As we wind towards a new year many people have started thinking about new year’s resolutions.
gotta lose weight, gotta get to the gym more, gotta do more, gotta be more
The words will echo with some people for more than a few weeks, but for many of us the new ‘diet’ starts, it goes OK for a week, two, maybe 6 or so and then…life. Life gets in the way and for one reason or another things just don’t stick.
Eating healthier and getting more exercise is actually a LOT of things to get to fire on all cylinders and many people don’t give themselves enough credit for how many steps it actually IS to pull it all together.
For me, this has been my experience previously:
Find gym, find workout clothes, get ‘right’ shoes that are for fitness, join a class, try not to hate class, keep going to class, eat less crap, eat more good stuff, oh don’t eat this, but I want to eat this, trying eating more of this, this is off limits, that is off limits, eat weird stuff that doesn’t really taste good but it’s “supposed” to be good for me, but I just want a bit of THAT but ICANTHAVETHAT, resentment, desire, EATALLTHINGS…forget this diet.
This is a lot of pressure. This is a lot. Sometimes we need to stop and give ourselves some credit that what we are trying to do is instill a hundred changes and maybe take a step back and say: hmmmm…this is too much. What if I just decided to commit to exercising 3 days a week, walking more and not drinking any calories for this month? Next month I will see how that is working, up my exercise to 4 days a week and work on eating more veggies.
The reality is changing our behaviors takes time. Trying to change too many behaviors at once can be too much for many people, myself included. So for this week find one thing to work on and make a big calendar and check it off every day and put it some place bold. You don’t even have to wait for January 1st to start!
This week my habits I will work on: drink more water and prepare my food for lunch every day. These are habits that are pretty good already, but still could use some refining.
Keep your healthy habits simple and sustainable because every small change that you make, when you look back a year from now…it will make a difference. You might think won’t, but small changes do matter. Over-eating by 100 calories/day, every day will cause a 10lb gain in a year. Put yourself in a 100 calorie deficit (this would be like cutting back on a soda or a flavored coffee each day) and you could lose 10lbs in a year. Sure that doesn’t sound like the SUPER FAST option that we would all like, but imagine a year from now being 10lb lighter just by a small mindless change like drinking less calories? I’d much rather that that the opposite! There are mindless calories in our diets. Find those hidden ‘extras’ and see if you can find a healthier option. Maybe tomorrow try drinking water instead of a coke or green tea instead of a double favored coffee whatsit. Things of the long term changes and look for the mindless ways to take calories out of your diet. A great reference in how to reduce your calorie intake in a more mindless way is Mindless Eating.
And if you are still struggling to find easier ways to make change, contact me. I’ll be starting a new program in January that is focused on how to create healthy habits that are sustainable…one habit at a time.
[contact_bank form_id=1 show_title=true show_desc=false]
