Healthy Options

New Year, New Mindset - Health Tips from Amy Chambers

1) First of all, let's not mention the word 'resolutions' (we all make the same ones and never stick to them year after year, so ditch that word!), let's say 'long term goals'. It takes at least 21 days for a new habit to be fully in place and at least 1-3 months before any 'visible' results are apparent. So make sure your goals are long term.

2) Don't judge by results only, just because you don't SEE any changes in your body, think about the more subtle changes taking place, how are you feeling mentally/emotionally, how are you sleeping, how do you feel mood wise after doing a class or cooking a delicious homemade meal as opposed to ordering a take away? REMEMBER HOW YOU FEEL AFTERWARDS (not during and not before), it's this 'feel good factor' that will help you get up and go to the gym or cook a meal the next day.

3) If the physical (rather than emotional) side of things is important to you – it is to me… think less about what everything is looking like on the outside and more about your internal joints, tendons, ligaments, muscles, organs, cardio and respiratory systems. Weird, i know but surely it's much better to know that you can get somewhere, lift something, help someone, reach up, bend down, in short be totally active and self sufficient for as long as possible rather than not? It is about looking after your body and it will look after you, it's true! which leads us on to….

4) BALANCE – it's way harder to stay motivated for extended periods of time if you try to change or do too much in one go. CUT DOWN, don't completely give up stuff (we all know what to cut down on: sugar, alcohol, processed foods, hours spent sitting, smoking etc etc). Just cut down, it'll be much easier to maintain over the course of a year or so, you can have a drink, a chocolate bar, miss a class if you're feeling terrible, just don't get into the habit of it! It's all about balance, a bit of this and a bit of that, yin and yang.

5) Write stuff down, keep a food diary (it becomes glaringly obvious when we've had a bad eating day – and one a week is ok!), keep an exercise diary – it is a massive motivator to see what activity you've achieved on a weekly basis, make sure you have a rest day or 2 though please!

6) One final thing, please don't worry too much, you have to think long term, months and years not days and weeks. Think internally (looking after your body so it can look after you from the INSIDE, (unless you're planning on strolling down the high street in your mini skirt and crop top, it should be about being able to get up from the floor/chair in our later years). Think mentally, that 'feel good factor', of having done some exercise or eaten a really wholesome homemade meal (on one day a week it'll justify an entire box of Ferraro Rocher, not on the other six). HAVE FUN, if you don't smile or laugh in a class find something else to do, it shouldn't be a chore to go and exercise - get some music on that brings back memories (takes your mind off things!) and makes you want to move.

If you’d like any further information, or would like us to send you a free copy of our 2017 brochure please do get in touch with any of our friendly office team on 0844 499 2909 - or info@healthy-options.co.uk

Can't wait to see you, we're literally stamping our feet waiting for the season to start!

Amy and the Healthy Options team