21 Dec 2016

5 Easy to Keep Health and Fitness Goals

Health and Wellbeing Advice

Christmas is done – no more chocolate runs, wine appetisers or cheese platters.

Before you make extreme promises and talk yourself into getting fit and staying ripped at any cost, slow down.

Over-committing or setting the bar too high, too early, is a sure fire way of falling flat before January ’17 gets underway. Be kind to yourself, start slow and stick with these five easy 2017 health and fitness resolutions – you’ll want to keep them, we promise.

1. Take a walk

When was the last time you walked to the shops, to the park or took an afternoon stroll around the block? We have a challenge for you, walk more.

Walking is easy to integrate into your day, no matter where you are. Every hour, get up and do a lap of the office or workplace; turn the dreaded staircase into a lunchtime workout; get off the bus a stop earlier or just walk 10 minutes to get that loaf of bread from the grocery store.

2. Be true to yourself

Your 2017 fitness resolutions should be achievable – you shouldn’t drag yourself out the door, feet dragging to the treadmill to run a determined amount of kilometres. If you’d rather book in for a dentist appointment than run, don’t run. Resolutions shouldn’t be restrictive.

Do something that puts a spring in your step. Learn to skip again, go to a trampoline park and bounce around twice a week. There are so many ways to be fit and healthy.

3. Ditch the negativity

We all do it. Putting yourself down or agonising over your flaws won’t make you feel better. Instead of perpetuating the same vicious cycle, write down your negative self-talk, read it, dismiss it and throw it away. You’re not re-making yourself, you’re re-shaping a body that is already packed with potential – your body is a complex organic machine. Instead of knocking it, love it and work harder.

4. Dry July - and every day ending with Y

There’s more to health and fitness than what you get up to in the gym. Liquid calories can be your undoing – soft drinks, juices, alcoholic drinks – so swap out your mid-morning diet cola with water or herbal tea. Keep a bottle of water on your desk. If you’re thirsty, take a sip. Get some air. Do some stretches. Just don’t give in.

As for those Friday night drinks… don’t wait until a month rhymes with ‘dry’ to let go of your post-work drink habit; it rarely turns out to be just one. After four cocktails, you’ve consumed your caloric intake for the day.

5. Keep a calendar

Would you ever consider skipping out on a morning meeting? What about an afternoon client pitch? We didn’t think so. Treating your workout as simply a possibility automatically relegates it into the “not today” category – you’re too tired, too busy, too sore, too something – you can reschedule, right? Only you don’t.

If becoming fit and healthy is a promise you need to keep this year, you need to make time for yourself, and the best way to do that is to conduct workouts, meal prep and get out and act like a meeting – if it’s locked in, it’s locked in. No excuses.