A book club to change your life!

In this episode, Sarah Bolitho interviews Rebecca Miller from Seahorse Fitness about innovative approaches to lifestyle activity, self-help, and community support through a unique book club. 

They explore how small, manageable changes and group accountability can significantly impact personal health and well-being, and how they can start to change your life.

Sarah and Rebecca are both passionate about taking small, sustainable steps towards a healthy, balanced lifestyle - with the emphasis on balance, as we all want joy and fun (and chocolate or crisps) in our lives.  

Rebecca Miller is a qualified professional Personal Trainer, coach and founder of Seahorse Fitness. She is positive and passionate about the outdoors, especially the sea, and making the most of our natural surroundings for exercise. Her focus is on creating a balanced lifestyle, looking after health and wellbeing, and achieving amazing physical changes.

​Knowing that everybody is unique, Rebecca offers individual support in identifying and achieving health and fitness goals. and in making more mindful decisions when it comes to well-being.  

She is a Cancer Rehab Instructor and prescribes exercise for cancer patients and teaches Gentle Movement classes as part of the Macmillan Move More campaign.

You can find out more about Rebecca here:  

www.instagram.com/seahorsefitness

www.facebook.com/seahorsefitness

https://seahorsefitness.wixsite.com/dunbar

For more about the training and support Sarah offers, visit www.sarahbolitho.com or contact her at admin@sarahbolitho.com.

Follow her on social media
Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/fabnewlous_active_lives
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fitnesscareermentor
Linkedin:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahbolitho

Transcript

Sarah Bolitho (00:01.614)

Hello and welcome to Creating Active Lives with me, Sarah Belyther and my guests. And we're all here to share research, science and strategies to help inspire you to create a more active, a more fulfilling and a more productive life. I'm really pleased this week to have Rebecca Miller from Seahorse Fitness with me. And we're actually talking about something that will help people change their lives, we hope, and came about from a random conversation on a course, which is, it's almost like an alternative book club. But before we get into that, Rebecca, would you like to introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about what you do and why you do it?

Rebecca Miller (00:41.426)

Absolutely, thanks Sarah. So yeah, my name's Rebecca Miller and my company is Seahorse Fitness and we're up here in sunny Dunny as they call it, so Dunbar which apparently is the sunniest place in Scotland. So yeah, I've been working as a personal trainer coach for about six years now and was fortunate enough to meet Sarah as part of my development when I did the cancer rehab course and

I think what's really important is I want to help people develop as people and be comfortable with themselves, find things that they really enjoy. We're very lucky up here. We've got a great environment for the outdoors. So we tend to work outside as much as possible as well. I think Life Star is really important. again, as we age, thinking about things that are suitable for us, but also not saying I'm too old for these types of things as well. So challenging ourselves a bit as well and keeping our bodies active and also being healthy in ourselves as well. So yeah, that's the type of things that I'm doing up here.

Sarah Bolitho (01:54.718)

It sounds really interesting and it's nice to know you're in the sunniest part of Scotland having spent a lot of time in Aberdeen, can tell it's not very sunny there. But hey, it's really important what you're saying, it's about lifestyles, it's about activity and one of the things that the podcast aims to do is to get people away from thinking about if you like more structured exercise or going to the gym and things like that.

Yeah, which can be really, really important. And certainly for a lot of people, it is really important. But for others, you know, for whatever reasons, it's about building activity into your life. And it's not just physical activity is it's like you're saying about personal development, mental activity is just as important as physical activity. And developing that that side of our lives, our lifestyles that is much more positive. So, you know, if you don't want to go to the gym or do structured exercise, you're doing other things in other ways that keep you fit, healthy for what you need to be able to do. And what we're talking about today is essentially it's a book club but I'm sure most people are familiar with the concept of a book club, is that you read a book, you discuss it, and it's really, really good. And I've been in a few because sometimes you pick up from other people things that you might have missed or little nuances and you get to discuss things. But what we were talking about during the course once was we were talking about how important self-help can be for people who have mental health conditions. And self-help is a massive industry and massive expanding it's currently worth around 35 billion pounds a year and that's estimated to double to about 70 billion pounds a year within the next 10 years or so. So self-help is a rapidly growing market but one of the issues is and I'm sure there's a lot of people out there is you read a book and then you put the book away and you don't do anything with it you don't action anything or you start it and you never go on. There's no kind of follow-up, there's no accountability and this is what we were talking about was a book club that actually looks at some of the self-help books or techniques or methods but that people can then action together.

And there's accountability in that you don't just buy the book, read the book, start the book or whatever and put it to one side. You actually follow through with actions because at the end of the day, however much you read a book, unless you do something with it, it's a bit pointless, isn't it? so you actually went ahead and started kind of an alternative book club. So tell us a little bit about, about what happened, what and how it's going.

Rebecca Miller (04:33.718)

Yeah, so I probably wouldn't have started it if I hadn't been on your course. we were taking part in the mental health course, which was really interesting. And again, just trying to think about holistically as people being able to help people. And it was one of those comments. And I just remember you said to me, well, you if you considered a book club. Now, I've never been in a book club and always thought it was like this little secret environment. And from what I'm gathered, there was a lot of wine drinking goes on in book clubs and we were like okay and not that we were planning to do that and so we said well let's think about it about how can we get the group together so what's really important to me is building a community and I think we've got our seahorse community we run a lot of boot camp sessions so there's quite a lot of groups come together I've got people who PT together and for me, it's very important about being able to say, yes, you've got me as a provider, but do things outside of this as well. And it isn't always about the money as well. It's interesting when you say about the amount of money in the industry. And so I thought, right, I'm going to set up a book club, but like you say, with a slightly different edge to it. So looking more on the health industry. And I don't charge for the book club. So I said, right, you know, this is open. Who would like to come along?

And we got about, I think it was about 18 people and I thought, oh my God, that's too many for one book club. So what we do is we've split it so we have half one month, half the next month. So it's one book every two months. And I think the late Dr. Michael Moseley was quite inspirational. There was a number of programs that I watched that he did. I've got a lot of his cookbooks. And one of the books was called Just One Thing. And I thought it's quite a nice book to start with because the chapters are pretty small.

And you basically choose just one thing that you are going to implement in your life to make your life better. And there's a vast variety of things that you can choose from as well. So we all got together for the first book club, well, half of us did. And it was really interesting. I felt quite nervous myself because I was thinking, you know, people will turn up and will they enjoy it? What will they actually get from it as well?

And I think at the end of the two hours, I mean, we'd laughed so much as well. And I said, right, we really need to stop. We need to go home at this point. But the biggest thing was how open people were with each other. And although we were talking about the book, it kind of led on to other discussions as well about lifestyle. And everybody was saying, right, I'm going to do this one thing.

So people chose lots of different things. One of the things that we talked about, and I think like you mentioned as well about accountability, that was really important because they said, okay, so, you know, for example, don't know, Sally, if you're going to do this, how are you going to keep doing that? And she said, well, I'll talk to other people about it as well. And then the next book club that we came to, we'd gone on to the next book, which was Who Moved My Cheese? And again, just talking about resilience and how do we manage change.

But we started it by going back to the previous book and saying, what was the one thing? And I'd written them down. So I knew what everybody had said they were going to do just to see, you know, were they the same things or had people changed them? And pretty much everybody had stuck to the same thing and they were doing them as well. So I think definitely accountability, but also having that safe environment as well. And we use community space for that. So we're really lucky I'm part of the sailing club and they let us use the sailing club to meet up as well. So it's a nice place and very relaxed as well where people can just be themselves and yeah, feel comfortable with it.

Sarah Bolitho (08:32.566)

And this is the thing, isn't it? When people feel comfortable, they'll often open up about things and they'll talk about things. Quite often with these books, it's, you know, there's, know Michael Mesley is just one thing, but actually there's lots of things that you could do. And again, I mean, there's lots of other books. James Clear's Atomic Habits is really good, B.J. Fogg's Habits, I think it's called. Just looking over at the bookshelf.

You know, what all of them say is, you know, you're not going to change everything in your life all at once, but choose one thing. And the thing with having a group like this where people can talk safely and openly is that they're much more likely to pick one thing that they feel confident that they can stick to rather than what they might feel is more important, if that makes sense. So sometimes people say, I know I need to do this, it is really important, but it just feels a bit overwhelming.

Rebecca Miller (09:07.309)

Yeah.

Sarah Bolitho (09:28.634)

At the moment, they can pick something else that they can, but I know I can do this, I can stick to this, which actually is going to make them much more confident about tackling the big thing down the line. And I think this is important, isn't it? A lot of these books, it's like change your life by doing all of these things. But you've got to start with something that you feel confident that you can do. But also having that accountability means that you, I don't know about you, but if people are checking up on me or if I'm part of a group like that I'd much more like to stick to it because I want to it's not about what letting people down is it it's about I just want to be kind of motivational for everybody else as well

Rebecca Miller (10:11.744)

Yeah and quite a few people said that they've gone into work and then had discussions in work about it and then shared the books in work as well which I thought you know it's kind of spreading that message as well and sharing it with people. So yeah I mean it's just great and silly little things. It reminded me as well of when I first started as a PT I think I felt like I had to be the person saying I know these things and this is what you need to be doing and like I would give people too much on a plan when I look back and it's like, because I felt like, well, I did that on the course and that's, it was almost your blueprint, wasn't it? Of like, these are the ideals, but realizing that actually, you know, somebody works down in London two days a week. I've got three kids at home. They're also studying as well. And then I'm saying to them, and you need to be exercising X number of times a week without thinking how realistic is it as well? And I think that's just honing your skills, isn't it, as you develop as a trainer, as a coach and understanding about people. And that's where with the book, it was great because people could just pick out something really easy that they can fit into their lives.

Sarah Bolitho (11:22.062)

it's so important isn't it to have that one thing that you think I can manage this because actually when you find out you can manage it you've achieved it you've done it you think actually maybe I could take on a little bit more and it's that kind of ripple effect isn't it but even if it's just one small thing sometimes those small things make a big difference to people the way they are and things and it's like you're saying about a client who's in London twice a week and has got kids If they're sat down, they're commuting, if they're travelling, maybe stretching is the most important thing for them at this stage rather than the exercise. It's really going down, down, down. And sometimes it's actually helping people to step away from the big picture and actually look at the tiny little, like doing a jigsaw, isn't it? You've got the big picture there, but you start with a corner or the edge. You don't start by doing the whole thing at once. And I think this is where a lot of these books are, don't get me wrong, I mean, got loads, they're really, really good, but it's breaking it down to something that you can manage and that fits your lifestyle, isn't it? And you were saying before we actually started recording, you were saying about one woman who wanted to do everything. So tell us a little bit more about her.

Rebecca Miller (12:42.082)

So yeah, I'm sure she wouldn't mind me. I won't mention names, but this lady is super organized and I had a spreadsheet when she came in, like a few people went, wow. And I was like, well, I've looked at the different items and you know, what sort of tasks I can do and blah, blah. And she said, so I think I could do this. I could do this. And there was so many things and I'm a bit like that. I get quite excited about things. So I see something new and I'm like, that's brilliant. You know, just dive on in and yeah, I'll do all of these things.

And then a few days later, you suddenly realize, oh my God, that's not going to work. And so we said, well, okay, out of those like, you know, say 10 things that you're saying, I could do all of these. What are the important ones? What are your top three? And what's the absolute like drop dead? I'm going to do that every day type of thing as well. And, it was interesting because it's something that she's really stuck at is doing daily press ups. And it's like, she does them every day. And she said, I get out of bed and I do my press ups. And I thought, wow. Whereas other people were like, oh I can't imagine anything worse than doing that. But they'll dance around the kitchen or, you know, making sure you've got a water bottle next to you at all times. So it was interesting because I think understanding as well that it's OK. You don't have to do everything at once and you can just take small steps at it. And it is sometimes just that first step as well of going, you know, I'll have my trainers by the door, so I'll put them on in the morning. I'll be more encouraged to go for a walk rather than, you know, finding them.

Sarah Bolitho (14:10.19)

I think it's again, this is it's those small things, but sometimes sometimes people focus on things that are going to stop doing. So I'm not going to X, Y or Z and I'm not going to have a glass of wine at six o'clock. I'm not going to have a cigarette. I'm not going to have sugary snacks at this time. But again, it's within a group you can discuss. Okay, but if you're not going to do that, what are you going to do instead? Because one of the things I always say to people when they are making changes, don't create a vacuum don't create a gap because if you always have a glass of wine at six o'clock if you always have four sugars in your tea what are you going to do instead so at six o'clock I'm going to go for a short walk you filled the gap if you always have biscuits with your coffee and I often say this to people you know if you always have a piece of cake or some biscuits with your coffee at 11 o'clock (other drinks are available) then pop your coffee in a takeaway mug and go for a walk because you may well walk around the block with a cup of coffee and have little sips of it. You probably won't take a plate of biscuits or cake with you though. So you change the habit. So you're still having a coffee, but you've changed the environment. So again, it's not as simple as I will no longer eat sweets after a meal. What are you going to replace that with? Whether it is something active or whether it's something like a piece of fruit.  Just don’t create a gap because once you've got a gap it's always kind of it wants to be filled. I think this is where this sort of group aspect can help because people can suggest things or why don't you sketch or do a bit of embroidery or you know crochet or something like that. I know there's some other activities are available 

Rebecca Miller (15:48.418)

I think that's good though, because that's like using your hands as well. So it's keeping you busy. And something else we talked about as well was when we were saying, if, you know, some people said, like, I'm just, really busy all the time. And it talks about habits stacking. So it's like, you know, things like if you're brushing your teeth, stand on one leg at the same time, or if I do this, I'll then do that. So it's linking things and that really helped to form the habits as well.

Sarah Bolitho (16:34.016)

It is, you can attach something new to something that's established, it then becomes established with it. And I think for a lot of people, like you said, like your woman who came in, they try and do too much and too big things, you like, things that are much, much too big. The more you start with small simple things the more likely people are to stick to it and I think I mean I don't know if you found this in your group but you know when I've worked with people in group kind of behavior change which is ultimately what we're talking about .I found that people saw I'm really struggling with X and Y and someone else will say, I had that, this is what I did, this is what helped me, is you get that group input, you get that kind of collective wisdom, which

Rebecca Miller (17:18.358)

That really came out in the second book actually with the Who Moved My Cheese. So, know, I know you know that one, it's a lot about how people manage change, how they actually react to things. And one of the ladies was saying she'd read it and she was completely like focused on a work environment. And another person said, well, actually, it was about a friendship of mine and we've found different cheese now, but we've gone in a different direction.

And the first lady sort of looked and she said, yeah, I've just been so, because work's all encompassing for her at the minute. There's a big change going on and I get that, but it was, discussion really, it was so interesting the way it turned. And then we ended up talking about in COVID and about how life changed then and how did people manage the change that they went through? Did they feel resistant to it, angry about it, you know, and looking back and then it then moved on to thinking about children now and saying well what about things like social media so it really that discussion would never have happened without the book group as well and everyone went away and also we did have cheese that night everybody went away though as well really thinking about there's you know you can use this in so many different aspects of your life

Sarah Bolitho (18:46.348)

This is it. for those of you listening in, if you haven't read the book, Who Moved My Cheese? It is definitely worth a read. It's not a long book, but it is a really important way of looking at how people cope with change. And because quite often, how can I put this?

When life changes, and sometimes it's a welcome change, a change that we've sought, but sometimes it's kind of like an enforced change. And that could be all sorts of things. It could be work, could be circumstances, friendships, say it could be health, could be a number of things. But sometimes when it's a change that has happened, rather than that we've made happen, the tendency is to look back, I wish I wish I had this hadn't I wish this life changes. And yes, sometimes it's not necessarily a welcome change. But again, we have to look forward, we have to accept change, we have to work with change. And I think again, this is where groups can help, can't they? Because it can reassure people that actually, you know what, there are ways of doing this, there are suggestions and or when this happened to me, this is what helped.

Rebecca Miller (19:30.456)

Absolutely.

Sarah Bolitho (19:56.622)

Because I think it like as I say sometimes you kind of hark back on oh I wish if only we were there and having people who can kind of support you in accepting change can be really important It is a great book

Rebecca Miller (19:56.63)

Yeah, I think as well, the things that I've noticed with the group. originally it was my my seahorse community and then I put it on Facebook and then a couple of other people got in touch and said, well, can I come? And I was like, yeah, you know, it's open to everybody. And I think that's the thing. It's about it's a community aspect. But there wasn't any judgment. wasn't any we weren't there to fix things. And it wasn't saying like this is broken. We have to sort it out. It was just what are the things that can enhance my life? What can help make things better. And a bit about optional participation as well. And I deliberately kept the group to about a maximum of 10 for each one. Just purely so that more reflective people could have a think and if they were maybe just thinking about things, they might want to say something but not felt either on the spot or if there was 20 people in the room, I don't think I could have controlled it. I'd be like, you know, guys, let's keep it down. So and just a bit about being curious as well.

Sarah Bolitho (21:15.66)

Yeah, and it's, you know, let's be honest, most of us have got areas of our life that we think we could improve or change or we want to do, but sometimes we don't, like I said before, we see the big picture.

Rebecca Miller (21:22.264)

Yeah.

Sarah Bolitho (21:28.942)

If do this, then this will be the result. We're not looking at, okay, that's huge. It's too much. It's overwhelming. I haven't got time. We don't look at that initial small step. I'll often, particularly when I'm working with people, you've talked about goals. You've heard me talk about goals. I tend to get a little bit ranty because I think sometimes we're very fixed on, we must have this very smart goal. you know, I've talked about goals before. And, I'll often say with if you are using the smart formula, remember it's it's not evidence based or anything. Excuse me, coughing. But also it was designed for business projects which kind of do need those very rigid targets. But for me, it's you for us, instead of making it specific, it's look at skills. What skills do I need to be able to make the changes I want to change? Because actually, it might not be your first step might not be to make a change. It might be to inquire about something that will help you to make that change and I think you know and meaningful whatever you want to do but there has to be some sort of meaning in it for you there has to be a value because sometimes you you sort of say well you know do this and it's like but actually I like doing this I don't want to give up this to do that where's the value for me but there might be something else that actually has more value

Rebecca Miller (22:31.638)

Yeah.

Sarah Bolitho (22:54.742)

And A for me is always about accountability. tend to have our little goals, have our aims, have our plans in private. We keep them secret. But without that accountability, you tend not to get things done. When you know someone's going to ask you how you're getting on, when you know you're going to be meeting up and feeding back on your progress, you start to want to be able to report back with pride rather than things.

Rebecca Miller (22:57.421)

Yeah.

Sarah Bolitho (23:24.656)

I've had an absolutely awful month. I haven't got anything like as much done as I wanted to but I have still stuck to my press ups every morning.

Sarah Bolitho (23:33.198)

And I think that that again is something that is important. But, you know, we also need to enjoy, we need to relish what we're doing, whether it's a small step or a big step. We need to have that enjoyment and you know, enjoyment might not be in doing the press ups, but it might be in the feeling of achievement in doing the press ups. So again, it's helping people to look for different ways of seeing these steps, isn't it? And you get that in a group. It's, you know, for me, if you're not enjoying a process, you just find every excuse to sort of, no, I'm not going to go. I'm not gonna do it. Whereas if you enjoy it, or you enjoy the feeling afterwards, you're much more likely, aren't you? And that, that again, is where that accountability comes in. But, and again, the other T in smart is time. For me, it's not the time frame, I will do it by this date. It's have I got the time in my life to actually do all of this? Or do I need something that's a bit smaller that I can fit in? And I think again, this is where the group comes in, isn't it? Because people will say, I found if I actually do this then that helps. I hadn't thought of that. That's a good one.

It's that collective experience. know, we might have, I've got this experience, you've got that, you've got this, you've got that, but it's when you bring it together, it becomes this huge experience circle.

Rebecca Miller (25:00.813)

Yeah, that's, it's funny because this morning at bootcamp, actually, I've got a lovely lady. She's been with me for years and we've been chatting about, she, she really loves running, but she's just not been able to recently because of work and time and just, and it's not about excuses. It's just generally life was so busy and we were chatting about it and I said, well, what about running down to bootcamp? Cause she lives relatively nearby. And it was like, and this morning there she was and she's gone back to doing the couch to 5k which is fantastic. And then somebody else saw her and they were like, she's a legend. And it's like that lovely feeling because people recognise that. And I think with the book club as well, that's what I really like is that people see that and sort of go, you know, there's a very much supportive element there as well, which we all need that. You know, it's so important.

Sarah Bolitho (25:56.878)

We do, need that kind of, we are by nature, we are kind of tribal in the sense that we want to belong and I keep talking about Maslow's hierarchy of needs, but actually belonging underpins really moving forward. Once you've got your basic needs met, your food warmth, whatever, and then your safety, belonging is a big part of it. And when we have big goals, have big aims, we have big things that we want to do, we can actually feel quite lost because it all seems very overwhelming. So belonging, being in a group of people that kind of say, well done, you ran to boot camp this morning.

Sarah Bolitho (26:42.446)

It's a kind of, yeah, I did. And I was coming anyway. So it hasn't taken me more time. It's just, I've done the approach differently. And sometimes it is, isn't it? It's people saying, well done for just not giving up sometimes. Or even, and this is a big one for me, well done for actually saying, do you know what? I don't want to achieve that anymore. I actually want to achieve this. Not achieving something isn't failure. Sometimes it is actually a really successful powerful thing because you're saying do you know what I don't want that after all no ditching that I'm moving on to this and again it's it's that kind of a well done you for realizing that that wasn't the right path for you or there wasn't the right thing

Rebecca Miller (27:15.554)

Yeah, and I think we do change as people. Like I said, when I first started as a PT, that was it. just, mean, unfortunately it was literally as lockdown happened. So I did outdoor one-to-one PT sessions, which was great. But I thought the idea of doing group things, was like, I was horrified. I thought, my God, I will not have the confidence and, know, and actually I found my niche with that and I absolutely love it. And the feedback's great from people.

However, then I developed that further and I've done nutrition courses and then I developed a healthy habits course and that's been great. And again, focusing around just the basics on our nutrition. This isn't advice, it's just some recommendations, going through the macros, going through when you go in shopping, what sort of things to look for, how do you walk around the supermarket, that type of thing. And then the book club just feels like the next iteration of that as well. And it's like, I feel as an individual in my career, I'm growing, but finding the things that I want to do more of that light my fire. And the book club's definitely one of them. And people say, you know, do you not think you should be charging for it? Well, no, I don't actually. I'm quite comfortable with that. you know, it's fine. There are other things that I do charge for, but this is just, this is about the community. And if we can help each other, that's the most powerful thing.

Sarah Bolitho (28:44.11)

And it's a positive thing for people as well because it's not about, like you said, I think most fitness instructors, start out, personal trainers, whatever, we start out wanting to change everything about everybody. But sometimes the improvements that people want aren't actually about fitness. They're about other things. They're about drinking more water or eating slightly more healthily than they were, like you say, thinking about the way they walk around the supermarket. You know, maybe they leave the less nutritious aisles until last because at that point you've got a full trolley and you're looking at it thinking, you know, don't really want anymore.

Sarah Bolitho (29:23.894)

There's lots of different things, aren't there? I think sometimes, you know, we both, when we are mentors or trainers or instructors or whatever, we can be a little bit too, you know, full on. But also people, again, and we've already mentioned this, their expectations about what they can change in the timeframe or immediately is just too big. And overwhelm is one of the biggest reasons that people give up anything. They're just overwhelmed. It's too much. I'll say to people what's one thing you could do immediately after we finish this call and it might be get a pen and paper and write down everything they've eaten today or it might be just stand up and stretch what's one small thing you can do that maybe will take you a minute or two minutes and so I can do that so right then do that but is that all yes yeah

Rebecca Miller (30:09.698)

Yeah, and that's fine. Yeah.

Sarah Bolitho (30:23.362)

That's it. And I used to work with lot of teenagers and we'd work on just improving their diet along the health eating guidelines and things. And it would be, you know, okay, so how many bags of crisps do you eat a week? These were disadvantaged use. So their diets weren't great. And they'd be like, I have at least a bag of crisps a day. I okay, well, just one day next week, before you come back, I want you to swap your bag of crisps for a piece of fruit. That's it, just one. Not every day, just once, they would come back in and say I did it three times last week I had three pieces of fruit and you know they were really proud of themselves. I'd get them reading food labels in the supermarket not to sort of choose but I'd say right I want you to find a prepared product of any kind that hasn't got sugar in and they'd come back and they'd say everything's got sugar in except weetabix or whatever and but I wasn't getting them to change their diet I was getting them to be more aware.

Rebecca Miller (30:52.396)

Yeah, yeah and that education piece. Yeah.

Sarah Bolitho (31:17.824)

of what was in food. And this is it. Sometimes the first step isn't the change. It's kind of raising your internal awareness, if you like, or noticing, noticing how how little you drink water by having a giant jug of water at the end of the day. So gosh, you know, that's hardly gone down at all. I'm not hydrating. So what can I do? Right. Tomorrow I'll make sure that I have at least one glass with my lunch or whatever. some people I think think that change is always big, scary moves. But like, you know, you've said it's often it's something quite small and manageable. And then people think I did that, maybe I can do a bit more. It's like anything, isn't it? You when you start running, I say that when you start running, I wouldn't know, I don't run, but you you run and you think, I did that.

maybe tomorrow I'll go a bit further or next week I'll do a little bit more or I'll run a bit faster and it's that for me motivation is something that grows with successful steps and it doesn't matter how small the steps are it's just that sense if I'm doing this I'll move on so what's your next book?

Rebecca Miller (32:18.507)

Yeah, yeah and I do. So we haven't chosen the next book yet so one that has been suggested is the Chimp Paradox but what I've said to people is put in your suggestions and then we'll do like a little poll as well so that the group can choose which one we're wanting to do.

Sarah Bolitho (32:52.45)

The chimp paradox is a really good one. think there's a workbook that goes with it as well, which is quite useful. It's again, you read the whole book, it's overwhelming. But actually when you read it and you say, right, okay, what's one thing I can notice about my chimp? Where's one area that I know my chimp's really active. So even that's not about dealing with it, it's just noticing, isn't it sometimes, but that's a really good, I mean, there are so many out there and there are so many.

Rebecca Miller (32:56.085)

Okay.

There are, I think that's the thing. It's just what we're trying to do is make sure that the things that I don't want to give people like a big encyclopaedia and go read that and then there's a test on it. It's just like something easy that you can shove in your bag and you can pick up anytime. yeah, but no, thank you for the suggestion because like I say, and it was out of my comfort zone. I just thought, can I do this? And how will it go? And I thought, what's the worst that happens? People go, we didn't really enjoy it. Well, do something different as well. So yeah.

Sarah Bolitho (33:45.314)

Yeah. And it's helping people, you know, again, it's helping people to raise awareness of their own kind of habits, their lifestyles and areas where they're doing well, potentially. You know, it's not just about we must change this, but it's also actually, do you know what, I'm doing okay in this area. I actually don't need to change that because I'm doing okay. But this is something I would like to do. And it, you know, it might be something big that they're aiming for, but breaking it down into small steps. Or it might be just tiny little tweaks and they just think, you know what, I just want five minutes a day where I just breathe or I just sit in the garden and do nothing. It's helping people to realize that change is possible. It doesn't have to be huge and overwhelming, but it also can be quite powerful in building up to sort of changes in your life. Isn't it?

Rebecca Miller (34:21.698)

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

Sarah Bolitho (34:43.168)

I mean, I have to admit it's a great idea and I'm thinking of starting it probably have to be online for me because I'm, you know, around and about so much. But I do think it is something that, you know, with the self help field, there is so much out there and it is overwhelming, but just helping people take those little steps and be able to discuss it with people and sometimes disagree with some of the advice that's in them.

Rebecca Miller (34:49.515)

Yeah, yeah.

That did happen as well, especially around the Who Moved My Cheese book. Yeah, but people did it in a respectful way as well. It wasn't like banging the desk and shouting, but we just said, look, you know, we are all different. We know that. it's, you know, being able to say, from my point of view, this is how I feel about something as well and having that respected. So,

Sarah Bolitho (35:26.4)

It's that sharing of opinions is so important as well, isn't it? change because it means that people feel heard. They don't feel pressured into I've read this book. This is what I must do. It's like actually that doesn't feel right to me. And it's that that is a huge part, isn't it? The personal development. We talk so much about professional development. I think sometimes we forget about personal development and but that's a big part of personal development is being able to say actually I that's not right for me. I'm not going to do it.

Rebecca Miller (35:29.057)

Yeah.

Sarah Bolitho (35:55.951)

This feels much better for me. And again, having different opinions opens up people's minds to the fact that people have different opinions and different ways of doing things. somebody might say something you think, oh, no, that wouldn't work for me. Or they might, you might go, oh, do you know what? That might actually work for me I’m going to give that a go and it's so important. I look forward to hearing about what happens there. One thing I do want to ask is Seahorse Fitness, how did that name come about? I know you live by the sea! 

Rebecca Miller (36:29.111)

So yeah, so living by the sea, you know, I'm literally like a stones throw away from the sea, which is lovely. But I used to dive a lot when I was younger and I never saw a seahorse and I used to always think, oh God, I wish I could see a seahorse. So the way that I guaranteed that I would see her seahorses, I have a seahorse tattoo. But the thing that I really like about seahorses, I mean...

They're only small, very strong, but they're very unique as well and quite powerful creatures and a little bit mythical as well. So for seahorse fitness, my strapliner is seahorse fitness be unique because we are all individual. So that's kind of where the name came from. And a really good friend actually gave me a dried seahorse that his grandfather had. And he said, I saw this and thought about you. And it's like, I've got it framed. And it just reminds me that you start with something little, but you can build on it as well. So yes, that's where the name came from and the logo as well. You'll see it on the website and on my Instagram page. I get a lot of comments from people who say, wow, I really like it. It's quite impactful as well. It's just very simple, but yeah, it seems to catch people's attention, which is great.

Sarah Bolitho (37:43.47)

Small can be powerful and the same with change, small can be powerful which is really important. how can people, if people want to find out more about what you do, particularly in the Dunbar area, how can they get in touch with you?

Rebecca Miller (37:45.174)

Yeah. So Instagram, I'm on Seahorse Fitness and also on Facebook as well. If you just Google put in Seahorse Fitness Dunbar, it'll come up with a link to my Facebook page. And then there's also a website on there as well. So yeah, but yeah, get in touch and particularly around like the book club side of things and the community side of things as well, because that's really where we're expanding.

Sarah Bolitho (38:20.574)

nice way for people who are new to the area to get to know some people as well. Brilliant. Rebecca, thank you so much for talking to me about this. As I say, it's something that I've kind of suggested to people over the years, but I think you're the first person, you're the first person that's come back to me to tell me they're actually doing it. And it sounds like it's a really important initiative, both for you, but also for the people around you. So well done on that.

Rebecca Miller (38:25.248)

Yeah, definitely.

Thank you.

Sarah Bolitho (38:47.384)

Maybe come back and talk to us a little bit more about how it's going on another session. But thank you very much. And to everybody out there, thank you for listening to Creating Active Lives with me, Sarah Belytha, and my guest this week, Rebecca Miller from Seahorse Fitness. Join me each episode for more on how to create safe, sustainable, and more importantly, enjoyable everyday activity. And remember, it doesn't have to be hard, fast, sweaty or whatever. Activity could be a gentle stretch or a little stroll in the park. Follow me online Fabnewlous Active Lives, the links will all be in the transcript and I will hopefully see you soon.