Another week of postponing getting back into that healthy lifestyle you once had? Need help to find the right motivation to start? Then read along. In this week’s Fit Talk our fit coach and expert Julie talks about how to get back on track after the summer holidays.
We were all waiting for it, a normal, hot, festival summer! Not only did the weather let us down, Corona still ruled over our party plans. But we all tried to make the best of it. We could go abroad, restaurants opened, small festivals were happening here and there and our social lives slightly got back to normal.
Summer vacation is also a typical time to stray away from our daily routines, we did have some dinners and drinks to make up for, didn’t we? Going on vacation mentally gives you a break on everything you do in daily life, time to enjoy your well-deserved free time and enjoy that extra Sangria and skip leg-day. But how do we get back to our daily routine?
Routine = Positive
To many of us, routine has a negative connotation. It reminds us of repetitiveness and doing the same thing over and over again, so what’s there to like? I’m all about bending negatives into positives. Finding and adopting the right daily routine will re-energize you and help you be more time-efficient. Your mind and body will thank you for the decreased anxiety, decluttering your train of thought and extra care you’ve given it. You will discover that positive daily routines can lead you to a healthier and happier life.
Start here
When you have a busy social life, kids to feed, a good career going, but also want to be fit, strong, eat healthy, follow the latest news in the world, learn Spanish,… you will experience the feeling of getting overwhelmed and don’t know how to start organizing the list of to-do’s living inside your head. And I don’t know about you, but if my head is a mess, I can’t function as I should. So decluttering the mind is our first step. Write everything down that pops into your head, no matter what it’s about. This way, you are helping your brain breathe and therefore focus again.
Small progress is also Progress
After writing everything down, you can decide what needs to be in your routine. For example; work out 3 times a week, healthy meal prepping, paperwork, family-time, save money for a vacation, follow a course French, … Prioritize what is important to you for the next 3 months or so.
By setting smaller goals and prioritize, we are more likely to get things done. Let me work out some examples for you; if you didn’t work out at all, try to go for a run and 1 workout at home or the gym. Get your paperwork done, find a place where you gather all your mail, invoices and other administration and block 1 hour a week to organize this pile of paper.
Save money for a vacation; by meal prepping, you will save €7 a day by not buying a sandwich and coffee in the cafeteria at work, put this €7 aside and check what else you can do small savings on. A lot of small effort can make a big difference in the end.
Be consistent
One of the things that often get skipped in a routine is a workout. Family and work are priority number one for a lot of people, doing sport is a nice ‘to have’ when we find some spare time, which is not often the case. Let me share something personal with you. My work and family always came first, I would bend myself backwards for everyone that needed help.
But one day, being the ‘good Samaritan’ blew up in my face. I woke up in the middle of my apartment, not knowing what had happened and how long I was out. My body had shut down because my mind would not listen. This is when I realized I had set my priorities wrong and had neglected my own needs for quite some time. I needed to take some time off and strangely enough, all I wanted to do was workout. Like my body, mind and soul craved to get stronger again. This gave me so much energy, I started my own online fit classes for women. If this helped me get out of a difficult period, maybe this could help others too?
Just to say, working out got a lot higher on my routine list and will not easily get skipped anymore. It takes 21 days to build or break a habit, it takes 90 days to create a lifestyle and this is where consistency in building a routing is key!
Trust the process
Why are we struggling to keep up our routine? Usually it’s because we are too impatient. We want immediate results and if not, we will try to find another way to reach that goal. That’s why people are so susceptible to commercials like weight loss pills while you sleep. If it were that easy, 48% of the Flanders would not be overweight. So keep taking those small steps forward and realize that each day well spend is a day closer to your goal you may have set for yourself.
Furthermore, external elements – mostly people- can throw you off and make your day go off course. Your kid gets sick and needs to be picked up from school early, you can go to the doctors at 20h, the time you would normally work out. This is where you need to roll with the punches and see if you can do a quick workout at home afterwards (check out my previous article on quick workouts). But you also have people that call you last minute to ask you a favor, the people pleaser inside you wants to say YES immediately, but the consistent goal- seeker needs to say no instead. This is in your hands, learn to prioritize yourself and say NO, sorry not today Kim, I have made other plans. We think people will dislike us after saying no, but in reality, Kim is already calling another person instead.
So stop guilt-tripping yourself and keep up that steady routine! Go get those results, in the end, you and how you are feeling (mentally and physically) will determine how you come across, how your energy flows, how much progress you make, how motivated you are and so on.
Reasons enough to get that routine on track again, don’t you think? If you need a helping hand in getting a healthy lifestyle on that prior-list, then click this link!
