Most of the time when someone is embarking on a new fitness journey, the main focus is THE BODY. Of course, we *all* want to feel good about our bodies. But a lot of the time, people forget that retraining your brain in the process, is just as important as retraining your body.
Just like seeing progress physically, retraining your brain can take time. For most people, it will be much easier to maintain your progress long term if you work on your mindset surrounding food and health as well as changing physical habits.
Here are some extra things that you can do to give yourself a leg-up on your journey, and decrease your chances of falling back into your old, bad habits!
Journaling
What you eat, what you do for exercise, what you think, how you feel... you might not think that having these things on paper would make a difference for long-term success, but journaling not only helps keep yourself accountable and gives you a healthy outlet to address what you're feeling on your journey, it's also a great thing to look back on as you make progress, and can even help you become more aware of unhealthy thoughts and patterns that are encouraging unhealthy habits.
Have Realistic Expectations
I get it, we all want that instant gratification. But what if I told you that wanting results NOW is one of the main reasons a lot of people quit? Instead of looking at your goals as one big whole, try breaking it down into smaller goals and tackle each goal one at a time. For example, if you want to lose 50 pounds, starting out, focus on the first 10lbs, celebrate that goal, and then move onto the next 10lbs. This can make the whole journey feel less overwhelming and help you remain positive throughout your journey!
Give Yourself Grace-NOBODY is Perfect
If I had a dollar for every time someone gave up and quit because "they failed"... well, I'd have a whole lot of dollars!! We all have off days, we all have days where we don't want to show up to work for our goals, and we don't ALWAYS have the strength to be 100% every SINGLE day. But if we all quit every time we had one of those days, nobody would ever succeed at anything! We don't punish ourselves. We don't hate ourselves. We take a minute to figure out *why* you had a bad day, how having that bad day made you feel, and we move on towards your goals! Don't let one bad day end your journey!
Seek Out Support
Sometimes having someone going through the journey with you, to listen to your struggles, encourage you not to quit, and yes, call you on your sh**, can make goals seem more attainable, and give you an extra push on your bad days. This can be a friend who has their own goals, or a coach to help map out your journey, and give you some loving kicks in the ass along the way (humbly raises hand)!
If you're looking for a coach to take the guess-work out of your journey, let's chat! If not, go forth and crush your physical AND mental health goals in 2022, and I'll be on the sidelines cheering you on!!
With Love and a Little Kick In the Ass,
