Ah yes, the Holiday Grace Period… that’s what I like to call the “carte blanche” of overeating!
Then our calendar quickly reminds us that the New Year is here and that this grace period has come to end. Now we must brace ourselves for having to deal with the consequences for a week or two of overindulgence (GUILTY!)
Reality Check Time!
Following the emotional rollercoaster comes the infamous “new year, new you” taglines. With that comes all the associated implications of needing to wait for January to change that habits you accumulated over the past eleven months. Suddenly caring for your health becomes of utmost importance for the next 30 days – sound familiar?
Now, that we’ve gotten that out in the open, let’s talk about sustainable approaches to ACTUALLY becoming a healthier version of you for the entire year and beyond — not just for the first month. In this blog series, I’ll be highlighting six practical and sustainable tips to be healthier and happier.
Eating healthy and exercising more are two of the most common goals that I hear for New Year’s resolutions. While I think it’s great to focus on our fitness more and eat more nutritious foods, these changes don’t seem to last long for most people. Not to mention, stress levels keep skyrocketing year after year, as reported by more than 70% of North Americans. So, how can we slow things down and mentally prepare for another year where we can bring these goals to fruition?
Welcome to nutriFoodie’s 2017 “Survival Tips” Series
In this blog series, I have prepared some of my favourite nutriFoodie ‘survival tips’ for you and your family to have a happy, healthy New Year and make lasting changes.
I find early January to be very positive as many people are incredibly motivated for a fresh start and are in a good mindset to make changes. In order to work on changing our behaviours and making long-term changes, we need to start slowly and make small goals we can build on and reach over time.
Tip #1: Plan Ahead
- Planning ahead can help you to stay accountable and set realistic long-term goals. If you have kids, they tend to get excited when they have something to look forward to and enjoy helping parents achieve goals. Scheduling family activities help to create stronger bonds between parents, parent and child and children and their siblings.
- Personally, I take time early in January to set *realistic* goals for the year on a personal and professional level, and I constantly read my resolutions every month to keep on top of them.
- How to do it: Sit down with a yearly calendar and pre-plan big goals, special dinners and celebrations, adventure days, vacations etc. Add in monthly activities as you go along. Reflect on goals, accomplishments and any setbacks at the end of each month. If you do this with someone else, you can keep each other on track. On a weekly basis, pre-plan some food on less busy days (see this blog post for some extra tips) or do menu planning, grocery shopping and meal prep at the start of each week.
Do you need help with your wellness goals?
Whether it’s to figure them out, organize them, prioritize them or come up with a plan to achieve them, I can help!
Book a no-commitment, free consultation with me and we can talk it out. I only have 6 slots available every week, so book yours, today, and get your planning underway!
