I’m human – I fail. I don’t live a perfect life. In fact, far from it. I tend to say “I’m perfectly imperfect”.
By that, I mean I don’t always eat the best nutritious foods every single day, or go and do cardio every day or lift really heavy weights. Sometimes I drink too much (didn’t realise how cheap Cava is in Spain) and I mess up on many other things, not just my health and fitness
I can blob out, particularly when it comes to stressful times or holiday seasons. I know this about myself. When I’m stressed I don’t always take best care of myself and want to eat loads of chocolate and drink and not bother to go to the gym. I want to stick my head in the sand and hope it goes away and gets better.
But the reality is, only I can make the changes and deal with things to make it better.
I was talking to my coach the other day about how there’s always something else going on in my life (ladies, I’m sure you know what I mean). Seriously, I finish one major project or thing, and something else just comes along to derail me.
As most of you follow me know, I’ve had the most challenging of times moving to Spain and everything that goes with that. It will settle down now but in a few months, something else will inevitably come up.
So what am I going to do this January to set myself up for success not just in January but throughout the year?
With my health and fitness…
The very first thing for me is creating routine. Mine has gone out the window completely – I am literally going to get back into the routine of setting my alarm for the same time every day and stick to it – not turn it off and roll back over.
If I start the day right, I’m more likely to follow through. With that I am going to start my morning cardio again. My husband has found my exercise bike, and unearthed it from beneath a pile of boxes. I love my 30 minutes of fasted HIIT most mornings. It sets me up right for the day.
Now if I can nail these 2 things everything else starts to fall into place. If I’ve done my cardio, I’ll eat a healthy breakfast. If I eat a healthy breakfast that fuels me well, I go to the gym and have more energy and smash a workout. It then keeps ticking on through the day.
I start to feel better, more energised and more able to tackle the challenges that may come up. It really doesn’t help to fall to pieces and eat rubbish food and drink cheap Cava (although it feels comforting at the time!).
Now you see, I was a little tongue in cheek about a detox above. Detox blah blah!!! I really don’t believe in them – they’re marketing hype. The best detox you can do, is cut out some of the crap you’ve been eating and drinking, start moving more and fuel your body well. Add in a liberal dollop of good old H20 and it’s a winning formula. And that readers is what I’m going to do.
With my personal life…
Back to my original point about how I can cope with the challenges that are thrown at me. Well, I’m starting by working on me. Making myself stronger and fitter. As with the work I do with my clients, I’m going to start breaking things down, setting myself 2-3 things to do each week to get through all that I need to achieve and has been building up around me.
Before I do that, I’m going to make a big, long list of everything that needs doing and prioritise it – important and urgent matrix.
Whilst this won’t work for those things that come along unexpectedly, it will make me feel more in able to control the things that I can and if I know that there are non urgent/important tasks they can go to the back of the queue.
I was after all a project manager by trade for many many years – I love a plan! And January is now here and time for me to get planning about what I need to do alongside getting back into a routine with my health and fitness.
Now these aren’t new year resolutions – more “get a grip you’ve been all over the place for the last couple of months” goals!
The key to all this is breaking it down into small bite size chunks. Don’t overwhelm yourself with too much. Know what there is that needs doing and break it down.
With my business …
This year my “Project You” 12 transformation programme will be very important. I want to work with more wonderful and inspiring clients as I have in 2017.
Take Maddy – in 12 weeks she lost 16 lbs and is down 3 dress sizes
Take Karen – in 12 weeks she lost 11lbs and is down a dress size
Take Pam – in 12 weeks she lost 16lbs and 23 inches
Take Victor – in 6 weeks he lost 12 ½ lbs
Take Amanda – she lost 18lbs and was a very happy bride….
These are just a few of the people I’ve helped in2017, become better versions of themselves, still working at it, smashing through their goals.
Project You will be stepping up a gear in 2018, but more of this in due course……
Amazing people, smashing their goals and inspiring me to do better
How about you? What are your health and fitness goals? One piece of free advice, please don’t jump on the latest bandwagon for a quick fix this January. Do slimming pills, detoxes and potions work? Simply, no they don’t. Do something different. First think about your big picture and then break it down. Set smaller goals that are more attainable and can help you build towards that end point.
And if you’d really like to try something different, reach out and ask me about Project You and what it could do for you.
Once again, I wish you all the best for 2018 wherever you are and whatever you’re doing. Do let me know what you’re going to be working on this year – be it health, weight loss, fitness or whether you’ve got a big project, like a house move! I’m always curious to hear what’s going on for you.