Why wait until January to start a new you?

27th November 2018

• Have you cracked open your first Advent calendar chocolate yet? 
• Been to a few too many Christmas parties? 
• Started drinking a little bit extra?

With all of the socially-acceptable indulgences around this time of year, it’s a pretty common sight to see all kinds of health-related habits go flying out of the window. Why wait until January to start a new you?

This mindset partly comes from a point of logic – but is mostly underpinned by an emotional, irrational belief that fitness is a lifestyle choice incompatible with the rest of our lives.

Going to the gym can feel pretty pointless if you’re thinking that you’re going to “undo all of your hard work” at a party that evening.

However, let’s take a quick look at your fitness goals year-round.

You want to look better. Feel better. Live better.

You want this pretty much all the time. And there’s going to be reasons all throughout the year that could “derail you” in terms of what you want health and fitness wise.

When fitness is just a temporary stint in your life, long-lasting changes don’t stick around. Sure, you might lose weight (and a bit of sanity!) from doing a juice cleanse – but could you stick to this every day of your life? No.

You might be justifying going crazy in December “because you’ll gym every day and cut out a bunch of foods” come January. Will you stick to this? No.

What you can stick to is the realisation that fitness should be a part of your daily life and part of your NORMAL. Not one week, month, or workout plan. It needs to be something fluid that can float alongside the fun extravagances that holidays can bring.

There will never be a perfect time to make a lifestyle change.

But if you start now – in December – even with all of the extra goodies that can be hard to resist  you’ll have begun adding in habits that will serve you for the rest of your life.

This is not about the next month or even the next six weeks. These are quite literally the habits that will stand you in good stead for the rest of your life.

Feeling good, happy, and healthy at every special occasion you want to feel good at. Feeling strong, fit and powerful when playing sport, being outdoors or spending time with your family.

It might seem somewhat pointless trying to “live healthier” at a time of year when it seems like the whole of society is trying to do the opposite…

… but fitness is about the accumulation of small habits.

Enjoying your food, in moderate portions.

Taking a few extra steps throughout your day.

Feeling the mental benefits of pushing your body in a class.

By all means set yourself some resolutions and push yourself even more come January when everyone is on their fitness push (social support is a really important thing, so capitalise on it!). You may also want to consider joining some of our Emotionally FIT sessions to really find out what makes you tick to keep up with these resolutions.

… but also grant yourself the permission to start making progress now. The sooner you start, the sooner you will see the benefits.

Fitness should be part of your life, not all of it. And that means you can start to include healthier habits at any point in time, regardless of anything else going on in your life.

You don’t have to be perfect. You just need to start.