How To Finish The Year Strong
This time of year is probably the hardest to be consistent with our Health & Fitness.
You may be affected by:
👉 A Busier Social Life
👉 Cold / Dark Mornings & Nights
👉 Financial Strain
👉 High Calorie Holiday Foods!
Safe to say... December can be a CRAZY month!
I have a list of 24 highly-specific bullet point style ideas to have a healthy finish to the year… a few of which you may fancy trying.
But before we get to those, I think it’s important to have the right perspective on the month of December in order to set ourselves up for success.
Health & Fitness is for life!
Have you ever heard the phrase, a dog is for life, not just for Christmas.
I often think of this in relation to our health and fitness at this time of year.
Our health and fitness doesn’t disappear during December.
But due to all the craziness, stress and demand on our time and resources… It tends to slip down the priority list for many.
I’m not suggesting that the desire to be fit and healthy should be to the detriment of having an enjoyable time with friends, family and colleagues… and relaxing a bit.
I personally love to have a change of pace at the end of the year
But I believe we should try to keep our health and fitness present in our minds… and take practical steps to maintain our healthy habits.
This will give us a head start in the new year… and make it so much easier to keep seeing progress in January.
REMEMBER: Health & Fitness is for life.
Start Small
There is a lot of research to suggest that starting our healthy habits in December leads to a much higher success Rate than leaving it until January.
One reason this could be the case is because people are more inclined to Start Smaller in December.
Many of have the tendency to set very big and adventurous goals in the new year.
But habits are proven to be more effective if we start small and build on them over time.
For example,
I have one client who is making an effort to start drinking more water this month. So they’ve bought a new bottle to fill each day.
This may seem like a very small habit to introduce in the grand scheme of things.
But by the time they hit the new year, they’ll be in the habit of being well hydrated.
This will improve their ability to drop body fat, improve their energy levels and help regulate their hunger.
How much easier is it going to be for them to build on that momentum in January!
… All because they’ve started a simple, small habit in December.
Minimum Effective Dose
Another useful principle for December, that’s very similar, is the idea of a Minimum Effective Dose.
When you have a literal health problem…
Doctors tend to prescribe a minimum effective dose to get you feeling better again.
If 200mg of penicillin will make someone better… they wouldn’t prescribe 800mg.
Yet when it comes to our own health & fitness.
We can have a tendency to OVERPRESCRIBE and think more is always better.
As we’ve already said…
December is a busy month and we may have less time, energy and resources available to us.
So when you’re thinking about maintaining your current healthy habits… ask:
“What’s the minimum effective dose?”
Perhaps your 10000 steps a day becomes 5000.
Perhaps your daily workout, becomes x2 or x3 for the week.
The key is to create less demand on our time and energy…
Whilst ensuring a minimum commitment to our key habits of training, sleep and nutrition are met.
Maintenance is Progress
Perhaps due to the commitments of December…
You may feel disheartened that you’re not making huge strides toward your goal.
If you feel this way…
You may need to adopt the mindset that, sometimes:
Maintenance is progress.
Often there can be a lot of guilt and disappointment around our health and fitness at this time of year.
Especially if you’ve been making good progress all year, and now things are going to slow down.
The risk is that when we feel disheartened, we start to feel so bad that we throw in the towel.
Readjusting our perspective to see maintenance as progress, may help to keep us in the game throughout December… so we can back on track when life begins to normalise a bit in January.
In Summary
Putting December into the right perspective is important to making it a success.
Remember that Fitness is a ‘Forever Pursuit’ and it doesn’t just go away in December.
We can start small healthy habits now… and they’re more likely to stick
If we’re under a lot of pressure, ask, what is the minimum effective dose?
Remember that, sometimes, Maintenance is Progress.
Ultimately, a successful December to me is one where we keep sight of our Health & Fitness goals…
We don’t have to be making significant progress.
But we can aspire to have the right mindset and take some practical steps to finish the year strong.
A list of ‘24’ practical top tips for a healthy end to the year?
Don’t go shopping hungry!
Ask for ‘skinny’ speciality hot drink (shoutout 10 steps biscoff hot chocolate)
Start your day with a workout.
Make your workouts short and fun.
Create accountability with a friend / family member
Post your fitness stuff online for accountability
Sponsor yourself for charity to do a challenge e.g. no drinking in December
Load up on vegetables
Get some high protein snacks to hand
Don’t graze on snacks, just enjoy your meals
Use diet drinks, not full calorie ones
Focus on getting more sleep
Organise your personal life… get on top of your admin
Line up something wholesome for fun instead of Netflix
Reduce screentime (We can create settings that help us do this)
Laugh with friends and family
Set a limit to your alcohol consumption
Stretch
Take time to reflect and write those thoughts down
Drink more water
Drink vodka / Gin for less calories
Go for walks!
Wake up to light (not just an alarm)
Take Vitamin D
Yours in coaching,
Harry