5 simple ideas to keep you on track this Summer!

(Stair runs up a mountain in Italy. June 2017)

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Welcome to 2018! We hope that this one is an absolute cracker. We've been chatting to some of our clients about their health and fitness goals for the year. According to Dr Joseph J. Luciani a leader in Clinical Psychology, on average only 20% of people will stick to their New Years Resolutions come February 1. We wanted to give you some simple strategies to help you to not become one of that statistic!

• 1% - Have you ever drawn a line in the sand and told yourself 'from today I will cut out sugar!' or 'I will run every day from tomorrow!' How often does that work!? Can we please keep our expectations of ourselves realistic this summer! How about thinking in terms of being 1% better every day instead of 100% better for one day, then caving and putting it off until next week!!

• The 20 second rules! A expert in productivity and happiness by the name of Shawn Archor, speaks about this idea! When you are trying to cut out a habit from your life make it 20 seconds harder for yourself to act on the thing your trying to stop. For example - trying to cut down on Netflix? Remove the bookmark from your favourite's bar on your computer or sign yourself out!
  
  If you're trying to bring in a habit make it 20 seconds easier for yourself! Decide on the type of exercise and put your gym clothes next to your bed the night before. The next morning when you're considering pressing snooze it might just be difference between getting out of bed to exercise and rolling over!

• Cut out the cop outs! - "I'll start tomorrow" What are those sayings you use to get yourself out of doing things you know you have committed to? One of our personal favourites - 'I'll start tomorrow!' A cop out when the 3pm muchies roll around! You find yourself self justifying a treat (because you'll be better tomorrow!) when just that morning you told yourself you we're going to be healthy. We don't always have to listen to our inner voice! Your 'future self will thank you!!'

• Doing it alone. If you're anything like us, when you're trying to bring in a new habit it can be tough to go it alone. Bringing friends on board (or a friendly therapist!!!) to hold you hold accountable and support you when your will power starts decrease can help to keep you on track.

 

• Going to hard too soon!  Avoid going backwards through injury. A common New Years resolution that goes pear shaped is the following 'I am going to exercise every day!' Not only have we covered this under the ' let's try to be realistic dot point!' If you are currently only exercising 2 or 3 times a week and suddenly you bump it to 5 or 6 that is a 60% increase in exercise during the week. The goal is to progressively increase training by 10% - 20%. So if you've started the first few weeks of January strong and you're starting to feel a niggle maybe have a look at how quickly you have increased your training load in January!

Finally! 

Forgive yourself! We are not perfect and expecting ourselves to make a complete change in a small period of time is setting ourselves up to fail. If you have a bad day or bit of a set back, quickly forgive yourself, move on and commit to getting back on track. We run into trouble when we choose to have a huge breakfast, then declare that the day is a write-off which justifies a burger and chips for lunch and Thai for dinner! Or - we didn't exercise on Monday so that means we start next week! It all comes back to that small changes daily concept! 

Good luck guys!

If you need any help, start to find you have a niggle or are looking for a friendly massage therapist to hold you accountable to your health and fitness goals over the new year we are here to help! To book in a remedial massage or myotherapy session we have 4 great therapists on board across two locations in Spring Hill and Woolloongabba!

References:

• Luciani J. (2016) Thin From Within, UK AMACOM,  ISBN-10: 0814436781
• Achor S (2010) The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work, US: Virgin Books p145 - p171 ( ISBN 9780753539477)