Friday with Heidi: How to get motivated…

A very happy New Year to you all. I hope that you have the most healthiest of years ahead of you!

The trouble is that you can feel a bit like a party-pooper at New Year if you don’t bounce out of bed on January 1st feeling full of energy and motivation for the year ahead.

Social media and the press are awash with reminders about what you can do, how you can do it and why haven’t you started yet? It’s enough to send you back under the duvet until February.

So what can you do about it?

You know you’d like to make some changes, but you really can’t be bothered right now.

You know you want to get started so that you don’t end up leaving it to the last minute (a month before your holiday!).

And you’d love to have a bit more pep in your step so that these things feel easier to address and do, rather than a drag and a dirge.

What to do?

Let’s delay it!

Use January as your warm up month.

Choose to make the changeover slower and smoother so that the wrinkles can be ironed out along the way.

Get rid of the leftovers and Christmas food. I don’t like waste and can’t bear the thought of throwing good food away, so finish it off before any thoughts of ‘being good’ rise up.

If there’s a lot of food you just can’t eat. Freeze it. Freeze mince pies, grated cheese, butter, stale bread (for breadcrumbs), cold meats, Christmas cake (no icing), double cream and milk. If you have veggies that are slowly wilting make up a bit pot of vegetable and bean soup and freeze that. You’ll be glad you did when you need a meal in a hurry.

As you’re slowing working your way through these items, think about what you could do that will a difference this month.

• Do you need to get to sleep a bit sooner?
• Are your eyes and skin itchy from dehydration?
• Would a menu plan with a basic shopping list be useful?
• Would a walk at lunchtime three days a week make you feel a bit more awake and less like you only see outside when it’s dark?
• How about reading a biography or self improvement book to give you some ideas to think about?

By the time we get to the end of January, you’ll have the food all gone, feel more rested, be used to drinking more water, have a couple of meals a week ready to hand and got some air on your face each day during daylight hours.

It’s the warm up to get the inspiration and motivation rising.

It’s the duvet-day equivalent of a New Years resolution.

It’s a kind of quiet, softly-softly approach to finding your mojo after the Christmas splurge.

Infact I’d suggest that you’ll get better results than those who rush to do it all in one go. You’ll still be there doing your warm up but seeing the benefits without the guilt or the stress or the rush. Where they may have already chucked the towel in.

If one of your ease-back-into-its is doing something to improve your health and eating, join us for our cook-from-scratch project this month. You’ll find it on Facebook here, where I’ll be posting the highlights from our member’s contributions each week. Nothing stressful, simple throw together meals that the whole family can enjoy. You can even share your own too!

Have a fabulous weekend and I look forward seeing some of you tomorrow at our Healthiest Year Yet Event at the Wokingham Hilton St Anne’s Hotel. There are a few tickets left if you’d like to join us!