching.

The scales will not weigh up any of these great qualities that you have.

Remind yourself to – be kind to yourself regarding your health and fitness journey!

I would like to wish you, the loyal reader, all the best and hopefully you took something from all my ramblings over the last six and a half years.

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