Start with the end in sight...

Now that the world has started again after Christmas and the school holidays, how are your resolutions (self promises) faring? If being healthier is part of your plan for 2007, you are not alone, as more of us are realising that happiness begins with health. Depending on where you are at in terms of health, you may need to spring clean your routine for healthy habits to resurface or you may need to get a miniskip in and overhaul your lifestyle. Either way, where to start is often hard to work out...so start with the end in sight. How do you want to feel or look come December this year or what do you want to have achieved?? Do you have whimsical wishes with no strings attached or goals that you are going to commit to? Do you wish you could ‘lose weight’ / run the City to Surf / speak French; Or are you going to remove xxkg of fat from your body/ start your running training in preparation for August / enrol in an adult education course? Once you have your goal you just need to work backwards from then to now - start to organise your routine to include your goal on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. Use your calendar to lock in goal benchmarks or deadlines times for you to work towards. Plan to be patient and disciplined because most goals will come at a price, which makes achieving them so much sweeter. Plan for times when your enthusiasm may wane and you will have to merely tolerate the journey for a while; and then celebrate when you achieve your goal!
The adjustments you make are more likely to be successful if they are simple and manageable. Take what you eat as an example. Most of us eat what we eat because we like it and we can prepare it—it is a habit. Apart from everything else, overhauling your existing diet in one go can be an expensive logistic challenge—substituting this, reading labels, remembering the little extras. You are better off making small changes regularly, in essence tweaking your diet until you get what you want. For example, starting today, drink half to one glass more of water each day; switch to low fat milk on your cereal and gradually water down any juice until it is always half and half. Next week, add an extra vegetable to your plate at dinner each night, limit the kids consumption of tomato sauce and cut down from seven Tim Tams to five. Small regular changes are more likely to bring success in the long term and save you the expense of going on a ‘diet’.
Good health to you.