New Year, New You!

Happy New Year! 

After last nights celebrations, it is a sure thing that a lot of people out there will be waking up with sore heads, and many regrets.  Not only that last glass of bubbly that tipped them over the edge, but the dawning reality that the new years resolution (i.e. going on a liquid diet for January in the hope of losing half your body weight by February) that everyone held a glass up to last night is not looking quite so achievable. 

As you can probably tell, after years of making such outlandish attempts at life changing weight loss, and failing miserably, I no longer believe in new years resolutions and have resolved to never make one again!  Looking back on 2013, I learned some important lessons about making life changes: Firstly, that you MUST enjoy what you are doing; and secondly you have to be completely selfish about it!

So if you want to lose weight in 2014, I would start by getting active. Try to concentrate on moving more but don't put yourself on a diet that makes you miserable and go mad at the gym all at once - that's a sure fire recipe for disaster. Just try to make small healthy choices instead, like switching to low fat yoghurt at breakfast or only drinking wine at weekends then look at nutrition once you are serious about your fitness.  You won't lose masses of weight quickly but if you make the right healthy choices combined with regular exercise you will steadily lose weight, tone up and feel a lot better for it!

If you want to get fit then for god's sake don't start off with a double spin class as it is never a good idea! If you join a gym, see if they have a 'pay as you go' scheme (so you don't end up with a £300 a year bill for something you never use) and aim to go once or twice a week at first to make sure its the right gym for you. Then look in to joining as you start to get fitter or start a fitness class that's fun that you can have a laugh with friends at.  You have got to enjoy it or you won't go back for more!!

On to the selfish part, the only way you will ever change anything about yourself is to do it for YOU and nobody else.  It's YOU who will have to go walking/running/gymming/swimming so it must be motivated by what YOU want!  Now, most people have pretty busy lives and it's so easy to use other people and their demands as an excuse to not exercise.  So if you have a million and one things to do, making time to get out running/gymming can be hard.  If you want to go out for a 30 minute run 3 times a week without worrying about what you could/should be doing instead then you have to talk to family/ friends and come to agreement that that time is YOUR time and arrange a slot that they can look after the kids/cook their own dinner/clean the car etc. so you can do it without feeling guilty.  

Anyhoo, i'm sure that's enough of me putting the world to rights so i'll leave it there by wishing everyone a happy and healthy new year and raise a glass of water (hang on.....it's not the weekend yet!) to being the best you that you can be :)