Why?
I am so glad you asked.
This is what New Year's Resolutions (NYR) look like 90% of the time.
You have just spent three weeks drinking all the wine, eating all of the cookies, not moving your body and enjoying all of the delicacies over the holidays. So you decree on January 1st, "I will workout every day, I will drink no alcohol and only homemade nutrition meals."
Even if this is an exaggeration, does it sound about right? That is going from zero to 8,000 in one step and to be honest, dooms you to failure. Approximately 80 percent of people who make New Year's resolutions have dropped them by the second week of February, but the majority are done by January 19th. That is 10 days away from today.
People spend time, money and energy creating a huge plan that they throw out the window three weeks into the New Year, and then you are right back where you started. Seems like a waste of time. "Ok Jill, what can I do different? I want to be healthier in 2022." Take a step back and ask yourself 'WHY?' WHY do you want to be healthier? What does healthier look like for you in 2022? For every person reading this post, the answer is going to be different. My healthy gives me energy during the day, glowing skin, strong nails and hair, and strong muscles.
So, figure out your WHY. Why do you want to make whatever change you want to make? The reasons that my clients give vary across the board from aesthetic to health to overall wellness. One client is making changes to his nutrition so that he can be in his best health to take care of his family. One client had success on a popular diet and now wants to keep the weight off for good. So why do you want to be healthier in 2022?
Write down your WHY. Writing down your goal/reason/why makes it more tangible. It brings it to life. Writing it down helps you understand and figure out the HOW.
I will always be the first to tell you that it has taken you this many years to build up bad habits, so it will take time to unlearn them. So what is your WHY to being healthier in 2022?
Now break the goal down into smaller HABIT snacks.
James Clear has done a LOT of research on this topic and wrote an award winning book called 'Atomic Habits.' I recommend you read it if interested, but the nuts and bolts of habit creation boil down to 3 R's:
- Reminder
- Routine
- Reward
As an example, one of my goals in 2022 is to participate in more races (running and triathalon) and to be the strongest ME I need to work on single leg balance exercise. It will increase the strength in my feet, ankles and calves, all important parts of my running mechanics. So, I have started working on balance while I brush my teeth. Random, right? But I brush my teeth twice day. So my reminder is 'When I start to brush my teeth, I balance on one leg, when my tooth brush clicks after one minute, I switch legs.' I have knocked out two of the R's. Reminder and routine.
One of my clients needed to start drinking more water, so he downloaded an app that reminded him to drink water during the day. To add onto that, I encouraged him every time he sat down at his desk to drink a few sips of water. He gets up for a meeting, goes back to his desk, drinks water. At first he has to think about it, but overtime it becomes routine.
It is up to you to determine the reward. In my goal setting posts this week on Instagram I told a story about Jerry Seinfeld. He created a calendar and committed to writing jokes for 5 minutes for 100 days straight and marked those days off on a calendar. Maybe you do the same? Commit to drinking 50 oz of water for 30 days straight. Mark it off on the calendar. For every 7 days, you reward yourself with BLANK.
Reminder
Routine
Reward
I am letting everyone get settled into the New Year, but on February 1st I am starting a GROUP nutrition program. CREATING A HEALTHY FOUNDATION. As part of this group program, I will offer:
- Specific meal plans,
- Tips and creative ideas to getting dinner on the table at the end of the day
- Menu Planning Support
- Guidance on how to create new healthy habits
- Plus an internal support group where you can get tangible ideas from other people who want the same thing you want! I want to help you get motivated to start and stay motivated to finish!
SIGN UP TODAY! We start on February 1st.