At the beginning of the year, you promised yourself you’d start working out 5 days a week along with a gluten, alcohol and sugar-free cleanse.
Instead, long hours back at work mixed with low energy and a lack of motivation have pretty much killed all your New Years get in shape plans. Well my friend, luckily It’s not too late!
I’m a fan of New Year’s resolutions, mostly because any excuse that motivates people is always a good thing. But the reality is you don’t need a New Year, wedding, holiday, photo-shoot or even a Monday to motivate you into getting healthy. You just need to want it bad enough!
The better you feel physically the easier it is to make healthy eating choices and get your exercise in. So let’s focus on some simple things to get you feeling good, then you’ll want to tackle those New Year’s plans you made… before spring hits!
#1. Intention. First off ask yourself “what do I want?” “Why do I want this?” “How bad do I want this?” And “what am I willing to do in order to achieve it?” Write these questions and answers down somewhere…even if it’s just in the notes application on your phone. As cheesy as this sounds this is an important step. There is a good chance you’ll have to read this back to yourself when you are having a low motivation day. Knowing your intention is an important step in any resolution.
#2. Sleep. Without enough sleep, you won’t have the energy to hit the gym. You also won’t be recovering properly from your workouts once you get started. Don’t listen to those idiots who tell you you’ll live longer with less sleep. You don’t get bigger, stronger, faster or leaner in the gym. This happens after exercise only with the proper rest and nutrition. Train hard without enough sleep (7-8 hours) and not only will you see very little results you can actually gain unwanted fat!
#3. Water. Odds of you losing fat if you aren’t hydrated properly is pretty much zilch. We are made up of a large percentage of water so don’t expect your body to function properly when your tank is empty. Drink half your body weight in ounces per day to be properly hydrated (for most people that is 2+ liters). Coffee, milk, juice or caffeinated tea doesn’t count…and avoid any kind of flavored or vitamin types of water as they are full of sugars, artificial sweeteners, colors & dyes and very cheap low-quality vitamins (basically garbage). Also, the number one cause of fatigue during the day is dehydration. Want more energy during the day, drink more water. Simple right?
#4. Sugar. This simple carbohydrate will have your energy fluctuating all over the place during the day and pack on the fat faster than you can imagine. Avoid all added sugars and just go for naturally occurring sugars if you need a fix (fruit etc…) watch your fruit intake though as it’s easy to consume even too much fruit sugar! Also, avoid all juice unless it’s made fresh right in front of you. Once the juice has been squeezed from a fruit it oxidizes very fast and becomes basically flavored sugar water…remember what I said about flavored water?
#5. Food Quality. Ok, this one sounds like a no-brainer “eat healthy” right? Well yes, but I have a challenge for you. Going forward I want you to make a shift in how you look at food. Most people make food decisions based on how much time they have, how hungry they are or how much money they have. Instead, ask yourself “what kind of energy is this food I’m about to eat going to give me”? Almost every cell in your body gets rebuilt and replaced over the course of a year based on the nutrition you put into it. You literally are what you eat. When you sit down and eat a fast food meal full of processed garbage your cells, your thoughts and your energy in return become garbage…you essentially become garbage. What do you think the odds are of you wanting to make healthy decisions like hitting the gym after work when you’ve put garbage into your body all day…not likely. How much energy do you think some eggs and fruit is going to give you vs. a Starbucks breakfast or a salad vs. a Tim Horton’s lunch or a burger and fries vs. a homemade stir-fry dinner?
If the food you are about to eat is a processed food then you’ll gain low energy from it. If it’s a whole food then real energy is what you’ll gain from it.
By this time next year, you’ll be a completely new you whether you like it or not. Luckily we have a choice of what we’d like to be made of. Try these 5 tips for 21 days in order for them to become new habits. Let’s make this the year those resolutions we keep promising ourselves happen!
If you need a detailed, structured, whole foods eating plan with workouts, meal plans, recipes and tons of support check out my amazing online coaching program.
Namaste
Jade
