The smart approach to “New Year New Me”…
Are you prone to the “New year new me” syndrome where you tend to completely overhaul your health and fitness routine?
Only to find you struggle to sustain it long term and inevitably fall off the wagon and don’t make lasting changes?
It can be hard to change multiple habits at once, so if you’re trying to ramp up your exercise routine, change your diet, cut out alcohol, start a new sport, start waking up at 5 am every morning etc, it can become VERY overwhelming before long.
If this sounds like you or you have done this before then maybe it’s time to try a different approach.
Below is a more strategic and LONGTERM approach that might work better for you.
As its LONGTERM changes, we all wish to make after all…
Make a list of 5-10 exercises and health habits that you wish to change/start/implement.
Prioritise them in order of importance.
Pick one or two (MAX) and focus on them ONLY for a month.
Then add in one or two more the next month and so on…..
This approach can be especially important if you have a lot of changes to make or start from a baseline position so as not to overwhelm yourself and lose motivation too soon!
Here’s a quick example of how this could look for someone who is starting from scratch and maybe hasn’t exercised properly in a few years and has a goal to lose weight:
January - Drink 2 litres of fresh water and start walking 10,000 steps EVERY DAY.
February - Start tracking food intake (using myfitnesspal or another app) and start eating daily caloric intake for your weight loss goal.
March - Start going to the gym minimum of twice per week.
If you want to build lifelong healthy exercise habits, then it is sometimes better to change your habits slowly but surely, rather than all at once and risk making no long-term changes!