Day One? Or One Day?

Day One? Or One Day?

Yes, I know it seems like this should probably wait for some cyclical holiday signaling renewal and fresh starts but waiting for some signal to ‘go’ makes as much sense as waiting to start on conquering your goals. This isn’t going to be a long-drawn out conversation, because truthfully, you’ve read this a hundred times, heard some variation of this from 190 friends, and ignored this from your parents 9,999 times. This isn’t a new conversation, but if you’re reading this, you’re probably looking for some form of intrinsic motivation.

So, how do you take the first step? Well, deciding is a good place to start but the hardest step is acting upon it. What is your plan of action?

              When setting your goals for the next phase here are some tips to keep in mind:

1. Make sure your goals are SMART (Smart, Measurable, Attainable, Reasonable, and Time-bound).
2. Support is imperative. When you set out to change x, y, and z you’re going to run into speed bumps. Having a solid support system in your corner is vital to your long-term success.
3. Set mini goals to keep you on track (this week you’ll walk 1 mile a day, you’ll eat a vegetable at every meal, you’ll swap out 5 of your 10 cups of coffee for an actual glass of water.

See? Amazing hunny. Look at you! Changing your habits, one day at a time! This is a huge issue in most goal setting processes. People look 10 years down the road and forget that “it’s not the mountain that’ll get you, it’s the pebble in your shoe.”

Meaning?

 You must address yourself right where you’re at in this present moment. Look at the variables that you have complete control over; sleep, water intake, stress levels, your food (yes, you can control this), and your activity levels. Read that again. Did I mention anything about exercise? No. Exercise is important but if you’re not drinking adequate amounts of water, sleeping more than 4 hours a night, and you’re the walking personification of Mt. Vesuvius, you’ve got to deal with yourself first.

Unfortunately, there is truth in “you can’t outrun a bad diet.” But really it should read as “you can’t outrun a bad diet, poor sleep patterns, dehydration, chronic stress, and mounting self-imposed pressure.”

The trick to success? Start with one thing (side bar: if you haven’t read the Compound Effect, I highly suggest you do.) and do it every day. Maybe you and your partner decide to walk one mile every evening instead of practicing your favorite pastime of deep couch sitting while zoning out watching late night TV. Over the course of a year, give or take a few days off, you will have walked 350 miles. That will put a huge dent in your goal of weight-loss, raising activity levels, and spending quality time with the love of your life. Is walking one mile an evening manageable? Yes. Is it Attainable? Yes. Is it time-bound? Yes. Is it realistic? Yes.

Now, let’s extrapolate that to other realms of your life. Maybe a month into your one mile a day journey you add in the goal of cutting back on some dietary excess. You decide that you’re going to cook at home 4x a week. In addition to saving money from eating out, you’ve also cut back on unnecessary calories (FYI the FDA only requires restaurants/labels to be within 25% of the actual nutrient content of their menu – so, have fun doing the math on that one), add that to your daily walk and all of a sudden you’ve taken your self from a caloric surplus to a deficit. All while managing the smaller pieces of the puzzle!

Whatever your goal is: get started today. People will plan for ‘tomorrow’, ‘Monday’, or “One Day” but the issue is, if you’re constantly waiting on “one day” you’ll never actually move.

Signing off,

Your Friendly Neighborhood Soldierfit