by Izak Wilde
It happens every year.
We get to December and this weird things happen where we start socialising a lot more, drinking mulled wine on Tuesday nights, eating tonnes of pate, cheese and Christmas themed sandwiches, skipping training sessions and getting out of routine – and so we should – it’s Christmas, we should be enjoying ourselves & letting the foot off the gas a little.
Doing these things is normal and in my world, compulsory, as I’m not the kind of coach who will make you track your calories over Christmas (yes, some actually do).
This isn’t to say we binge on a different level and let ALL of our good habits go out of the window. The point of learning good habits is to repeat them enough so that we are doing them within our routine EVERYDAY (even doing them at Christmas too).
The reason I’m talking about habits specifically is because in January what usually happens is we think we need to go from zero to hero and we restrict ourselves of absolutely everything, almost feeling guilty for indulging a little bit more over the holidays. We try detoxes, fasting diets, 17 days-a-week of HIIT training, juice diets etc etc to over-compensate.
This lasts a maximum of 2 weeks before we realise ‘it’s not for me’ and we’re back to doing what we were doing before.
Here I’m going to share with you some thoughts, tips and take-homes about how to approach 2022 a little differently.
#1 BE PROCESS FOCUSED – NOT OUTCOME FOCUSED
Your goal might be to lose weight, but rather than only focusing on the outcome everyday/every week and becoming obsessed with the scales, work backwards and find out what you need to do daily/weekly and make your goal not to lose weight, but to tick off your non-negotiables.
Example: 2 things that might help are being more active & eating more veggies.
So your 2 daily goals to tick off are go for a 30 minute walk outside & have spinach with your breakfast every morning.
If you tick these things off, the outcome will happen anyway.
#2 USE THE JANUARY MOTIVATION
We all know that come January we usually have a bit more motivation than usual to get into good habits. There is absolutely no problem in using this motivation to get us started, but realise that motivation doesn’t last and being DISCIPLINED when you’re not motivated will be the key to your consistency and success.
#3 GET HELP
Even if after reading this article you’re stuck with where to start, the best thing you can do is get some advice from some one in the fitness industry (a coach). I’m pretty sure most would help you for free up to a point if you dropped them a quick message. Also look out for free challenges, free e-books & guides, even watching some of their instagram content could help you.
Above all else though, putting some skin in the game and investing in a coach will help you massively. Not only with accountability because you’ve paid for it, therefore you’re more likely to see it through, but it will speed up the process of trying to do it yourself like you’ve been doing for the past couple of years.
#4 KEEP IT SIMPLE
We’ve all done it where we try to change everything at once and it becomes overwhelming – new training, new diet, new routine – it’s all so far away from what we were doing just a week ago that it becomes impossible to stick to.
Instead choose 2-3 habits to work on which also fit around your life a bit better. Then once we are being consistent with those, add in one more.
#5 DON’T BE PERFECT
We all think everything needs to be perfect. If we don’t complete every single task then we see this as a failure. The problem is when this happens we stop because ‘we’ve failed’ and there’s no point. Wrong.
It’s better to strive for IMPERFECT ACTION than do nothing at all. Something is always better than nothing, and if you’ve done nothing, so what, do something tomorrow.
#6 STOP AND THINK
I don’t want to get into the realms of emotional eating now but this will help when making some decisions.
BETWEEN STIMULUS AND RESPONSE THERE IS A SPACE.
IN THAT SPACE IS OUR POWER TO CHOOSE OUR RESPONSE.
IN OUR RESPONSE LIES OUR GROWTH AND OUR FREEDOM.
– Viktor E Frankl
There is a space between when we think about taking and action and taking that action. Try and practise a pause in this space when reaching for something that you might not really need e.g. snacking at night time – if this isn’t helping towards our goal right now, we can choose not to have this snack if we pause before taking action.
I hope these points help you think a bit differently going into the New Year and thinking about your goals as a whole.
You don’t have to change EVERYTHING just because it’s January or you desperately want to reach a goal. Forming consistent habits is the secret and will serve you for the rest of your life.
For now, there are still a couple of days left yet until New Year for me to finish all this pate, cheese & chocolate so my good habits will have to wait.
If you need any more help don’t be afraid to reach out – I’d love to help with anything I can.
Izak ‘New Year New Me’ Wilde
Coaching with Izak
@izakwildecoach
