MONDAY MOTIVATION - How to Make Your New Year’s Resolutions Stick: Statistics show that more than 50% of people who make resolutions will abandon their efforts by six months into the New Year and go on to repeat the same resolutions the following year. This makes this initial goal setting meaningless. If you set a resolution, it’s because you’re hoping for a positive change in your life so I’d like to share with you a few tips which I share with my nutrition clients to help make your habits, intentions and resolutions stick in 2015 (and beyond). A) Small Habits, Big Change - Healthy, wealthy and happy people have a pattern of rituals which they stick to daily, subconsciously and consciously which work for them to be healthy. Your health is a reflection of what you do on a consistent basis, not a one-off action, so identifying some tiny habits which you can adopt and do every day can transform all areas of your life. Before you know it, if you do all these healthy habits, you’ll look in the mirror at a healthy person. B) Don’t Rely on Willpower - Willpower and self-control are an exhaustible fuel that will only keep you going for so long. If you don’t manage to hit your goals and give up, it’s often not due to laziness, but exhaustion! Instead, if you want to create long lasting change, then automating your healthstyle as much as possible so you do these healthy actions on autopilot will make things so much easier for you! An example is brushing your teeth or making your bed. No thought is required to do either of these actions as they’re just part of what you do in the morning. The same can be the case for your health if you practice healthy actions often enough. C) Automate Your Health Style - Automating a repertoire of good habits means that even when life gets busy, these habits are an automatic part of your life. Having your food shop delivered at a certain time every week or getting your multi vitamins delivered to your home or work each month are classic examples, this is what I organize for my clients. Going to your favourite spinning or yoga class every week or prepping your packed lunch as you wait for your dinner to cook are others. If these foods are making their way into your kitchen easily, and fitness classes are being attended and enjoyed then you’re going to feel great! D) Having a Crystal Clear Direction - If you have a goal and want to go somewhere, you need to know when, where and how you’re going to get there with a timeframe attached so you really map your journey out. To give you an example, if you want to start a training regime, you need to know the gym timetable, spot the classes you want to go to that fit in with your work/ studying routine and put them in your diary so you know that you’re going to the gym on ‘X’ day after you’ve done ‘X’. Commit to doing this every week and your fitness will without a doubt get better, as will your shape and confidence. E) Start with Breakfast - If you have an amazingly great breakfast in the morning, then it’s one down, two to go. You’re already 30% of the way there and it’s the easiest meal to prep if you’re on the smoothie bandwagon or have a well stocked fridge. You’re in total control of your food choices when you’re at home and it really sets you up for an amazing morning. F) Find Your Why - Give yourself a feeling and a passion behind why you’re doing what you’re doing. Why do you want to achieve these goals? What’s your motivation? If you can find something outside of yourself to get you motivated then this can be really powerful e.g. for your kids or a friend or to support your mum. G) Remove Any Barriers - Tweaking your surroundings can make habit forming even easier. Packing your gym kit the night before removes the possibility of not being able to find your trainers or a clean pair of socks! Cooking in a nice kitchen makes cooking so much more enjoyable, maybe that involves buying yourself a new set of pans or having a kitchen cupboard and draw clear out and tidy. H) Look at Where You’re Already Succeeding - Rather than focusing on what you’re not currently doing and cutting loads of foods and bad habits out of your life, focusing on what you’re already doing and successfully succeeding at and compounding those positive steps will make your journey so much more enjoyable. An example of this, if you’re really good at preparing a home cooked meal in the evening then making double quantities will provide you with a lunch the following day. You’re already making the dinner so just cooking a bigger batch will mean you have two home cooked meals a day rather than just the one. The small positive additions really add up and eventually crowd out the bad habits. I) Celebrate the Small Wins - Appreciating and celebrating the salad you made at lunch or the breakfast you ate this morning or the fact that you remembered to take your multi vitamin and fish oil everyday this week are small wins which add up to form large gains! You can celebrate with a well deserved bath or a trip to the movies or whatever else it is you like to do for fun! Small victories result in big changes, which is what we want. #mondaymotivation jessipes.co.uk/how-to-make-your-new-years-resolutions-stick/
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 07:00:00 +0000
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