At the start of each New Year we get another chance to make a fresh star with our health and fitness goals. Some people like to make resolutions and to set goals for the coming year. But making resolutions is the easy part, keeping them can be tough after the initial good intentions start to fall by the wayside and old habits start to kick in.
We live in a throw-away society and even our resolutions, are not immune to being brushed aside if the going gets tough. But promises to ourselves regarding our health are a bit too important to simple keep ignoring. What if you could make a resolution that you could actually keep, how would that appeal to you?
Well here is a good one for you; it is called “gradual lifestyle change” which is a change in lifestyle, not some shonky quick fix that is unlikely to help you achieve your health and fitness goals long-term.
Think about it this could mean – losing that body fat that has been hanging around for ages, increasing your strength and stamina; lowering your cholesterol, blood pressure or blood sugar; reducing your risk of disease or simply exercising for your own personal wellness. This lifestyle change thing is not a new concept, but what may be new to you is how you should approach it so it can work for you.
Permanent lifestyle change that is healthy and really works is a gradual change – it does not happen overnight. And guess what? It doesn’t end either. Commitments to take control of our lives are often sparked by some special occasion or change in season but you do not have to wait for these occasions to take control of your health and your life. This can be simply be a daily celebration, a renewable resolution and as gradual as the change in the seasons.
Your exercise program is one of the cornerstones of good health and should be properly structured so you obtain the results you are looking for. It should contain strength training exercise along with interval training and should be set up and monitored by a fitness professional. Even if you start with just one session per week and keep that up until it is cemented into your life would be fantastic progress. Far better than trying to achieve 3 or 4 sessions per week which for most people is a totally unrealistic goal then failing totally and giving up the whole program.
One session per week for life would actually give you far better results that stop, start, on and off attempts like many people do. But for some reason people do not see this as progress and keep on with the crash and burn mentality.
Remember lifestyle change indicates a change for life and the first few steps are the hardest. But the good news is the further you go the easier the journey becomes provided of course that you have chosen the right path to follow. This is where any changes you do make are ones you can really live with.
Now would be a good time to start and you could start by making a list of positive improvements and changes in small and manageable steps. Choose your first new habit, track it for a month and make it your new routine then keep that habit as you begin to work on the next one the following month and so on.
Improving your health and wellness is and always should be an ongoing journey that is an enjoyable one at every step along the way. If you start by making your “gradual lifestyle change” resolution and keep it simple and easy the odds are very good that it will be the one resolution you will actually keep.
