I’ve been running the Feel Good Clubs for a year now and I absolutely love them. Every month, I see glimpses of people making positive changes, adopting new habits and generally feeling a bit healthier, physically, mentally and emotionally.
What I’m often surprised about, though, is why more people don’t join us.
The Feel Good Clubs are deliberately simple. There isn’t a strict diet to follow, an intense exercise programme or a long list of things you have to do every day. Instead, members receive a simple prompt via WhatsApp each morning, with ideas and encouragement to help them look after themselves a little better.
It’s about small, realistic changes rather than trying to completely overhaul your lifestyle.
So, when I talk to people about the clubs and they decide not to join, I started asking myself why. What is it that is stopping people from giving it a go?
I’ve heard a few common answers, and actually, I think they’re really interesting because they say quite a lot about how we approach our health and wellbeing, particularly when life is already busy.
So, here are some of the most common reasons I’ve heard, along with my honest responses.
1. “I’ll feel like I’ve failed if I don’t do all of the prompts.”
This is probably one of the answers that makes me smile because it is absolutely not what the Feel Good Club is about!
The prompts are there to give you ideas and encourage you to think about your health, not to give you another list of things you have to complete.
If you do every single prompt, fantastic. If you only do a few that really resonate with you, that’s fantastic too.
In fact, if there are 30 prompts in a month and you act on 15 of them, that’s 15 little opportunities to do something positive that perhaps you wouldn’t have done otherwise.
I think we’re often guilty of approaching our health with an all-or-nothing attitude. We decide we’re going to eat perfectly, exercise regularly, drink more water, get eight hours of sleep and suddenly become a completely different person overnight.
Then real life happens.
You miss a workout, have a takeaway, stay up too late or simply forget to do the thing you intended to do. Before you know it, you feel like you’ve failed and decide there’s no point carrying on.
That’s exactly what I don’t want the Feel Good Clubs to create.
You haven’t failed because you didn’t complete a prompt. You’ve simply chosen what works for you that day.
And actually, learning that you don’t have to do everything perfectly is a pretty healthy habit in itself.
2. “I’d rather do something in person.”
I completely understand this one. Some people love face-to-face groups and get much more from having someone there in front of them. If that’s what motivates you, then an online WhatsApp group might not be the right thing for you.
But there are also some real advantages to doing it this way.
You don’t have to travel anywhere, you don’t have to be available at a particular time and you can take part from wherever you happen to be.
You can engage as much or as little as you want, and you don’t have to stand up in front of a group and tell everyone what you’re doing.
You could simply read the morning prompt, think, “That’s something I could try today,” and get on with your day.
For some people, I think that makes it much easier to fit a little bit of self-care into a busy life.
And there’s no reason why an online group has to feel impersonal. Over time, you start recognising the names of other members, seeing their responses and realising that you’re not the only person trying to make healthier choices.
3. “I don’t feel brave enough to engage in groups like this.”
This one really got me thinking because my response is: you don’t actually need to be brave.
You don’t have to introduce yourself with a big message, share your weight, post photographs or tell everyone what you’ve eaten.
You can join the group, read the messages and take from it whatever you find useful.
If you want to join in with the conversation, brilliant. If you don’t, that’s absolutely fine too.
And if you’ve had a rubbish day and haven’t done anything you intended to do, you don’t need to feel like you’ve let anyone down.
The whole point is to provide support and encouragement, not another place where you feel judged.
I think that’s particularly important when we’re talking about health and wellbeing. There can already be so much pressure around what we should be doing that the last thing we need is another place where we feel we’re not good enough.
4. “I haven’t got time.”
This is probably one of the most understandable reasons. We’re all busy, and sometimes looking after ourselves feels like something else that needs to be added to an already overflowing to-do list.
But the Feel Good Club isn’t asking you to find an extra hour in your day.
The prompts are deliberately small and manageable. It might be going for a short walk, drinking a little more water, thinking about what you’re eating, getting outside for some fresh air, taking a few minutes to switch off or simply being more mindful about a habit you’ve been trying to change.
Those things don’t have to take long.
And I think we sometimes underestimate the difference small actions can make when we do them consistently.
If you can find ten minutes for a walk today, that’s ten minutes more movement than you would have had otherwise. If you swap one evening of scrolling for reading a few pages of a book, that’s a small change to your evening routine.
You don’t have to completely change your lifestyle overnight. You can start by doing one thing a little differently.
5. “I’m already quite healthy.”
That’s great! And actually, I don’t think you need to be struggling with your health to benefit from a Feel Good Club.
There are plenty of people who already exercise, eat reasonably well and generally look after themselves, but perhaps they’ve got out of the habit of doing certain things or could just do with a bit more consistency.
Maybe you want to walk more, improve your sleep, eat a little more mindfully or simply make yourself more of a priority.
This is particularly relevant as we get older. Life changes, our priorities change and what worked for us in our twenties or thirties doesn’t necessarily work forever.
Sometimes we’re not looking for a complete transformation. We just need a little reminder to keep doing the things that make us feel good.
6. “I’ll join when I’m feeling more motivated.”
I think we’re all waiting for that magical moment when we suddenly wake up feeling incredibly enthusiastic about exercising, eating well, going to bed early and drinking more water!
Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite work like that.
Motivation comes and goes, and if we wait until we feel motivated before taking action, we can end up waiting for a very long time.
More often, the action comes first and the motivation follows.
You go for the walk even though you don’t really feel like it, and afterwards you’re glad you did. You make the healthier lunch rather than grabbing the easiest option, and you feel better for it. You get your exercise done and realise afterwards that it wasn’t nearly as difficult as you imagined.
Sometimes we don’t need more motivation. We just need a little encouragement and someone to remind us that the small things we’re doing are worthwhile.
That’s one of the reasons accountability can be so helpful when you’re trying to build healthy habits.
7. “I’ve tried things like this before and they haven’t worked.”
I completely understand this one too.
There are so many health and fitness programmes out there that promise amazing results if you follow a particular plan, cut out certain foods or exercise intensely for a few weeks.
They can work for some people, but often the difficult bit comes afterwards, when the programme finishes and you’re left trying to maintain everything you’ve changed.
That’s not what I’m trying to create with the Feel Good Clubs.
I’m much more interested in helping people find small habits that fit into their actual lives.
Because life is going to happen.
You’ll have busy weeks, holidays, stressful days, meals out, celebrations and times when exercise simply isn’t a priority.
That doesn’t mean you’ve failed. It just means you’re human!
The aim is to develop habits that you can return to, rather than constantly feeling as though you’re starting again.
So perhaps the real issue isn’t motivation…
After running the Feel Good Clubs for a year, I think I’ve realised that most people actually know what they should be doing.
We know we should move more. We know we could probably eat a few more vegetables. We know sleep is important and that spending half the evening scrolling isn’t necessarily helping. We know drinking more water would probably be a good idea.
Knowing isn’t usually the problem.
It’s remembering, prioritising it and actually doing it when life gets busy.
And that’s where I think a little support can make such a difference.
Sometimes you just need someone to give you an idea. Sometimes you need a gentle reminder. Sometimes it’s helpful to know that other people are also trying to make positive changes, and sometimes you simply need permission to do things imperfectly.
That’s what I love about the Feel Good Clubs. I get to see those little changes happening every month, and they might not always look dramatic from the outside, but they can make a real difference to how someone feels.
You don’t need to change everything
If there’s one thing I’d love people to take away from the Feel Good Clubs, it’s that you don’t need to change everything to start feeling better.
You don’t need a strict diet. You don’t need to exercise every day. You don’t need to give up everything you enjoy, and you certainly don’t need to be perfect.
You can start with one small change and see how it feels.
Maybe it’s going for a walk instead of sitting on the sofa. Maybe it’s planning tomorrow’s meals rather than deciding when you’re already hungry. Maybe it’s getting to bed a little earlier or putting your phone down for 15 minutes.
None of these things are particularly revolutionary, but that’s the point.
Healthy living doesn’t have to be complicated.
The things that make the biggest difference over time are often the small habits we can repeat consistently.
Could a Feel Good Club be right for you?
If you’ve been thinking about joining a Feel Good Club but one of the reasons above has been holding you back, perhaps ask yourself a slightly different question.
Instead of asking, “Can I commit to doing everything?”, ask yourself, “Would I benefit from a little support?”
You don’t have to complete every prompt. You don’t have to be the most active person in the group. You don’t have to tell everyone what you’re doing, and you certainly don’t have to get everything right.
You can simply take one small idea and see if it makes a difference.
Because ultimately, that’s what healthy living is about for me. It’s not about being perfect or completely changing your life. It’s about making small choices, building better habits and finding ways to look after yourself that are realistic enough to fit into your everyday life.
And sometimes, having a little encouragement along the way makes that just a bit easier.
If you’ve been looking for some simple, realistic support to help you feel a little healthier, a little more motivated and a little more accountable, perhaps it’s time to give a Feel Good Club a try. Drop me a message to find out more.