How to stick to RESOLUTIONS

Our fitness guru, Annie Deadman, on surviving the February slump

It’s the beginning of February, traditionally a time when New Year’s resolutions become a bit… sort of… fuzzy around the edges. You can’t actually remember why you started them, but you seem to have spent the whole of January in a permanent state of holier-thanthou-ness. A day isn’t a good one unless you’ve stopped, given up or abstained from something, never mind the exhausting pledging, promising and overcommitting. So girls, change is not just for January, it’s for YOU. Now that January is done with, let’s see how we progress from here.

The first thing is to allow yourself some downtime. Let’s take food, for example. To make changes to your shape, health and fitness, we need to make changes to our energy intake. If you want to lose fat, you need to be in a calorie deficit (that means eating less, and better, than you were before, so that your body makes up the shortfall from fat stores).

January may have been doable, given no one goes out, everyone’s broke, and the leftovers went to the food bank.

But come February, you’re done with denial. Good! Looking after our health is something we must build into everyday life all the time, not wait until there are ‘four clear weeks without any socials’ and put our life on hold. It’s impossible and unrealistic. We all need a respite, and a break from protein and push-ups doesn’t mean you’ve messed up, just that you’re remotivating yourself. Because as sure as January is full of denial, then February holds the threat of defeat.

Well, we’re going to nip that in the bud. Pick up your January goal, brush it off, decide if it needs changing and then make a plan based on 80/20. It doesn’t mean you’re only committed 80% of the time, it means you’re 100% committed to doing this 80% of the time – if you get my drift. Therefore, the other 20% is your downtime and that 20% will be your dangling carrot, your motivation.

So, for example, if at new year you joined a gym and went all out and did four sessions a week, but are now bored, change that to a twice-a-week plan of strength training (one upper body, one lower), then get out of the gym and spend the other two sessions doing something that isn’t tough or too challenging, such as walking or cycling. Boredom conquered, mojo returns!

Likewise with food, try sticking to four or five days a week nailing a good routine of lots of vegetables, protein,

‘A break from pushups doesn’t mean you’ve messed up’

minimum sugar and minimum booze, and then you relax for the remaining two to three days.

That doesn’t mean you should run amok with the Quality Street, just loosen the noose a little. Enjoy the downtime and view it as part of your strategy, not as an accident or a hurdle you’ve stumbled over, but something you meant to do. Then start again the following week. Progress may be slightly slower, but you are far more likely to remain committed and consistent for longer.

Patting yourself on the back is essential for keeping focused on the goal you have set yourself. I remember when the publishers of my book arranged the photography shoot. Can you imagine how frightening the prospect is of having your lumps and bumps squashed into Lycra and printed forever on the pages of a book for all to see? I don’t think I’ve ever had such a rigid workout plan, but that plan involved one day a week where I drank gin and ate crisps. Sanity and enjoyment mean so much and we have lives worth living, so let’s live them.

✢ Annie is a fitness coach and author of The 21 Day Blast Plan (HarperCollins). Her fat-loss programme (theblastplan.com) helps women gain confidence and shed inches. Check out the website and Instagram (@anniedeadman) for Blast Plans along with deals and discounts.