New Year, New Life(style)

It’s pretty much the same every January: the gyms swell up with eager new exercisers that have vowed yet again that they will stick to it further than January 15th, the streets are full of shivering runners, and the shops are overflowing with new revolutionary supplements, fat loss teas, coffees and other concoctions.

And by the time February rolls around and everyone is planning Valentine’s Day and buying boxes of chocolate…

But despite the best of intentions, has anything really been achieved during that first month of the year, that has been (arbitrarily) appointed as the time for good resolutions?

Probably not, and the aforementioned grand gestures of (short lived) commitment and other marketing schemes were probably not the way to get any real improvements in the first place…

Indeed, who we are, how we feel and what we look like cannot, unfortunately, be altered permanently with some quick fix or 30 day diet plan found in the most recent tabloid.

No matter how hard you want to believe it and how much certain companies want you to buy into it.

So let’s look at why these resolutions usually don’t last and how we could maybe take a different, more successful approach.

Take the “Lifestyle Questionnaire” to assess you lifestyle and see whether it is promoting your health or holding you back.

Good intentions are not enough:

Think of how much thought, effort and planning goes into building a house, starting a new project at work, or even simply booking your next holiday?

How many people have to be briefed, consulted, and coordinated for these more or less demanding endeavours to even have the chance of succeeding or at least unfold pleasantly?

Don’t get me wrong, the intention is essential, and it is actually more important than most people think; They might come up with a resolution because they think they ought to, but don’t realise how little intention they have and that they are not really truly ready to make any serious commitment. But once that intention has been (very) firmly established, a complete, well thought out strategy must be put into place. Family and maybe even friends have to be made aware, and asked for support. Priorities have to be set, and maybe external assistance and guidance has to be sought.

Doesn’t it make sense?

If we go back to the holiday analogy (quite a pleasant one, you must agree…), you never hesitated to use a travel agent, ask your friends for feedback about a place they visited, or asked to borrow their guidebook. You might have asked for your kids to help pack their suitcases etc… etc…

So why do we never make our health and wellbeing a well organised team effort? Wouldn’t it be more likely to succeed?

Feel free to reflect upon this before continuing to read as your reason(s) might slightly differ from what I am about to suggest, and therein lies the key to you being successful next time…

Most people do not make these resolutions public, or if they do, tend to make it a solo project for fear of failure, or rather the fear of someone else’s (everyone else’s) judgement. And they tend to not take it too seriously, or at least pretend to not take it too seriously as the judgment they fear the most in case of failure is their own…

And ironically enough, it’s the fear to fail that (most of the time) leads us to failure.
We simply get in our own way.

Prioritise, seek guidance and keep yourself accountable:

Even if we do take our resolution(s) seriously and go hell for leather as early as January first, quite often we tend to lack direction, prioritise the wrong things and lack accountability mechanisms.

Some of the most essential and powerful tools to a healthier and happier you, are probably not those you tend to think of at first. The reason these are not widely advertised is that they do not have a price tag attached, they tend to be free, easily accessible changes in lifestyle that you might overlook simply because you haven’t seen them on a giant billboard yet.

Finally, even with the right intention and information, when left to our own devices, we will always (or almost always) take the easy way out, and there is no shame in that. Everybody is the same and it comes down to our primal brain’s mission of saving energy and keeping us safe and comfortable.

Unfortunately, comfort does not elicit change, but encourages the status quo. In these instances, even friends are sometimes too kind and too close to keep us accountable.

This is where a fitness professional can help:

• Look at your very specific situation, not using any kind of cookie cutter approach.

• Direct you towards what you particularly lack the most or need to address first.

• Work with you to lay out a progressive and realistic plan, to, little by little, improve your lifestyle in order for it to work for you, to promote your health and wellbeing, rather than being the cause for health issues and/or dissatisfaction with one’s shape and fitness.

• Coach you through exercise sessions that are both safe and productive, with clear, short and long term goals, that gradually and consistently improve your fitness.

• Keep you accountable to the goals you’ve set and to keep the promise you made to yourself.

Throughout January, I offer a 50% discount on a block of four sessions, bringing the price down to £120 for four 55 minute sessions, instead of £240. 

This could be the perfect way to make 2020 your healthiest year yet. 

To enquire about this offer at the Welwyn Garden City studio please enquire below.

All services are provided by instructors on a self-employed basis.