A New Year of Health and Wellness

by Melanie Smith

We have reached the beginning of a new year which for most people marks the turning over of a new leaf, an end to the over-indulging of Christmas and a solid commitment to be a healthier version of you! I usually find that for the majority of people, particularly those for whom this is a big lifestyle change this is accompanied by a sense of overwhelming dread….and as a fitness professional I can tell you that this is not a good feeling to be starting out with on your wellness journey!

The very act of complete and absolute denial sets us up for failure. As humans, and particularly humans of the Western world, we have been conditioned to experience plenty and excess as optimum conditions for good living. Throughout history people have sought to have more food, money, bigger houses, better clothes, more sheep chickens etc etc etc. This goes back to the dawn of human civilisation and thousands of years of such conditioning have made their way into our psyche…making denial, especially of the things we love and enjoy and possibly use for comfort, an extremely difficult task to fulfil. At some point or another we shall fail: we are only human after all. But it’s what you do at the point of failure that is key: do you give up and berate yourself for your complete lack of willpower or do you chalk it up to experience, accept that these things happen and get back on track asap?

With any form of behaviour change there is going to be a period of time when you are acquiring that new behaviour….and sometimes old less desirable forms of behaviour creep back in….this is only natural as the brain forms new patterns of thinking. From experience with countless clients I can tell you it’s those people who give themselves a bit of slack and accept that they are in a transitional stage are those who adopt a long-term healthy lifestyle far more effectively than those who beat themselves up over things. On the opposite side of the coin, I have seen many people go full pelt into January with all guns blazing…they cut out the booze, they adopt an extreme diet which focuses on denial of at least one food group which is crucial for the healthy function of their body and they start exercising at an alarmingly high intensity.

Eventually this leads to a breakdown somewhere along the way…as soon as January ends there is a big boozy celebration to mark the next 11 months of the consumption of alcohol “because I deserve it”. The diet might work in the short term as it will be restricting calories (Cutting out a major food group is just another way to restrict calories) but it is not maintainable in the long-term: and surely people we are looking for long-term health and wellness? The super-high levels of exercise intensity which should usually be built up to over a period of years put the body under huge amounts of stress, leading to fatigue of the nervous system and injury of some kind. All of which can be quite misery inducing for the poor person who had such good intentions…. Generally, misery is comforted with food and drink etc (“because I’ve been trying so hard and I deserve it”) …and the cycle continues….

OK so what’s the solution? Balance. Balance in everything you do from your nutrition, work-life balance, social-life, spending, exercise and movement, “you-time”, personal development etc etc.

Here are some simple pointers for setting yourself up for success:

  1. Choose one change to focus on at a time…. choose smaller more achievable things to start with and leave your bigger demons until later when you have built up some willpower and experienced success.
  2. Don’t diet. Eat healthily. The simplest way to start to cut calories is to use smaller plates. Fill them 1/2 with a variety of multi-coloured vegetables, 1/4 lean protein and 1/4 complex carbohydrates. Steam, grill and bake rather than boil or fry.
  3. Cut out the empty calories from alcohol, cakes, sweets, chocolates etc but replace them with something to satisfy your cravings: try looking up sugar free recipes etc.
  4. Allow yourself one drink a week if alcohol is something you know you shall really miss.
  5. Allow yourself one cheat meal a week, of anything that you desire.
  6. Get any aches and pains, niggles and creaky bits checked out by a chiropractor or osteopath before you start a program of exercise.
  7. Start to exercise gently and see how your body responds…. increase intensity as your body becomes fitter. Start with mobilising and stretching the body out before thinking of loading joints with resistance.
  8. Love yourself: if you view your new healthy lifestyle as something your body and soul deserve rather than punishment for a December of excess, you are much more likely to enjoy the changes and continue them in the long-term.
  9. Accept that you are in a cycle of change, and commit to getting back on the cycle immediately if you fall off.
  10. Have realistic expectations: forming new habits takes time, and letting go of old habits takes effort. But time and effort put into any area of your life will have hugely beneficial rewards.