Did you know that most people break their New Year's Resolutions within a month? It's January, the weather is freezing and miserable, it always seems to be dark and foggy, everyone's trying to save money, most of us haven't booked our holidays yet so there's just not much to look forward to!
But don't resort to binge watching your favourite show with a load of creme eggs just yet (yes the shops are stocking them now!) hold on, if you stick to your health and fitness goals through the winter months there's a very good chance you'll carry on throughout the summer months! And it's true what they say, summer bodies are made in the winter. I've so far this month done well at sticking to my health goals (there's a first for everything!) and I've thought about what has helped me in particular and here is what I've come up with:
1. Meal Prep
Now I'm not the best at meal prepping, but the one thing I do is make sure I prep my lunches for work on Sundays. This prevents me from buying food on my break, or rushing round in the morning and just grabbing whatever I can find! Try and get into the habit of meal prepping, even if its just a case of making double what you have for dinner and having it for lunch the next day too. It's also a good idea to get some snacks prepared, putting some nuts into containers etc, so you have something to grab if you're hungry!
2. Snack
If you're hungry, you're doing it wrong. If you're hungry you're also more likely to binge, so keep those sugar levels steady by snacking regularly on healthy foods, I like to have a banana between lunch and dinner to keep me going! Also eating healthy should be a lifestyle change (not a diet), I know its necessary to control how many calories you eat in order to lose weight, but this should be a part of a balanced diet, and you should never be cutting calories so much that you're hungry, as you'll just lose weight in the short term. If you don't eat enough you'll just end up binge eating so just make sure you're eating enough of the right foods and you'll be fine.
3. Schedule Cheat Days
Honestly this has kept me sane! Last week I went for a curry with work, so I scheduled it in as a cheat meal two weeks previously so that I didn't have to struggle choosing the healthy option etc and could really enjoy the night! Whenever I was craving I just kept reminding myself that cheat night was soon! Valentine's Day will also definitely be a cheat day! I try to limit cheat meals to once a week, but if its a full cheat day then probably once every two weeks.
4. Find an exercise routine that you love
If you hate your exercise routine, bin it. Find something else! For most of us it is a chore getting to the gym, but its usually enjoyable once there. If you're struggling to enjoy the gym or running, I really advice finding a good quality exercise class. I go to two HIIT classes a week, which are separate from my gym and ran by someone local, they're great because I genuinely love the classes but they are also so tough! I've been going religiously for over a year now and it really helps that I know a lot of the people there now, so I feel incredibly guilty if I don't go!
5. Download an app that tracks your macros
I like to use MyFitnessPal for this, I log everything I eat and it helps me keep track of my calories and macros. It also works out how many calories you should be eating which is helpful. What I like about it is it really makes you conscious how much sugar is in certain foods etc, and its really helpful in helping you eat the right amount of food too; sometimes you can be overeating and not even realise.
6. Think of healthy foods in terms of their nutritional benefit not how low fat they are.
This is really a pet peeve of mine, when people eat foods because 'they are low fat' but have 0 nutritional benefit to their body. Really try to eat foods that benefit your body, and remind yourself how good they are for you when you eat them, for example spinach is high in vitamin A and iron. Cameron Diaz's Body Book is great for tips on nutrition, she goes into exactly how all these vitamins benefit your body, and what will happen if you are deficient in them.
7. Remind yourself why you're doing it
Are you sick of being tired all the time? Always wanted to be able to run for more than 5 minutes? Whatever the reason is, keep that goal in mind and keep reminding yourself why it's worth it! I'm doing it to feel good inside and out, and hopefully it will help me in living a healthy life longterm.
8. Finally, ditch those excuses, you can do anything if you want it bad enough!
