After the excesses of the holiday season we set off all too often in the New Year to a great start of good intentions.

We will lose the weight, change the habits and start exercising. Now, excuse me for being negative, but there is little more depressing than setting out on a run when it’s 2’C outside and the ice on the pavement turns it into an extreme sport.

The feeling of moral superiority and virtuousness soon disappears once those first tweaks appear in those old injuries you’d almost forgotten about and the sofa calls your name ever louder. Gradually, the promises you made to yourself fade as life gets busier and other, more urgent matters take priority.

So, how can you set yourself up for success rather than failure and how can you remember that your health is your most important wealth?

Two of my favourite quotes are:

Illness is the master to whom we pay the most heed
Knowledge and kindness we make promises to only
Pain WE OBEY

You will either feel the pain of discipline or the pain of regret

Unfortunately, the pain we obey is often the pain of going for a run in the cold, or the pain of being out of breath instead of feeling the pain of getting up a bit earlier, denying ourselves that ‘treat’ or the pain of doing what we said we were going to do.

But the pain of regret when we have preventable aches and illnesses is far worse. Being diagnosed with diabetes and heart disease that could have been prevented through good nutrition and an active lifestyle is a regret most would prefer to avoid.

How can we overcome this and get to a place where we can push through those early weeks until motivation becomes habit? I believe the best way to do this is to set goals and have a buddy for accountability.

It’s important that goals are SMART:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Relevant
• Time-based

Getting a buddy or PT that keeps you on track with your goals or, even better does it with you, will take you a long way on days when you don’t have what it takes to do what you intended.

That’s where the most important thing comes in:

Why?

Why do you want to be fit? Why do you want to get or stay healthy? Why do you want to lose weight? Why do you want to look / feel / move better?

The best set goals will fail if you cannot answer this simple question.

We are called Fleet Physio and Wellness for a reason – we take wellness seriously. We can help you with these issues so that you can start this year with a stable foundation for your wellness.

We can detect any issues early whether they are physical, emotional or lifestyle based and help you find the tools to deal with them so you are off to a flying start that you can maintain, rather than getting to March and finding your gym shoes and goals are gathering dust for another year…

Elrina

Offer – £15 off an assessment appointment quoting this article