Happy New Year
2022 Already!! I know I’m thinking about bettering myself. Improving the things that I know are detrimental to my well-being and my businesses. The over use of social media, my lack of decent drum practice, my eating of crisps and biscuits. There is quite a long list to be honest. I really want to improve on my physique. I’ve been working on my strength in 2021 and it’s time for me to ‘up the ante’.
“I’m going to get fitter” – A great New Year’s Resolution for sure, and one we can relate to. But what does that actually mean? What is fitness for me? I’m already pretty fit. I need to be specific. New Year’s Resolutions come and go. I achieve some and feel guilty and sad and annoyed at 2359 on 31st December when I realise I’ve not achieved half of what I’ve set out to improve. This has happened every year and I should make a concerted effort to change this. There is a good word for this:
Resolute - adjective res·o·lute | \ ˈre-zə-ˌlüt , -lət \
1: marked by firm determination.
My believe is that “New Year’s Resolutions” are misnamed. They should be called desires or even better “New Year’s Goals” – something that can be achieved with planning.
My actual fitness New Year Goal is this:
I want to be 65kg in weight with 10-11% body fat. I’m partaking in 100km walk in the Lake District in June too. I must improve my flexibility sessions to cope with the demands on my body from weight lifting and HIIT workouts. I must aim to get around 1.6g of protein to 1kg of body weight everyday. This is the basics, I’ve not set my timeframe here, I’m working on that.
I’m going to work towards it by following a hypertrophy training session and a HIIT training session each week, and in my journal note the weights I’m using and cardio targets. I will have protein rich food from breakfast to dinner with two protein shakes a day to help build muscle. One of these will have creatine in to help with my energy levels for lifting and HIIT training and I shall use Cronometer online to track my nutrition. I’m going to be training every Monday with my girlfriend to get our team work and combined walking strength up again after our 100km in September 2021.
This is a plan and each part of it I can see progress each week. Whether you’re wanting to quit a habit, lose weight, better something in your life, plan it and plan it well. Let people know so that they may cheer on your efforts. Avoid the cold turkey, tofu for us vegans, approach. It mostly fails. Dieting is a bad word. Just tweak your nutrition, slowly and steadily so that by 31st December 2022 it’s a well formed habit, and you’ve not only achieved your perceived goal, but most likely smashed it and built a way for you to continue creating new achievable goals. Don’t cut out the bad, reduce the bad, bit by bit.
I’m currently reading ‘The One Thing’ by Gary Keller with Jay Papasan. A fantastic read that “cuts the clutter” on your lists and mental approach to business and life. The idea is that you take one thing, and with a little training you find that one thing, and just do that. Even if you’ve got a long to-do list, whittle it down to the one thing that is most important to you and do that well. Rather than trying to do lots of different things ‘just okay’.
The idea that we put pressure on ourselves at the beginning of a new year to change what we don’t like about ourselves seems stressful. 365 days is a long time, though the older I get the shorter it seems, especially as I have children growing up very fast. There may be habits you want to change and now seems like the right time to tackle them. Slow down, write out your list and take the time to review each one and how you might go about achieving it. Think about your current lifestyle and how getter fitter will affect what you currently do. If you’re a busy mum or dad, and you’re already doing a great deal, how are you going to achieve that marathon you’ve always dreamed of doing in April? My advice is to find one goal which is easily achievable in the cold weeks of winter and get that done well. This’ll spur you on to maybe another goal, slightly more taxing perhaps, and one that you may be able to sacrifice something else in your life to do. For example, running is easier in the lighter mornings of spring.
In this new year, especially after the last few, set yourself up to achieve little and often, which will then build to the big thing you want. Reward yourself regularly with positive things, especially if the going on the goal has been tough. A visual tracker system, such as a reward sticker chart, or something similar, helps to stamp your achievement and helps you to see your steps towards you main goal.
Good luck and I hope that by the end of this year you’ll have new found good habits, goals achieved, and as the great Nina Simone sang:
“It’s a new dawn, a new day, a new life for me, and I’m feeling good”
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