Examples:
– The goal is not to lose 10kgs. The goal is to be someone who chooses good portions of whole foods 80% of the time.
– The goal is not to gain muscle. The goal is to be someone who consistently follows a muscle gain program and optimises their nutrition and sleep to support their gains.
– The goal is not to learn Spanish. The goal is to set a time to practice language skills regularly.
Enjoy the process and find ways to incorporate healthy choices into your lifestyle
This is done by finding the kind of exercise you enjoy and ways to enjoy the exercises that are good for you. Find yourself a gym buddy, a solid coach, a good group training studio or social sports team.
Eating healthier can feel daunting at first but it starts with bringing awareness to how you are already feeding yourself. Taking a couple minutes a day to food diary what you are eating, how often and through what kind of window e.g 11am-7pm or 7am-10pm. Become your own detective so you can be equipped to make the changes that feel the easiest and will offer the most “bang for buck.” Once you have built that awareness of where you may be willing to action change, take some next steps, it helps to get your partner, friends or family involved. Go explore some fresh farmers markets, learn about where the food you are eating has come from. Google some local food delivery services that are health conscious if time is an issue for you. Getting lost in some fit-foodie youtube channels can be a rainy day well spent.
Sleep is the most significant aspect of your health to improve which will transcend to all other aspects of energy, appetite regulation etc. Get yourself a cozy bedtime routine you look forward to more than you do the next episode on Netflix. Turn off the devices, enjoy a hot shower, exchange massages with your partner. Winding down and having a transition to sleep is critical for effective, good quality rest.
Make the practices enjoyable so you are more likely to do them, make them habits you can stick to.
If you don’t enjoy these practices you will be up against an often overwhelming tide of finding excuses not to do them. It is far more sustainable to invest a bit more time into starting off small and building from there. If you know a habit that needs to go replace it with something that will offer that same dopamine hit you are accustomed to. There is no need to shock you system only to fall off the wagon and have to start again months from now.
Take Away Thoughts
Fitness challenges etc are awesome for kickstarting you and equipping you with skills and knowledge. What do you do though, when you’ve finished up that 6 week challenge and shaved off that 5% of body fat? Don’t fall into that huge statistic of people who gain it all back.
Establishing habits and focusing on the journey rather than the destination is the trick to keeping your results sustainable, to thriving through your long game.