Hurdling the February Blahs
New Year 2008 has been and gone, and already into February the carefully planned resolutions have dissolved into a distant memory.
So many of us use the start of a new year as a springboard to diet, get fit or stop smoking, but how many of us successfully sustain the hard work to achieve our goals past January?
Personal health is always high on the agenda when it comes to improving our lives after the Christmas and New Year over-indulgence.
If you think logically about getting fit and improving yourself physically, what worse time of the year to do it than at a time of year when the weather is far from ideal for getting out in the fresh air and exercising. Who wants to be watching their dietary intake when a hearty casserole and sponge pudding and custard warms the belly on a cold wintry day.
Despite these obvious hurdles, and excuses not to persevere with our personal health plans, we still plan goals far beyond our reach, and when we begin to fail (as the majority of New Year ‘get fitters’ do) we give up.
O.K so what is a good time to improve on our health and lifestyles?
Many of us will always manage to find an excuse not to start that much needed diet, or not to give up that nicotine habit, but the longer you put it off, the harder it will be to achieve your ultimate goal.
One golden rule when embarking on a personal goal is that you must only do this if it is totally motivated by your own personal wishes. Never embark or a health challenge as a result of third party ‘nagging’, this creates bad feeling, and totally the wrong motivation to achieve your goal. Of course, use their words of encouragement and support to increase motivation, after all this is essential to boosting confidence. Throughout the year many of us will be looking forward to events in our lives where we want to look and feel good. Be it a wedding, holiday or any other function that we want to be seen looking our best, such events can indeed provide a good goal for us to achieve our personal task, within a realistic time frame.
Giving up smoking
When it comes to this difficult challenge, there will always be an event throughout the year that will test your achievement, so it is best to get working on your ‘no smoking’ campaign before you get too close to a social event. The cost involved in giving up smoking can often deter people. For many, they would rather continue to pay the price for cigarettes or tobacco, than give up money, through gritted teeth, to purchase ‘Nicotine Replacement’ products. One good piece of advice it to steer clear of temptation in the first week of your project. If you regularly attend a club or social outlet where smoking is part of the fun, keep well away. Good friends will support you fully. Not so good friends will offer you cigarettes just to tempt you back, and ridicule you if you don’t take the bait. If you are not totally committed to the cause, and seeing it through to the end then it is best not to waste money on it, until you are one hundred percent ready.
Getting fit
Personally I dread to think how much money I have wasted over the years on gym memberships. Try not to be sucked in by offers of ‘free joining fee’s’ at the gym in the first few months of the year, as I have discovered, a polite word with the gym manager can often help you obtain this privilege any time of the year. I too am guilty of embarking on such things immediately after Christmas, but have learnt my lesson and having tried and tested virtually every exercise DVD out there, I can safely say my personal route to success in getting myself fit always results in simply increasing my general daily exercise, and the best thing is it’s free! Increasing your daily exercise does not have to involve you donning legwarmers and a leotard, and pushing un-realistic boundaries. By taking measures such as walking to the shop for the newspaper, or parking further away from work, and walking a short distance, can all contribute increasing your general fitness. Walk your dog twice a day, instead of once. If you don’t own a dog, borrow one!
Improving your diet
The seasons should never deter you from achieving your goal. A healthy diet is not only achieved in the summer months when we religiously force ourselves to eat salad. Following a low-fat diet (less than 4% fat per 100g) year round is totally achievable. Ensure you eat three meals per day, it is a common misconception that eating more will make you put on more weight. Make subtle adjustments to your diet, choosing the ‘low fat’ alternative where possible. You can still treat yourself to your favorite food indulgence occasionally. Ask around, and see how friends and colleagues have achieved ‘dieting success’. They may be happy to share ideas and advice free of charge, so it’s definitely worth asking. Don’t get deflated so early in the year. Re-motivate yourself. Set yourself a realistic goal. And most importantly, choose a reward for yourself. Be it a holiday, new outfit, or something over-indulgent, ensure you remind yourself constantly of the reward at the end!
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