Tag: new year’s resolutions

fitness · habits · motivation · new year's resolutions

Go Team! January 21: Don’t Catch Up

Christine Hennebury1 Comment

If I fall behind on a program I am doing – exercise or otherwise – I have a bad habit of trying to ‘catch up.’

This either leads to me trying to jam multiple sessions into one day, or to me avoiding the activity entirely because there is too much to do to rejoin the group (even if it is a self-paced program.)

Lately, though, I have realized that I don’t always *have* to catch up and neither do you!

Sure, some graduated programs require us to do every step, but most of the time we can just jump right into the plan for a given day. We might be a little in over our heads for the first bit, but we’ll adjust.

(And, of course, if you feel stressed about jumping in, you can always skim the missing material without doing it all.)

And if we DO need to do every step in order for the program to make sense?

Then we harness our word power again.

If saying that we are trying to catch up gives us that stressed feeling of being ‘behind’ perhaps we can call it restarting or recalibrating.

For me, both of those words have a sense of bringing experience and new information to our plans. That experience/information can help us to proceed in a way that better serves us.

And they let us pick up where we left off without the feeling that we should be at another point in the process.

So, if you haven’t been able to follow the program that you set for yourself, don’t feel that you need to catch up.

Instead, you can choose to jump forward or recalibrate.

The key is that you keep going in a way that feels freeing.

Please don’t let what you haven’t done drag you down and keep you from continuing.

Here’s your gold star for today’s plans for jumping, recalibration or for staying the course.

You can do this!

Image description: a hand-drawn gold star with eyes and a smiling mouth stands on a thick black line that has some gold lines overlaid on it. The star’s upper right and left points are slightly raised.
Yes, I do draw stars all the time. This one is raising two of their little star points to celebrate your efforts. Image description: a hand-drawn gold star with eyes and a smiling mouth stands on a thick black line that has some gold lines overlaid on it. The star’s upper right and left points are slightly raised.
fitness · habits · motivation · new year's resolutions

Go Team! January 20: Say Yet (that’s not a typo)

Christine Hennebury5 Comments

I don’t know about you but I love the hopeful and promising word “yet.”

There is so much possibility packed into that single word. Something hasn’t happened “yet” but with the right tools/skills/information/time frame it could still happen.

Think about the difference between these two statements.

  1. I don’t exercise regularly.

2. I don’t exercise regularly yet.

To me, the first one feels like something being shut down. It’s final and complete.

That second one though? Well, ANYTHING could happen with that one.

The word ‘yet’ is one of my favourite ways to counter discouragement.

It’s not that I am never going to be able to do the thing I am trying to do, I just haven’t found the right method…yet. I can still make changes and adjustments, I can figure out what I need or where to get further support.

Yes, I know this is a very small detail overall but, words have power and we might as well have that power working for us instead of against us. That little word might be the difference between feeling defeated and giving our plans another try.

So, Team, how might you use the word ‘yet’?

How can ‘yet’ keep a door open for you?

Is there something that you haven’t done ‘yet’ that might still be possible with the right support?

Do you have your gold star(s) for today yet?

Here you go!

Image description: 8 hand-drawn gold stars of various sizes with a background of black lines drawn on white paper.​
Part of another drawing of mine. As you can tell, I like drawing stars and not-even-remotely-straight lines. Image description: 8 hand-drawn gold stars of various sizes with a background of black lines drawn on white paper.
advice · fitness · habits · motivation · new year's resolutions

Go Team! January 18: Respect Your Resistance

Christine Hennebury2 Comments

How do you respond when your brain resists the idea of moving or meditating or doing any of the other things that are challenging in the short term but beneficial in the long term?

Do you try to stubborn your way through the resistance?

(I have had moderate success with this some of the time.)

Do you give into the resistance and just avoid your wellness plans?

(I’ve done this regularly in the past. It did not make me feel any better and I did not become any fitter nor did it lower my stress levels.)

Or, do you respect your resistance and try to figure out why it is coming up right now?

(This has been my most useful approach for dealing with resistance.)

Once you get curious about the nature of your resistance, you can often address some of the challenges that tend to bring it to the forefront.

Sure, sometimes resistance is just inertia – a kind of energy-based reluctance to change from your current state to new one and that’s when stubbornly pushing ahead will probably help.

Otherwise, though, resistance could have useful information for you.

Asking yourself questions about the specific nature of your resistance will bring any frustrations about your wellness plans to your conscious mind. Once you are consciously aware of the issues, you can decide how to address them.

(Even though we are trying to find out the ‘why’ of our resistance, I haven’t actually found it all that useful to ask myself why I am resisting my own plan.

Instead, I ask myself ‘What would I need to get started?’

Either question works, of course, and so would many others. Choose one that suits *you* best.)

Perhaps you are resisting your exercise session because you find it too cold when you are getting started.

Maybe you don’t want to exercise because you hate the music in the video you follow.

Your program might be too challenging for you right now, or you may find it lonely to exercise alone, you may be trying to exercise or meditate at the ‘wrong’ time of day, or doing certain exercises may stir up a bad feeling for you.

Perhaps you’ll realize that the goal you initially set isn’t actually all that important to you. Or maybe you’ll discover that you have accidentally been following a program someone else said that you ‘should’ do.

(Personally, I always resist a should but I don’t always realize that I’m doing it until I get curious about my resistance.)

No matter what comes up for you during this process, you will probably have the information you need to go into problem-solving mode.

Once you are in problem-solving mode, you can give yourself and your resistance the respect you both deserve and find ways to make it easier to get moving.

A photo of the author’s left hand. She has two gold rings on her ring finger and there is a gold star sticker on the back of her middle finger between the second knuckle on her finger and the knuckle on the back of her hand.
Here’s a picture of my left hand with a gold star sticker on the back of my middle finger. Here’s the story that goes with it: I was looking around the main floor of my house to determine which gold star to photograph today when my dog interrupted me to ask for a treat. I reached into the cupboard to get her one and when I withdrew my hand, I noticed this sticker. I have no idea where it came from but obviously I had to include it in this post!

PS: If you’d like some help brainstorming any obstacles you uncover in this process, let me know in the comments and I’ll put my brain in your storm for a while.

fitness · habits · martial arts · motivation · new year's resolutions

Go Team! January 15: Put on Your Dobok (or bandana or fancy socks or…)

Christine Hennebury2 Comments

If you are having trouble getting in the exercise frame of mind, creating an external cue might help.

Let me give you an example:

Last Sunday morning, I participated in an international online superclass for Taekwondo .

When I registered for the class back in December, I hadn’t noticed that it started at 7:30am Newfoundland Time.

I was excited to take the class but 7:30am on a Sunday seemed really hard. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to get into the Taekwondo ’zone’ and that I wouldn’t get as much out of the class because I would be sleepy and uncoordinated.

Luckily, I was wrong.

Even though it was early, even though it was a Sunday morning, even though I was online instead of in a class, once I put my dobok (my TKD uniform) on I was in taekwondo mode.

It was a kind of magic. One minute I was sleepy, grumpy, and vaguely regretful about committing to this. The next, I was awake, interested, and ready to get moving.

My dobok gave me an exercise context, it was an external cue.

After all, I only put my dobok on for Taekwondo. I don’t put it on to lounge around the house or to run errands, I put it on because it is time to go to class.

And, it turns out that any time can feel like class time…if I put my dobok on.

Obviously, most people won’t have a dobok but you probably have a piece of clothing or gear that symbolizes exercise for you, an external cue that will put you in a movement frame of mind.

If you don’t have one yet, it might be a good time to start developing one. Find something you can use or wear every time you exercise so, eventually, that item will tell your brain that it is time to get moving.

(A category of item can work just as well as an individual one, i.e. wearing any bandana around your neck could be an exercise cue, it doesn’t have to be that specific red one.)

Do you have a piece of clothing that puts you into exercise mode?

If so, what is it?

If not, what *could* you use to help you slip into that zone?

Keep up the good work, Team, building habits takes conscious effort and, like I said the other day, it’s okay to give yourself what you need to support those efforts.

Here’s your gold star for today!

A multi-sided gold star ornament hangs on an orange-coloured wall.
Another day, another gold star.
Keep up the good work!
fitness · motivation · new year's resolutions · planning · schedule

Go Team! January 13: Keep What’s Working (And Toss or Tweak The Rest)

Christine Hennebury1 Comment

How are you doing with your exercise and wellness plans?

If all is well, then forge ahead!

But if you are struggling to fit your new plans into your day, you aren’t alone.

It can be really hard to add something challenging to your existing schedule and stick with it.

But, that doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with YOU!

You aren’t failing, you aren’t messing up, and it definitely does NOT mean that you aren’t working hard enough.

All it means is that you have more information now than you did when you made your plans.

At this point, you have a much better idea of what works for you and where you might need to make some changes.

Perhaps your plan for early morning exercise isn’t working because you have too much to do at the end of the night before and you can’t get to bed early enough to get up at 6am.

Maybe the exercise program you selected is a notch or two above your current capacity and you need something closer to your current abilities.

Or you may have realized that your planned hour of exercise is too long to fit into your current schedule.

Or maybe you are dragging yourself through an abs program and you’ve realized that you hate every single exercise.

That’s all ok.

Your initial plans were not set in stone.

You are free to use this new information to switch things up to serve you better.

You can keep any part of your plans that is working and then toss or tweak anything that isn’t working for you.

Feel free to start over, start smaller, start at a different time, start a different program.

And try not to feel guilty about making those changes. I understand that ambient guilt floats around all of these things just waiting to attach itself to us but guilt can be less sticky when we are conscious of it. (I like to call it out when I feel it, literally saying aloud, ‘Oh, guilt, I recognize you! You don’t belong here.’ It’s a weird thing to do but it helps.)

Your exercise and wellness plans are YOURS. They are supposed to be about you and how you can feel better overall.

You don’t have to stick with any plans that aren’t serving you well.

So, if you need/want to, go ahead and reshape those plans.

Here’s your gold star for today’s efforts in movement, wellness, planning, tweaking, or tossing:

A gold star ornament on a wooden tabletop.
Another day, another gold star!
fitness

Go Team: Celebrate Every Win, No Matter How Small

Christine Hennebury

When I am creating my task list for a large or long-term project, I like to start my list with items like ‘brainstorm about project’ and ‘make task list.’

I’m not being cute or silly with those things, I’m being strategic.

Having things like  ‘make list’ on my list creates an opportunity for an early victory. 

As soon as I finish my list, I can cross something off.

That quick win is encouraging and helps me build momentum.

When we are thinking about a long- term plan or goal, we spend a lot of time looking at the road ahead, measuring how far we have to go. 

I’d like to encourage us all to take a glance back to see how far we’ve come.

I think today is a great day to celebrate some fitness goal wins, no matter how small they are.

Have you:

  • Done some brainstorming?
  • Made a plan?
  • Figured out the time, clothing, or equipment you need?
  • Tried your planned activity?
  • Completed a session of your planned activity?
  • Found a fitness buddy?
  • Set up a tracking sheet?
  • Read this encouragement post?

Incorporating new or expanded habits into your life is a slow (and sometimes tricky) process. 

It’s important to find ways to acknowledge and celebrate your efforts so you can remind yourself that you are making progress.

Here’s a gold star for your efforts so far.

Please me about some of them in the comments.

A sequinned gold star hangs from a pushpin on an orange wall.
This sequinned gold star hangs in my kitchen, next to my calendar. I love stars of all kinds but this specific one is to remind me to celebrate my efforts to write family appointments on the calendar.

Throughout January, Christine H will be creating short posts of encouragement for all of us who are creating, building, or expanding our fitness habits. She’ll be awarding gold stars for our efforts and enthusiastically shouting, ‘Go Team!’ as we work together to make progress. ⭐️

new year's resolutions

Now that’s a whole 30 challenge I can get behind!

Sam B8 Comments

I think we’re finally seeing a shift in the landscape about health and new year’s resolutions. There are far fewer articles in my various social media newsfeeds about dire diets and impossible plans. Instead, I’m seeing some reflective reporting on evidence based plans for how to make your life better, if that’s what you’re after this January. Now maybe that’s just better news algorithms but whatever, I’ll take it.

For example, the BBC this week ran a great list of health tips that weren’t about restricting foods, running unhappily on a treadmill, and weighing yourself. Instead, they made recommendations like smile more, get enough sleep, and get a dog. I can’t find the link for you! (Sorry about that. It’s been a busy week back to work.) (Edit/update: It’s here. Thanks Keri for helping out!) My favourite though was a 30 food challenge. Not the dreaded Whole 30 challenge which restricts foods, this challenge is to eat 30 different plant based foods in a week:

According to Megan Rossi, “We should aim for at least 30 different plant-based foods per week, she says. That is because plant-based diversity is thought to have a key role in good gut health. The bacteria in our gut – collectively known as the microbiome – have a profound role in our health. Allergies, obesity, inflammatory bowel disease, Parkinson’s, and even depression have all been linked to the bacteria in our gut. One way we can get more plant-based diversity in our diets easily is by being a little savvier about some of the foods we purchase, says Dr Rossi. “Instead of just buying chickpeas go for the four-bean mix. Instead of buying one type of seed buy the four-seed mix,” she says.”

Lots of different vegetables: Image from Getty.

Now Matt Fitzgerald wonders if we ought to strive to eat different foods everyday. In his Is Dietary Variety Overrated? he looks at the advantages of eating the same healthy foods everyday. And there are some advantages. Planning and meal prep is easier and you can choose healthy meals you like and stick with them. That said, when it comes to fruits and vegetables there are nutritional reasons for striving for variety.

He writes, ” For example, in one study researchers from the University of Colorado divided 106 women into two groups and placed them on different diets. Both groups consumed 8-10 servings of fruits and vegetables per day, but one group ate 18 different varieties of fruits and vegetables while the other ate only five varieties. Blood tests taken after two weeks revealed that while both groups showed a reduction in lipid peroxidation (due to increased antioxidant intake), only the wide-variety group exhibited a reduction of DNA damage caused by free radicals.”

Do you eat 30 different plant based foods in a week? Looking at my food log (yes, I track, I like it, still!) I’ve got a ways to go. So far I’ve had apples, onions, celery, mushrooms, spinach, and broccoli.

How about you? How many different plant based foods do you eat in a week?

motivation

Happy New Year! (September is the new year for academics)

Sam B2 Comments

September is my January. It’s a time for resolutions. I’ve written about September feeling like my January before.

And I’m not alone.

It’s not just university professors and students everywhere who feel this way.

Here’s Lindsey Siera writing about why September is actually New Year’s.

“Sure, January 1st may mark the onset of the official new year. But for most of us, it’s more about the excitement of New Year’s celebrations than an actual new beginning. In fact, there’s not a lot of “newness” about that time of year at all. It’s still winter. We’re still in the same humdrum routines. For many of us, it’s still just midway through the school year. And for all of us, it just doesn’t feel like all that much is fresh. Now September 1st — that’s when the new year actually feels like it’s ready to start. Albeit nine months into the “official” calendar year, it’s when our new planners actually begin. It’s the beginning of fall, when the leaves begin to change, the beginning of school terms, and (most importantly for fashion diehards) the beginning of the biggest, boldest fashion season of the year.”

Catherine blogged this week about her worries about re-entering the academic year routine after a good summer that had time for flexible fun and fitness. I’m still trying to balance my new big job with my fitness ambitions. Also, I need some plans and goals about writing and research. I love academic administration–making things happen makes me smile–but it’s a struggle to fit my own stuff in. Just check out Monday’s post on my scramble to find vacation time.

I set intentions about all sorts of things: getting enough sleep, packing healthy lunches, setting time aside every day to write, going to the gym, and riding my bike. Also, buying new clothes that aren’t black.

I’m commuting by bike everyday but it’s just 5 km round trip. That’s not enough. I’m also running errands by bike and that helps. Ditto there are a lot of dog hikes in my life. I get into the gym about twice a week to lift weights. What’s missing? Well, long bike rides, for sure. I also need a new thing to get me into the university fitness centre. It will be swimming for a few weeks. If that doesn’t take then aquafit and spin classes will take its place.

How about you? Does September feel like a new beginning to you? Do you set intentions? Make big plans?

A reddish dog with a white collar sitting on a chair, underneath a plant. Photo by Camylla Battani on Unsplash

fitness

New Year Same You (Guest Post)

Jenn Seeley

There are 3 guarantees in life: Death, Taxes, and New-Years-Resolution-Makers. This is that time of year where everyone and their dog is talking about resolution making. From matter-of-fact haters of the resolution-making (that’s me!) to faithful good-intention-filled folks, there are thoughts and opinions flying  about what to do regarding goal setting on January first.

Let me start by saying that I’m a definite advocate of doing good things for ourselves – our minds, bodies, emotions, hearts. And while most often, a new year brings with it all kinds of resolve along the lines of making our lives better somehow, a lot of resolutions end up being more shame based vanity cries of guilt to conform to social constructs built on foundations of patriarchy and financial gain.

Weight loss magic claims are filling my Facebook feed, and already the talks of cleanses, diets, fads, and ways to be ‘thin’ are assaulting me at every corner.  The idea that we should strive to be one specific way (read: thin, strong, sexy, dainty, ‘feminine’, and all according to the subjectivity of constructed ‘norms’). Substantia Jones, photographer and creator of The Adipositivity Project  was quoted in this great post by Mashable saying:

When determining New Year’s resolutions, I’d like people to know about the studies that have found that making a weight goal part of any health goals is likely to monkey-wrench those health goals. I want folks to understand that even the $64 billion-a-year U.S. weight loss industry no longer disputes that their failure rate hovers around 95%.

So you can see how this ‘perfect’ shape/size/ might not be possible for all folks? Especially with a failure rate that high! Yikes! Yet, we will all watch the parade of weight loss promises pass by when we sign in to our devices of choice over the next few days especially. The focus is so heavy on being lighter that the marquee lit message ends up being “only thin bodies are good bodies”.

Even this well circulated article from Women’s Health that claims to be listening to the desired copy from their readers makes several body shame filled depictions of what ‘ideal’ is and what all of their readers must be striving for in unison. It’s right there in the image below highlighted in yellow.

not all bodies

By the way, I will happily tell you repeatedly: Your body is a good body whether it is toned or not.  No magazine (or blog!) authors can define for you what that should look like. And I hope the epitome of all that your health as a women is NOT found in just how toned, slim, strong, or sexy you are.

Now, before you think I’m trying to discourage someone from setting goals for themselves and making new choices, I’m not. I think it’s great and I probably even wish I had some of your same goals and motivation! I’m only suggesting a consideration of what has been consumed and acted upon as gospel year after year of ‘be a new you’ ideas are riddled with body shame, guilt, and pressure versus inspiration and self-led motivation.

Grant yourself permission to not be pressured to see a new year as some form of forced point of change, and please be kind enough to yourself that you don’t criticize you for ‘holiday treats’. And if you do make resolutions, remember that I told you here and now that if you tap out and change your mind it is not a failure – because YOU are not a failure.

If you’re looking for a January activity that’s not bandwagon jumping and leading to possible let down, feel free to join me in a fun Instagram play-along photo challenge! Read more about #GoodYearGoodYou here.

Wishing you a good year ahead!

Bio: Queer, Fat, Feminist of intersections. Not so fit, but chewing on the reasons why and the ways to challenge what that means. No apologies for any of it.

fitness

To Resolve or Not to Resolve? On New Year’s Resolutions

Tracy I5 Comments

Are you a New Year’s Resolution type or not? I find that people tend to fall into one of two camps — the resolvers and the non-resolvers.

There are just as many reasons to make New Year’s resolutions as there are not to make them. On the make-them side, there is of course the eternal flame of hope that burns most brightly when we turn a fresh page. And what fresher page than a new calendar year?

Picking up on Catherine’s promise that we’ll be posting about the whole “new leaf” thing, here are some of my thoughts.

Almost everyone has something they want to change–get the finances in order, simplify, and the perennial favourites: lose weight, get fit and healthy, eat better. These have great pull as the holiday season winds down and some of us (not to out myself, but okay, I’ll out myself) wake up from the fog of a sugar-induced coma.

But on the don’t-make them side, there’s this: Only 8% stick to their New Year’s resolutions.  Anyone who has ever had to elbow their way to their favourite workout equipment in their gym during the first week of January knows full well that shortly into February the crowds thin again.

Of the top ten most broken New Year’s resolutions, four are about diet, fitness, weight loss, healthier eating (lose weight and get fit, eat healthier and diet, quit smoking, drink less).

Hope is a powerful motivator, though. And hey, maybe you or I can be among that 8%. After all, said article gives the formula that is the 8%’s key:

The key is to realize that adopting a resolution isn’t just about goal setting. What you are really trying to do, is to change your behaviors. And behavior change—to exercise more, to spend less, to stop smoking—is very, very hard.

The key  is in Gleicher’s “change formula”, balancing key motivational factors against resistance:

These factors are:

D = Dissatisfaction with the current situation

V = Vision of the future state

F = First steps towards the future state

And those three variables when multiplied together must be greater than:

R = Resistance (or the cost of change)

In other words, the combination of your current dissatisfaction, goal clarity and specific action plan must be greater than the resistance (i.e., pain) associated with making the change:

Dissatisfaction x Vision x First Steps > Resistance

The power of this equation is in realizing there are two ways to win. You can increase the left side of the equation—the size of your motivation, goals and plan—or you can decrease the resistance on the right side of the equation.

That’s the big, “aha!”

I have often found myself quite aware lately that my resistance often outweighs my goals. I told my swim/triathlon coach just about a month ago that I want to get faster but I’m not sure I want to do the work. That’s called resistance. No amount of awareness in the world is going to help if the resistance out-paces the vision.

So what do the 8% achievers do? They plan for the resistance and work with it, trying to reduce it. Here’s where small steps, support, manageable action plans, fun, can come into it.

Another thing to keep in mind is that there are process goals and outcomes goals. Process goals may be best thought of as habits. Remember, behaviour changes are what we want to stick.

I lean towards the not-make side because I feel as if this is where I start to set myself up to feel crappy about myself.  Nat talked about gentleness and owning our choices. I’m all for that too.

I read recently about cultural procrastination, which according to this article is what kicks in when the resolve, so strong on January 1st, starts to slide:

We always have good intentions that we don’t follow through on. That’s what procrastination is — the gap between intention and action. When you look at New Year’s, by definition, you’re making your intention to start at least days from now, if not weeks or months from now. That gap between intention and action is why I call it culturally prescribed procrastination. Because if you recognize, for example, that you should get more fit, you should change your diet or you should quit smoking, there’s nothing like a good intention now where no action is required to make you feel good. If you recognize these things, then why aren’t you asking yourself the question, ‘What can I do right now to make that change?’ That’s why New Year’s resolutions by definition have an element of procrastination to them.

I’m not here to talk you out of making resolutions. It’s everyone’s choice how they want to approach the clean page that presents itself on January 1st. I’m as prone to the next person at making unreasonable plans for extraordinary change (see my struggles about moderation versus all-or-nothing). Indeed, speaking of procrastination, that’s a big one on my list — I make resolutions about doing less of it all the time.

Here’s an alternative: we can go into the new year with total self-acceptance. That works too. Even Calvin knew that.

Best wishes for 2016, from Tracy I.