It’s that time of the year again, the last few days before we move onto a new chapter which fills us with hope, a chance to achieve the rest of our ‘To Do’ list. Time to reflect on how we did, whether its a running score, weight loss or inches off our hips.
My advice is don’t get stuck on what you couldn’t get done. Instead celebrate all your wins from a simple adjustment like adding a bowl of fresh salad to your diet to bigger ones like cutting off artificially sweetened drinks for good. It could be something entirely different but the point will remain the same; stay positive and focus on what you would like to do next (notice how I didn’t say ‘can do’ because you can do anything should you decide to).
I will share my ‘2016 goal’ story to help put things in perspective.
Even though I never had weight struggles but I wasn’t into any physical activity. I couldn’t get myself to stick to a gym routine, always got bored too quickly. I had my first child in 2014, after which I learned how wrong I was for not building a stronger body. Child birth takes a lot of your strength away and if you are not careful can make you feel very weak, like I did.
People would constantly comment on my weight saying “You are thin you have nothing to worry about” but I wasn’t happy because I felt powerless. I would get dizzy if I had to run on my way to work and experienced a sense of numbness most of the time. After a few blood tests the doctor told me I was perfectly healthy, no deficiencies. She then suggested I try to grow my muscle mass and I thought OK I really need to start exercising.
I tried to do it on my own as my building has a decent gym. Watched every possible YouTube video you can think of and I went for it at the beginning of the year and it barely lasted 6 weeks. I got busy working on my Healthy Genie dream and taking care of my little one and dropped the workout.
6 months ago I was fed up. I realized that even though I probably knew what to do but what I needed was someone to push me to do it, to hold me accountable. I finally did what I should have done a while ago, I called a personal trainer. I still remember our first session; I was out of breath, dizzy and couldn’t tolerate half of the sit ups she was making me do. It felt horrible and I was exhausted but I made a commitment to her and I knew I had to see it through.
30 sessions later, I can’t describe how happy I am. I didn’t particularly achieve my target but it doesn’t matter. I am stronger, no more dizzy episodes, I can see and feel the improvement. My immunity has improved and most of all, my mood! I am happier and more relaxed and trust me running a business is a very stressful deal so the exercise really helps me vent in a very productive way.
I always told my clients this but now I will stress on it; baby steps are way better than a sudden change. It helps you maintain your progress and turn it to a life routine rather than a good phase. Going cold turkey can be very tricky because one day you will get busy and it will be difficult to stick to your intensive workout routine or strict dietary intake and then you might be disappointed and find that your body is losing shape again and fall into that vicious weight loss/gain cycle that I always strive to keep my clients out of.
The takeaway here is, you can write down your target for 2017 and I strongly encourage you to do so, but the most important thing is to find a way to keep up the motivation. In my case it was having someone to report to every week. This could be a friend, a family member, personal trainer or a nutritionist. The choice is yours as long as you don’t let it frustrate you and make sure to keep it realistic and fun. Yes fun!
Healthy Genie xx