It’s resolutions time….

It’s resolutions time….

With Christmas over and New Year on the horizon, it’s that time when people start to make resolutions. Maybe you find yourself annually writing the following:

lose weight

get fit

give up alcohol

join a gym

And so on…

How do those lists pan out, usually? I know for me they fail every single time! And not because I can’t lose weight, or I can’t get fit, or I can’t give up alcohol, or I can’t join a gym; rather it’s always because I set the bar too high. A goal to lose weight and to get fit is so intangible that it’s set up for failure. There is no measure for what losing weight or getting fit will look like. Further to that, we have all been bombarded with the message for so many years that to lose weight or to get fit somehow involves restricting ourselves, punishing ourselves, relying on “will power”.

So how about we look at it from a different view-point? How about taking a look at where you are now, taking stock, then finding all the positives about where you are RIGHT NOW. Look at all the ways your body already serves you well. The reasons your friends and family love you. The things you excel at.

Then, how about being kind to yourself? So, rather than restricting your food and ultimately ending up bingeing (did you know that 97% of people who diet ultimately put the weight back on after 2 years – surely with a success rate of only 3% it’s worth looking at alternatives…), why not start to move more, start to listen to what your body really wants from you.

Listening to your body is huge. It knows. It is really clever. It knows when you need veggies and when you need protein, it knows when you need sleep and when you need to move. But we’ve got so used to ignoring the messages that we flit between pushing too hard on the food or movement side (just me who has tried to “punish” themselves for eating something yummy by doing an extra however many minutes of an exercise I hate?) to then “failing” and giving up on it.

Now, it doesn’t come quickly to start listening to your body, but I will bet you any amount that if you really tune in to it, it doesn’t want another diet starting on January 1st. It doesn’t want any more punishment.