HAPPY NEW YEAR MOM’S!!!
I hope you brought in the New Year as planned! Now that we are a couple of days in, it is time for some “ME” time! So, sit back, relax, and soak up what I am about to put down!
It is finally the New Year! 2022 feels like it is going to be a promising year. A year full of laughter, love, discipline, mental wellness, physical strength, and prosperity. I wish that for all of you! Especially those of you sitting back saying “it is day 4 of 2022 and I have not started working on my fitness goals yet.” We will get there, but first we MUST lay down the foundation for success.
Ladies, I am no stranger to the struggles of losing weight. Some of you reading this are on year 5 or more of adding your fitness goals to your New Year’s Resolution. Nothing seems to stick. You start for a week, feel good, then something happens that prevents you from staying consistent. We’ve all been there. I’ve been there TOO many times. Life happens! But, this year when life happens we are going to stay the course….. because life will always happen and that cannot be our excuse anymore. So, here are the 7 ways we will reach our fitness goals this year!
REALITY
First is reality. When I say reality, I mean be realistic about the time you can dedicate to fitness and nutrition, and be super realistic about your #bodygoals. Please be REAL about both or this goal will land right back at the top of 2023’s New Year’s Resolution.
Realistically, how much time do you have to work out and meal prep a week? I am one of those people that says I am going to work out 5-6 days a week and fail. My failure is not because I do not want to do the work. It is because I was not real about my schedule. A full-time mom, full-time employee, and a human being who needs rest, may not be able to work out 5-6 days a week and that is okay. In fact, many women I know who have reached their weight loss goals may only workout 3-4 days a week, and guess what? They reached their goals because they made a realistic schedule. Their realistic schedule only allowed for meal prepping during the weekend, and that is okay too! Make your journey yours, by fitting what you can in, when you can!
Guess what else these successful women did? They did not set unrealistic body goals. The expectations of what a woman’s body should look like has become more dramatic over the years. Thanks to social media, all of us moms should be snapped back two weeks postpartum. By month 2, we should have perfectly shaped hips, no stomach, a very thin waist, and a huge butt. As many people that tell you this body shape is natural, I am here to tell you that it may not be natural for you! I come from a family of women who have hips, thighs, and butt, and with those 3 body parts being bigger it is likely that a stomach will match it. So, there may be women who naturally have a slim waist, flat stomach, and big butt, but this may not be a reality for you. Hard work and GENETICS play the biggest roles in the way you are shaped.
ACCOUNTABILITY
Second is accountability. I know, I hate people micromanaging me too. But, how else are you going to hold yourself accountable? Everyone tells us to reach our goals we must hold ourselves accountable. In my experience, this is not enough to help me stick to my goals. The I can do it on my own approach has not worked. Which is why we are here trying to figure out how to stick to our weight loss goals again.
So, why have a partner? The times that I have reached my goals were when I told a close friend or family to hold me accountable by checking in and reminding me of what I had promised to myself. An accountability partner might annoy you, but that annoyance may be good. You start to do the work so you won’t hear that person’s mouth lol. Or you are like me, and like to prove people wrong! So, find someone who wants to see you accomplish your goals and is not afraid to confront you when you’re slacking.
KEEPING TRACK
Third is keeping track. Keeping track allows you and your accountability partner to make sure you are doing the work. Keeping track also allows you to have proof of progress. Proof of progress is probably going to be the most rewarding and exciting part of this journey! So, TAKE THOSE PROGRESS PICTURES! They may be embarrassing to you now, but they will become an inspiration later.
If you are confused about how to track your journey, pick a calendar, planner, notebook, or journal. Track your progress pictures, water intake, meals, and workouts. Also track your mood, because our moods are linked to what we eat. Once you realize a certain food is altering your mood in a negative way and it is not healthy, it makes it 10x’s easier to remove it from your diet. Reminder: DIET is 80% and workout is 20%, eat energy and mood fueling foods!
An advantage to keeping track with the products above is that you will get to physically see your body transform over time. You will get to see the days you put in hard work. You will get to see how many days you did not put in work and still accomplished your goal. The most beautiful bonus is, you will be able to share your entire process with others in detail. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve watched a fitness guru map out their perfect workouts and meal plans but I was still left feeling confused. Am I the only person who wants to know exactly what these people ate to reach their goals? The way you track everything will allow you to fill in those gaps for the people you want to help. That way someone can see you ate McDonald’s a few times, but still reached your goal. Making it easier for other women to gain the confidence they need knowing this journey is not meant to be perfect.
Most importantly, be honest!
HONESTY
Fourth is honesty. Honesty ties into keeping track. The only way you can truly help yourself is by honestly tracking your food and exercise. DO NOT LIE! If you are honest, you can see your patterns/ habits and adjust accordingly. You can also see the amount of weight dropped or gained that week, which makes it easier to see the correlation between the food you eat and the body you want.
Remember, no journey is perfect! Just make sure you put everything you are tracking in honestly and adjust as needed.
CONSISTENCY
Fifth is consistency. Once you have committed to keeping track and being honest, consistency becomes easy. You now know that the journey does not have to be perfect. When you mess up, you need to keep going instead of giving up. Do not waste your progress because of a day, weekend, or week of mess ups. That week will not do enough damage to revert you back to square one, and if it does, keep going! When you did not mess up as often you accomplished your goals! So, there is the proof you need to know that you can accomplish them. With consistency comes habits, and habits form lifestyle changes. Staying consistent will guarantee that lifestyle change, making your progress permanent.
REWARDS
Sixth is rewards. This is pretty simple. With consistency comes rewards! Setting up rewards is my favorite part of this process. Who doesn’t like to be rewarded for their hard work? Make your rewards special, so special that you will continue to be consistent because you look forward to being rewarded.
LOVE
Last but NOT least is love. This is probably the most cliché saying of 2021…. love yourself! I cannot even be mad about its overuse because it is true. To truly commit to this goal you have to (1) love yourself, and (2) love this journey. I’ll explain how below.
(1) How you treat your body is a reflection of how you feel about it. So, those years of saying you hate your body, and not making permanent progress towards your goals makes sense. What would happen if you start to change your mind set about your body? Why not find things you do love about your body? I can give you one right now! Love that your body can transform into the healthy body you realistically imagined. If you ask me, that is a damn good body! To be able to transform from something that is already beautiful to something that is beautiful AND makes you happy, is magical! So, LOVE YOUR BODY! LOVE YOURSELF! Love your body and yourself enough to finally take charge and treat it right. Treat your body right now, so you do not have regrets later. You already know how that feels depending on how many times you’ve stopped and started this journey. So, this time stick to it and LOVE IT!
(2) Loving this journey does not mean you are going to love every workout or love meal prepping. It means that you love the fact that you are working towards a goal! A goal that is attainable with reality, accountability, keeping track, honesty, consistency, rewards, and love! The moment you start to see physical progress you will fall in love with your journey, and it’ll all be worth it in the end.
Cheers to everyone implementing all 7 steps in a way that works best for them. I cannot wait to see/ hear your success stories!
