Jonathan offers top tips to stay on track
Ayrshire personal trainer Jonathan Lucas shares his top fit tips with Life readers every month.
A very happy and healthy new year to you all, he writes. How have you found 2017 so far? Managing to stick to those resolutions or have you found they are now nothing more than a distant memory? Well you’re not alone. Studies published in various psychological journals suggest that over half of the population will make new years resolutions and by December, almost 88 oer cent of these find themselves even further behind than when they started.
New Year’s resolutions are popular as they offer a sort of clean slate, a time to start a new way of eating, to exercise more, to stop smoking. So why do so many resolutions fail? Resolutions require will power, and if we had such will power in the first place many of us would not have to make resolutions to change our lifestyle habits!
The key is to make any goal a habit first.
And most importantly, make it a tiny one.
Here is a list of examples of how this translates to some of the four most common New Year’s resolutions:
Resolution: Eat healthy food vs. Habit: Start substituting that 1 daily morning pastry for a banana or if you skip breakfast all together try to incorporate something small such as a yogurt to start your day.
Resolution: Lose weight vs. Habit: Every evening after work, go for a walk around the block. Or plan to park further away from work or get off of the bus one stop early.
Resolution: Quit smoking vs. Habit: Stop smoking that 1 cigarette you have every morning after breakfast and seek support form your GP surgery or pharmacy.
By breaking down each large goal into small individual, manageable steps the goal becomes less overwhelming and you are much more likely to stick to your goal.
So, how about making some news year’s intentions, rather than resolutions. Small changes you intend to do, rather than resolve not to do, the following are some tips that may help as you begin to meet the January struggle to keep to your promise to yourself and help you on your way to a healthier, happier 2017.
Focus on one resolution, rather several; you have to be realistic, losing 3 stone, running a marathon and stopping smoking all at once is commendable but highly unachievable for many.
Too much pressure on yourself can have the opposite effect and lead to failure.
Set realistic, specific goals. Losing weight is not a specific goal. Losing 14 pounds in 90 days would be; Attending 2 exercise classes per week would be.
Take small steps. Many people quit because the goal is too big requiring too big a step all at once;
Have an accountability buddy, someone close to you that you have to report to; Working out at a class or with a personal trainer is a good example of this.
Celebrate your success between milestones. Don’t wait the goal to be finally completed;
Focus on the present. What’s the one thing you can do today, right now, towards your goal?
New year exercise tip: New to exercise? Get up out of your chair and start walking. Part of what makes walking so beneficial is that when you’re walking you can’t be sitting.
Sitting for more than eight hours a day is associated with a 90 percent increased risk of Type 2 Diabetes, along with increased risks of heart disease, cancer, and mortality.
Build walking in to your day by using public transport, walking after dinner or going out on your lunch break.
Building up your basic exercise tolerance this way will allow you to gradually incorporate more challenging exercise and strength work into your routine as the year progresses.
The key to any goal is habit first ... and most importantly, make it a tiny one Johnathan Lucas