Ever feel like your fitness/health journey is like an endless staircase? …Or perhaps, more accurately, like a roller coaster? It’s all over the place with lots of ups and downs and maybe some loop-de-loops? Do you find that coming up with and starting a New Year’s Resolution is relatively easy? …But keeping it is a whole different story?
If this has become a common theme for years for you, it doesn’t have to be anymore! Resolutions are easy to make. We can make them all day long. It’s coming up with an action plan, a realistic action plan and carrying it through that is the hard part. This is what separates the talkers from the doers and the wishes from the realities. As a personal trainer/group fitness instructor, I have seen many resolutions discussed, reviewed, started with enthusiasm only to be shoved to the wayside when the new wears off. Here is why September is the new January!
1) It’s Not Winter Yet – Don’t Start Hibernating!
Do you find that when cooler weather rolls around and the days get shorter, you tend to want to hole up inside, curled up on the couch with your favorite blanket and a warm cup of coffee…hot cocoa… (insert favorite beverage here)? For many of us, cold days and fewer hours of daylight causes a mood shift or the wintertime blues. But it doesn’t have to be the new norm for you…not this time.
Getting into some healthier routines now while the weather is warmer and it is staying lighter longer, will help set the tone for months down the road when you don’t want to get out. What I’m saying is that HABIT truly is what keeps us going when the motivation may have died, and it’s essential to establish some healthy habits that will be in place when the new wears off of your shiny new resolution.
Habits are those things you do almost without thinking, because they have become a part of your lifestyle. It takes a little time to establish a habit (some say 21 days). I tend to agree with this for the most part although it may vary some from person to person. Whatever it takes to kick in some true motivation now, do it! Work out with a friend. Set a short-term goal with a reward tied to the end when you reach the first goal. I always liked the idea of treating myself with a new shirt to workout in or a new pair of shoes. Buy a gym membership! Often a financial investment will get us there because we’ve made a sacrifice to our bank account!
The idea is to figure out what it takes to develop a sense of urgency for YOU. Each person is unique. I tell each of my clients that I prepare each workout just for them. I can’t plan their workout like I would the next person, because even if their goals are the same, what works for them may not work for someone else. You need to set some time aside to really look at what you truly plan to accomplish and find a way to get on it immediately before the winter weather sets a different tone for your day.
2) Big Goals Take Time
If you looked in the mirror this summer, and knew you weren’t quite where you hoped you’d be by swimsuit season, it is likely because you just ran out of time. If your goal is to drop 50 lbs by May, and you’re kicking things off in January, although it’s not impossible, it’s an aggressive goal. Life sure would be easier on you if you look at it as an endurance event and not a sprint.
If you tackle your summer body every year in January and then find that the progress just isn’t where you thought it would be come May, get busy now and establish some much-needed routine into your busy schedule. We all are blessed with 24 beautiful hours in each day, and time is precious, so use this time to write down your goals. Make them goals that you can measure instead of a vague “I want to lose some weight and feel better in three months”. Be specific about this and make sure it is an attainable goal. If needed, hire some professional help. A trainer can help you map out your goals and make sure they are not unrealistic for the timeframe you have in place. Get a dietician/nutrition expert involved. Exercise is awesome (obviously, I’m a HUGE fan), but your decisions in the kitchen can make or break all the hard work you’ve put in at the gym. Besides just the wealth of knowledge a professional can give you, it also provides you with accountability to help you stay on track toward your goals.
3) Go Into the Holidays Prepared
I’ve found that many people choose to start their new lifestyle after the holiday season “because I know I’ll just blow it anyway and I can save myself the guilt of failing”. Ouch. Start your food journal now. Write down everything that goes into your body. Yes, EVERYTHING. Although this is a huge pain, you really will begin to see what your bad habits really are, even if you think you already know. If you’re not a pen and paper kind of person, there are loads of apps out there to help you! Maybe your habits aren’t as bad as you think or maybe they are worse. But you need to know how to tackle your weaknesses and enhance your strengths. With this in plain sight, you can approach one area at a time to achieve small victories on the way. Maybe just start with cutting out one of the four sodas you’re currently drinking each day and replacing with water. Then, another, then another. Maybe it’s time to start working on some meal prep for your lunch, because you’ve noticed you’re grabbing a burger and fries on the go way too frequently. Maybe you need to start cutting out your pre-bedtime junk you dive into nightly. Little steps make all the difference on your way to the larger goal.
When the holidays do roll around, you can set some reasonable limits so you don’t feel deprived but so that you also don’t destroy everything you are working towards. Starting now will help you stay resilient through the holidays and you’ll come out of it feeling like a champ!
4) The Gym is a Zoo in January!
We’ve all been there. You kick off the new year with a weight loss goal, toning goal, muscle-building goal, etc. You lace up your new shoes and head to the gym first thing January 1st to find that A LOT of other people had the same idea. Now, you find that you’re waiting to get to equipment. Treadmills and ellipticals are full. You may be so frustrated that you just turn around and leave. Not the way you hoped to start your resolution.
Although the crowds, sadly, die down after merely a couple of weeks, it can still be a real problem especially with our busy schedules. You may not have an hour or two to spend at the gym, so you don’t have time to stand and wait around. However, in September the gym traffic is MUCH lower! If you are intimidated and overwhelmed when you step into the gym for the first time, this is your chance to have your pick of equipment and a time to test it out or better yet, ask for help if you need it! Don’t be afraid to ask! Learning to utilize the equipment properly that you have at your disposal will help you immensely in your journey to injury-free success!
5) Your Health Can’t Wait
It’s so easy to keep pushing it to the back burner, because change is, let’s be honest, hard. It’s not a walk in the park to make a lifestyle change that you plan to keep forever. However, you NEED this! Your family, your friends, they need you, and there is only one YOU. We all know, in the back of our minds, the right decisions to make and that we need daily exercise, to drink more water, cut out sugar, etc, and on and on and on. But, we tend to look at it irrationally and cave to our immediate cravings rather than the long-term results. Type 2 diabetes in the U.S. is at an all time high, and this often is PREVENTABLE and many times if caught early enough, it’s also REVERSIBLE. Choose to make a healthy change today and build on it, so it won’t seem quite as shocking when you flip your world upside down in January. Baby steps on the way to the larger plan help you to achieve little victories on the way, and that’s a BIG deal. Yay, you!
So, here as September is inching to a close, let me be the first to say “Happy New Year!” and “Here’s to YOUR health!”
Fit Simplified 