6 Weeks To Christmas, 7 Weeks To 2023 What Can You Achieve?
If you are putting off starting your health and fitness journey until New Year I want to encourage you to start now!
Why?
Changing habits takes time, a lot more time than most people think! So if you started now you will not only give yourself a head start but you will make January a lot less stressful as a result.
You can learn what types of exercise you enjoy doing, swimming, cycling, running, or even go for a trial session at a gym (when it's much quieter than January and less intimidating!)
You can start getting outside for regular walks, starting the day with 20 minutes of fresh air is very underrated. Then do another walk in the evening after work, see how much clarity it gives you. Listen to a podcast or music while you do it, you can entertain yourself and learn at the same time.
You can make a start on deciding what you would like to start improving in terms of your nutrition. You don't have to completely overhaul every thing you do but if you have chocolate/cake every day, cut down to every other day to start with.
You can start in increase the amount of fruit and vegetables you eat, start with one meal where you know you don't eat any and add some spinach to your savoury breakfast or add some fruit to breakfast, an easy way to increase your daily fibre.
Start to eat a bit more protein. Everyone will benefit from eating enough protein, not just body builders! It's an essential part of our diet, as well as repairing our muscles from exercise it plays a major role in many of our bodies functions.
Start to get a little more sleep (if you don't have great sleep already) just 15 minutes more and see how you feel and work up to 7-9 hours over time. Sleep impacts our lives in so many ways from mood to how much we eat to how we perform and our ability to remain focused.
Start to drink a large glass of water with every meal. It's a time when you are hopefully sitting down to eat anyway and an easy habit to form. You can then top up throughout the day with low calorie squash, tea, coffee and other liquids. Diet drinks are fine, in moderation, if you enjoy them but don't let them be the sole way you hydrate yourself, that I'm sure is obvious.
Work on stress reduction. Look, some stress in our lives isn't necessarily a bad thing but like everything else in life, when it spills over and you become overwhelmed, life can feel very difficult. Sit and write down what is worrying you or contributing to your stress and are there any easy wins to help reduce it. Stress often impacts sleep so finding ways to reduce stress, more often than not also improves sleep.
Make It Fun! Starting a new journey to a healthier you can actually be fun, if you let it and reframe how you think about health and fitness. Try to add in more things to your life to enhance it rather than the reductionist mindset to take everything out of your life. January is the month of over restriction of everything but it doesn't have to be like that.
Please note: you do not have to be super fit to start working with a Personal Trainer. I meet all my clients where they are, whether that's a beginner or someone who has been exercising for years.
You can 100% enjoy the process of getting healthier and fitter. You can still have meals out, you can go for drinks with friends, you can have a takeaway, whatever enjoyment you get from life currently can still be a part of your life but maybe a smaller part than it previously was.
Some of the changes you want to make will feel hard to do, in the early days and weeks. Working on them now means that by the time 2023 arrives you will have moved forward with some of the challenges and hopefully found ways to think differently and act differently.
In my experience the first 3 weeks are by far the toughest for people to build new habits around exercise and nutrition. It feels uncomfortable and it's perfectly normal to have a lot of self doubt, that's where having a coach to support you, can really help.
I'll be here to reassure you that you are doing all the right things and to keep you motivated and in a good positive mindset that you can do this!
I give you as much support as you need, even if that means messaging you daily to make sure you are okay. I know how important these days are and that's why I'll be right here to support you.
If you want to get started now and really see the positive impact of improved health and fitness in 2022 then please get in touch x
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