My Five Key Principles that will help you achieve your health & fitness goals. I’m going to share with you how changing your health habits in five specific areas will help you smash ANY goal. ANY time of the year.
If you know me, then It’s probably not a surprise to hear me say that I don’t like New Year’s Resolutions. I am more of a new week or new month resolution kind of girl. Meaning, I think we should be goalsetting all year long, not just in January. However, I know a lot of people still get excited to begin a “New Year, New Me,” transformation in January. I’m ALLLLL for helping you achieve your health and wellness goals, so I am certainly not going to stop you. in fact, I am going to give you some of my best advice when it comes to reaching your goals.
It would be out of character if I didn’t keep it honest, short & to the point. Before we get to the steps, it is absolutely necessary for me to remind you that you and only you are in control of your life, your thoughts and your actions. Just like I tell my Pilates clients, I can tell you or show you how to do an exercise, but I can’t do it for you. Same for reaching your personal goals. I can show you what has worked for me, but I can’t change you.
Here are the five key areas that can make or break your goal setting.
I constantly check in with myself to ensure I am on track with all five before, during and after each goal. Consider each one a piece to a very important puzzle.
- Mindset: Mindset is key – what you think you become. THIS is a biggie. I am not a super airy-fairy person. I like hard facts, data, stats, spreadsheets and checklists. BUT, I have learned throughout my own journey that mindset is absolutely, 100%, without a doubt THE biggest barrier between you and your goals. Having a strong belief in your ability and worthiness is crucial. If you don’t believe in yourself, how will you ever get what you want?
Two of my favorite quotes are from the late, Dr. Wayne Dyer. “Change the way you look at things and the things you look at will change.” And, “you will see it when you believe it.” that is not a typo. He meant that you must believe in something before you can actually see it. I wholeheartedly believe this one. Once you change your beliefs and mindset, anything is possible. you have to trust yourself to accomplish the goals you set out for yourself. I am proof of this belief system, by the way. If you want to read a little about my personal journey, you can check out this post.
- Movement:Movement is life, the more you move today, the more you get to live, later. If the thought of exercise paralyzes you, I want you to think movement, not exercise. Movement doesn’t require a huge time or financial investment, but the rewards are invaluable. Don’t worry about the numbers on the scale. Just focus on moving your body. A quick 10-minute home workout 1-2 times a day. A walk around the block. Taking the stairs instead of the lift…Just get moving. You will immediately feel the difference in your attitude and you’ll soon start to see your body change in positive ways.
My favorite workout is Pilates and here’swhy. It really doesn’t matter what fitness modality you choose so long as you find one that you LOVE! Once you fall in love with fitness, your life with change in ways you never knew possible.
- Food: Food is either medicine or it is poison – The good news is that you get to choose. Start thinking of food as fuel. Our bodies require certain nutrients to function. Currently in America, 36.5% of adults and 17% of children are OBESE. WTF?! I can promise you right now, those bodies are NOT functioning properly. If your body is not functioning, how can you truly be happy? How can you reach any goal? You can’t, really. it’s all connected.
What you put in your body directly affects your mood, your risk for disease and your waistline.
*to learn more about the science, check out Brain Maker
Commit to including more whole foods in your diet. This means, nothing processed, packaged or mass produced by someone else. I’m not even asking you to take anything out of your diet, yet. just add more good stuff back in. slowly but surely you can transition to a healthy eating plan. Trial and error. Find what your body needs. Seek help from a professional integrative health coach if necessary.
- Take Action: EVERY SINGLE DAY! You must take action in some form or another. This can be as simple as finally making the whole food shopping list and heading to the shops to get your groceries. This can be signing up for a Pilates class. Calling a personal trainer. Getting up early just to have a slow start to the morning. As you get more comfortable with taking action, you will go from crawling to baby steps to running to sprinting to rocket launching. There is no finish line. You keep going. You continue to get our of your comfort zone. This is when you truly see your potential for greatness.
- Consistency: is key – no shortcuts or magic pills. I don’t need to go into detail about this because it just is what it is. There are no shortcuts in life. You get what you give so if you give 5% out of 100% towards your health, guess what??? You’re only going to see 5% of the results compared to someone who puts in 100% effort. Show up for yourself every day.
If you want results, you first must believe you are capable of achieving your goals. Then you must take action towards reaching your goals. In order to take action your body needs to be fueled properly so you have the physical, emotional and mental capabilities to put in the work. Last but certainly not least, you must stay consistent. As in, keep doing the thing that propels you toward your goal, don’t stop. Once you hit a goal, make another one. Athletes don’t just stop practicing when they score one goal or finish one race. Why would you? keep at it and you will see major shifts in your physical, mental and emotional health.
*BONUS*Give yourself grace. You are not in competition with anyone other than yourself. You are the only one you have to answer to when it comes to your health & lifestyle. This is not permission to eat junk and stop moving your body, but we are aiming for progress, not perfection. I am a recovering perfectionist and I am prone to self-sabotaging ways. If I don’t stick to the steps above, I can easily “fall off the wagon.” I am not immune to fear, comparison and boredom. I just know that feeling good is much better than feeling like shit.
If you want to deep dive into goal setting, all year long, I wrote all about that here.
I would love to hear what goals you are going after this year and what strategies you use to accomplishing them.
Until next time.
Xx
Crystal
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