New Year, New You? Simple steps to make those resolutions stick!

Happy New Year! I hope you had a lovely nourishing Christmas break - I certainly did but I have to say it’s good to be aware of what day it is again and begin clawing my way out of a cheese, meat and sugar induced daze 🙌

So, you have decided to make some changes this year…be that to your diet, exercise regime or hopefully both! There are all sorts of tips popping up on how to get started and stay on track, so I’ve been giving some thought to mine. My eating habits over Christmas were nothing like the norm and I didn’t train all that much due to both a knee injury and family/social commitments 😆 so these are some of the things I will be implementing myself to get going again.

Now I don't weigh myself but know I have gained a few pounds...instead of stressing about this my focus will be to feel healthy, fit and strong again through eating nourishing foods and slowly making my training part of my routine again...these are the things that make me feel good in body and mind and I can't wait to get back to them! Try to find a healthy routine that you enjoy and can see yourself doing long-term...find reasons that stretch beyond physical appearance and that may just come as an added bonus 🏋️‍♀️

Why?

The first one is pretty easy but probably the most important – identify your ‘why’ or reason for doing this, be that starting a gym membership or simply trying to eat more healthily. What is your reason for starting this journey? From here you can create some goals. Make them measurable so that you can check your progress every few weeks and set new ones when you reach them.

For example, you may be getting married in the summer and want to have a more defined waist…forget about the scales and simply take the measurement of your waist. I have had clients lose 2 inches from their waist with very little difference on the scales. Remember fat occupies a lot more space than muscle!

Write these goals down and keep them visible, make a list of the pros and cons to doing this. Yes, exercise is going to be hard and take time and energy but it will also make you feel more energised, help you lose body fat and feel more confident and comfortable in your own skin. The pros win!

Keep a food/mood diary

This should help you to identify the types of food you are perhaps over or under consuming, times of the day you are more vulnerable to eat sugar and how certain foods make you feel, i.e. tired, energised, bloated. You might notice for example that you only ever eat carbs at breakfast, you eat too much bread or that you always feel the need for a sweet snack before bed. From here you can set more specific nutrition based goals. A good suggestion would be to switch up your breakfast for something containing protein and fat – the Western diet has evolved to involve mostly carbs such as cereal and toast. This wouldn’t be such problem if a lot of us still had very active jobs but for the average office worker who is going to sit at their desk for the next 8 hours, this is a poor breakfast choice. The only real use for carbohydrates is energy production (i.e. exercise) and if that energy is not used then it is stored as fat. A high protein and fat breakfast is much more satisfying, has a slower and smaller effect on blood sugar levels and the protein helps repair and build muscle tissue (important for making that new gym membership worthwhile). Think eggs, meat, smoked salmon, avocados, full fat Greek yoghurt, nuts etc.

Once you have identified your times of weakness, try to implement a method to either deal with or avoid this situation. Say you always walk past the same shop on the way to the train station that sells your favourite pastry – the smell will stimulate your appetite (even if you weren’t hungry to begin with) and draw you in. Is there an alternative route you can take to avoid the shop? If you always need something a little sweet after your lunch, try replacing that flapjack with a couple of squares of high cocoa dark chocolate which is sweet but rich and bitter which often stops overconsumption. For me, it’s after dinner – your willpower decreases throughout the day and for a lot of us this is a vulnerable time…it’s also a great time to go and brush your teeth! This mentally puts an end to the day of eating and stops me from giving into craving for something that I probably don’t need (99% of the time anyway!).

Identify your Hedonic Foods

Hedonic foods are those foods that when exposed to you just can’t help yourself and will eat in the absence of hunger or need for energy…you may eat an entire family size chocolate bar or a whole French stick purely for pleasure rather than hunger. Make a list of these and take one of the below actions:

Replace – find a healthier alternative and one that you don’t want to overindulge in. A good example is switching up your usual white bread for a dense rye bread or making your own protein balls in place of a sugary flapjack.

Restrict – ask a family member to keep them hidden from you and only allow them once a week in small amounts. It must be a strong person who won’t give into you! My husband has chocolate hidden around the house but he gives in a little too easily…

Remove – if you know that you really can’t be around these foods just get them out of the house and don’t let them back in!

Go back to basics

As processed foods have become more and more prevalent in our supermarkets, the population’s waist line has increased as a result. Whole foods in their natural raw form contain enzymes which are necessary for us to break down and digest that food efficiently. When foods are heated or processed these enzymes are destroyed which slows digestion and puts strain on the body to produce more of its own digestive enzymes in order to break down that food. Foods with a long shelf life have been altered to remove their enzymes and prevent the rotting process – this is likely to be through adding chemicals, additives and preservatives. These foods put a huge amount of strain on our digestive and immune systems.

Try to remove processed foods from your diet and consume single ingredient foods as close to their natural state as possible to get that sluggish digestive system going again. Think meat/poultry, fish, vegetables, rice, fruit, nuts and seeds.

Surround yourself with the right people

Social situations can lead to a change in our behaviours – we may eat or drink more purely because everyone around us is doing this and we want to be socially accepted. This is closely linked to the guilt we associate with certain foods that we consider ‘bad’. If everyone else is eating them then the guilt is diminished as everyone is doing it. Others may try to push foods/drinks on you because they want to diminish their feelings of guilt about eating or drinking them. Here you have to be strong and try to surround yourself with like-minded people and people who want you to succeed – we’re pretty good at sabotaging ourselves without others doing it too!

Take it slow and ask for help!

Don’t start off by going to the gym 5 times a week and completely changing your diet overnight. Remember you didn’t get to where you are overnight! Be patient and make small sustainable changes – tackle one meal at a time and start off going to the gym once or twice a week. The chances are you’ll be pretty sore after those first few sessions and you need to give your muscles appropriate time to repair and improve. You can build this up over the coming weeks but start off too hard and you only increase your chances of failing. If you have a bad day, put it behind you and start fresh the next day rather than thinking you’ve blown the whole thing and may as well give up.

If you are just starting out at the gym and are not sure how to use a machine or want to know if you are doing an exercise correctly, don’t be afraid to ask one of the PTs or instructors for help. This is part of their job and chances are they are bored stiff if they’re not taking a PT session! Even better, if you can afford it then invest in a few PT sessions to learn the basics and get help setting a program – they can be as often as you can afford so you could even just see someone once a month to change up your program, teach you new exercises and chat about nutrition. If you are serious about making changes then you should be saving a few pennies from not going out drinking, quitting smoking or having less takeaways. Invest that money back into yourself in a positive way.

Finally, please do not cut your calories too low! Your body will slow down metabolic processes, a lot of the weight you lose will be muscle tissue and water and you’ll probably hang onto that belly you so desperately want to lose…you know, just in case there is a famine coming! Fat loss is a slow process and one that really can't be measured by the scales. Remember that all your body is trying to do is survive by any means and it really doesn’t care how much you want to lose body fat.

That’s it! If you can achieve these steps then you will be making a great start on your journey to becoming fitter, healthier and happier. Good luck and please feel free to ask questions 🙂