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Thanksgiving is officially behind us. December is here (what?!)
I’m sure many of you are in hibernation mode. It’s cold, gets dark early and you just ate half your body weight in mashed potatoes.
Healthy eating and exercise feel like a “next year” problem.
But even if you’re like me and don’t think New Year’s resolutions are all they’re hyped up to be, taking some time now to set some health goals for next year is really beneficial.
Resolutions set you up to fail. (But you already knew that.)
You don’t need a resolution, you need a plan.
Setting small, measurable goals and attaching specific steps to get you there is how you make a successful plan.
I’m sure you’ve got big, ambitious results you want to see.
You want to lose 30 pounds. You want to lower your blood pressure by 15 points. You want to finally drop your A1c below 5.7.
Or maybe you want to be able to run your first Spartan race or travel to Europe or take your partner out dancing.
Each of these BIG results can be broken up into smaller goals.
Then, apply small, incremental changes that get you to those smaller goals.
For example:
You want to lose 30 pounds. To get to this result, you set a couple of achievable goals:
Set and stick to a consistent eating / fasting window
Include more protein and fiber in your diet
Start exercising 3-5 times a week
Great. But what does that actually look like in practice? How do you actually do the thing consistently? Here’s how:
Set your eating window from 9am to 6pm each day. Write this on your calendar and set a daily alarm on your phone.
Add 2-3 eggs and some roasted sweet potato to your breakfast each day. If you don’t have time to cook in the morning, roast the sweet potato and hard boil a dozen eggs on Sunday evening.
Start doing the activity you enjoy doing. Start walking or jogging. Find a yoga teacher on YouTube. Don’t join an F45 gym just because you heard it is a great workout. Find a time of day that works for you consistently, and put it on your calendar and set a daily alarm on your phone so you don’t forget.
You might be thinking that this sounds like it is going to take a whole lot of willpower. It’s not!
Willpower is a battery, and if you rely on it to make changes to your habits, you will burn out and fail.
If three new things feels like too many right now, do two, or just one. It’s not a race. You are not on a gameshow with a time limit.
But by making small, consistent daily changes that aren’t overwhelming, you can make incremental changes to your habits.
It might take a little willpower in the beginning to get started, but let that willpower drive consistent behaviors that turn into new habits.
It should not feel like you are struggling to keep up with your goals the whole time. That’s just a recipe for failure.
While there is no reason you have to use the new year as your starting point, it’s as good a time as any.
That means you now have just under a month to set your goals and come up with a plan of action.
Here are a couple of tips:
Put new activities on a calendar that will keep you on track
Set up alarms or alerts on your phone to remind you of new tasks
Tell your family and friends what you are doing and ask them to keep you honest
Log your progress so you know you’re moving forward
Most of all, remember that you are not alone in this, and you can and should ask for help when you need it.
But now is the time to start making those plans for the new year. Setting goals and deciding your plan of attack.
Yes, you might need some help. Good thing you know a guy who knows what to do!
Setting individual goals and creating an action plan is a major part of my coaching program. It’s how we know where to go, and how to measure how far we’ve come.
Let’s come up with a plan together.
As always, if you’re ready to lower your blood pressure, balance your blood sugar, get energy back and fight off chronic disease, we should talk.
Then we get to work.
Ready? Let’s go!
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