It's a new year; now it's time for a new you
Remember sitting around with your friends, a short few weeks ago? Yeah, you remember the night. After a few drinks we all agreed that THIS was going to be the best year ever. Bring on 2017. I’m changing my health and going to reach that darn weight loss goal for sure this time. This time things will be different. This time, we aren’t giving up. Clink. Cheers. Let’s do this. (Insert Tim Allen’s “Tool Man” grunts and groans here.)
Right?
We see the gym memberships rise with the flood of new victims pouring through the doors with their brand new sneakers like a child on their first day of school. Eager to burn some fat and build some muscle. Well, at least that’s what the sign on the door promised. We see the television commercials bombarding us the shakes and diet pills and oodles of pictures of fabulous women in bikinis and men with abdominal muscles that you could grate a block of cheddar cheese on.
Right?
Screech goes the brakes during week two. Yeah, this whole weight loss new lifestyle is bunk and can’t really be accomplished by the normal person that has kids and a job. This is crap. The meal prep, the gym membership, the drinking more water, the new sneakers and all of the little things we put into place just a few weeks ago are gone. We are totally “over it.”
But I say wait — give it a little time.
Expect to have a few slip ups here and there. The difference between a real lifestyle shift and a simple diet plan, is what you do when you mess up, or when life gets a little hard. You have every opportunity to start over at the very next meal. Simple stuff.
Don’t be too hard on yourself. I’ve been doing this healthy lifestyle shift thing for a long time. I can tell you, it is never about a “mommy makeover”, 12-week transformation, Biggest Loser, 30-day melt, or whatever plan. This, my friend, is something we incorporate little by little, day in and day out. You got this.
Natalie Dreger is a certified fitness professional and can be reached at nataliedreger.com.