New Year Goal Setting
Try to set realistic goals that will lead you to achieve and feel good about yourself, rather than unattainable goals that lead you to feeling low about yourself mid January. Take stock of the previous year and change what is attainable.
Try A Fresh Approach:
Set Achievable Goals
Goal setting is great, I am a firm believer in knowing where you are going and what you want to achieve.
As you get older and perhaps a little wiser, you soon realise that realistic goals are better than unachievable goals.
Wishing you were a size 8 when you never have been and don’t intend to change your lifestyle to become a size 8, will set you up for disappointment.
Starting the gym….again, when you prefer your badminton, dog walks or pilates is another goal, that is going to set you up for disappointment.
Change
The way to change is to evaluate what made you not succeed the last time you set that goal. Have you ever been a size 8, what is your body shape, take into account your predisposition to a certain body shape. A very good friend of mine said ‘I want to look like the mother not my daughter’s sister’. That was a very good way of stating that she was embracing the changes that come with age, rather than wanting what she had when she was in her 20’s.
Be Kind To Yourself
It is OK not to like the gym, you don’t have to enclose yourself in a room to get exercise. Find what you love doing, walking, running, badminton, tennis, pilates or yoga. There are a huge amount of self-employed instructors that rent space in community centres and offer better rates and more flexible terms than gyms.
If the gym works for you that is a bonus, but don’t take on expensive contracts. This give you something else to get low about in March, when you don’t go often enough to justify the monthly payments.
Choose wisely and you will make exercise something you will want to do for 12 months of the year, not just January to perhaps March.
If you tread the same paths and expect a different result, as Einstein said, that is insanity. Know who you are and what you like doing and focus on doing more of that.
Free Ways to Exercise
Set up a walking group. If you have friend or colleague who have a similar schedule to you, make a day and time and walk together. Walking and chatting is a great way to keep fit.
For further details on the benefits of walking click here to read my blog piece on Walking.
Be Kind to Yourself
Make January a month that you are kind to yourself.
Start planning an exercise regime and eating plan that will set you up for a healthy year, not a boom or bust month.
Here’s wishing you all a wonderful start to 2017.
