Here’s help to rescue that waning resolution
Fitness Solutions
It’s been more than six weeks since New Year’s Eve and the time that resolutions about health, fitness and nutrition were made for the year. For most people, resolutions are about changing an aspect of their life that they are unhappy with. Unfortunately many, if not most, will have lost their enthusiasm by now and given up on making those changes. One of the biggest reasons for this is a perceived lack of time.
The truth is people do have time if they learn to manage it better along with the rest of their lives. Millions of people with jobs and families exercise and eat right and they have the same 24 hours as the rest of us. Before trying to add more “stuff” to your day to become one of those people, make the rest of your life more efficient. You’ll be amazed at how much time you actually do have.
Here are three life skills that will give you the freedom to do more with your 24 hours and rescue your failed resolution.
1. Batching. Never answer a single email, pay one bill or run just one errand. Always batch together similar tasks. Doing this saves money, energy and, most importantly, time. Efficiency experts will tell you this skill alone can transform a hectic life. Do this with your nutrition and prepare more healthy food than you need (once or twice per week) to freeze and store and you will eat better with less time investment. 2. Multitasking. Get your workout by running to the bank to make a deposit, write a meal plan while your kids are swimming, steam some brown rice while you fold laundry or do a core workout while you watch TV. Figure out how to do more than one thing at a time to “find” more time. 3. Forget the “all or nothing” mentality. If you think it takes huge effort and time to get great results, you are wrong. Just 10 minutes of focused, efficient exercise is often enough to get you moving in a new direction (and always better than doing nothing). As you get stronger and “find” more time, you can expand on this and continue to improve.
Rather than trying to change your life all at once, I have found that it works to make small, less than perfect, changes on a weekly basis. In three months, you will have added 12 “things” to your life that will have an effect on your desired outcome. Do this 52 times and you can be an entirely new person in one year.
If you are in the habit of writing in a journal, write an answer to this question every week: “What can I do this week to move myself in the direction that I want to go in?”
Along the way, there is value in assessing whether you are making progress or whether you need to take a step back and make some changes. My favourite way to do this is to answer the question, “How will I know that it’s working and I am getting closer to my goal?”
Here are some actual responses I got to that question;
“I won’t have to shop in the plus-size section of the store.”
“I’ll look forward to playing with my kids after work.”
“I won’t snap at my partner so much.” “My back won’t hurt every morning.” “I won’t be winded when I take the stairs at work.”
“I won’t have headaches as often.”
“I will look forward to having my picture taken.”
Be very specific and think, in real world terms, of how you will know that this is working for you. If it isn’t, you haven’t failed; you just need to do some more planning. If you are not seeing positive results, something has to change. You either need a new goal, a different approach or some other way to evaluate progress.