New Year is a time for reflection, for new opportunities, new projects and a renewed sense of what's important to you. It all sounds very positive, but getting to that point often means overcoming the stress and pressure of Christmas, of dark winter and cold nights, and even then sometimes the New Year is just too overwhelming.
That's why Dr Eddie Murphy, the resident psychologist on Operation Transformation, is so passionate about the role food and exercise plays in minding our mental health, especially during the winter months.
Speaking to RTÉ Lifestyle at the launch of the show's 13th season, the psychologist explained that after 11 years of guiding 55 leaders towards their goals, many stories have stuck with him.
"Every year there are leaders who require additional psychological support, through bereavement, loss, depression, anxiety, panic attacks", he said.
"Every year a number of the leaders will always stay with me. The work I've done with them, their wonderful capacity to trust me, to be vulnerable and in that vulnerability there is strength."
Maintaining strength in vulnerability is easier said than done for many, of course, but one thing that can help is a balanced food and exercise plan to keep everything ticking on healthily. Getting out in the open and moving is one of the most effective ways of lifting the winter blues.
"We know that four sessions of 40 minutes a week of physical exercise is equivalent to antidepressant medication for mild to moderate depression, not severe depression.
"Movement is the best medicine. That's a really powerful message that we can give out."
And it doesn't have to be all lifting this and crunching that. He explains that with more people feeling overwhelmed by the daily struggle of balancing everything they need to do, doctors are looking to prescribe time outdoors, be that walks in the park or swimming in the sea.
With the addition of a couple on the show for the first time, Barry Rea and Andrea Christopher Rea, Eddie himself is facing something of an unknown!
"Like everything, there'll be the honeymoon phase at the start and then maybe the pressure will come on ... maybe there'll be a bit of work for the psychologist doing couple's therapy, you never know!"
Watch the video above for Eddie's tips on minding our mental health during winter!
