Macca’s Health and Fitness Corner

Life is a gift to be enjoyed and being healthier and fitter is the key to unlocking this gift….

Article 1: Building a Routine and Goal Setting

Introduction

We live in an amazing world with so many possibilities and opportunities there for us and without doubt these are more enjoyable if we have energy, self-motivation and time to spend on them. Very few of us are as fit and healthy as we once were so let’s use 2023 as the turning point and pivot towards a fit and healthy lifestyle.

Throughout this year we will explore many topics to assist in building this lifestyle including establishing a routine, positive thinking, self-motivation, nutrition and hydration just to name a few.

Reflections on the last 3 years – The world around us

There is no doubt 2021and 2022 were not the best years on record however by no means were they the worst. While the media cycle constantly hammered home an ongoing negative story, 2020 did provide many of us with an opportunity to take stock of our personal situation and focus on new ventures. These included more personal time than we have ever had before, opportunity to join virtual networks and learning events from the comfort of our own homes. At the same time the past two years did make us appreciate the things we have grown accustomed to enjoying such as travel, outside adventure and exercise. Now that a new year is on us lets continue the momentum we gained closing 2022 and accelerate through this year with energy and enthusiasm.

Value of having a regular routine

Throughout my life I have always been asked “how do you find time to ……” The answer is simple, every day has 24 hours, no more, no less. It is what we chose to do in that 24 hours that makes the difference. We chose when to sleep, when to eat and when to watch television. We also chose when to exercise, do community service or relax.

Whether you are living alone, have young children or empty nesting, establishing a routine is critical to carving out dedicated time slots to ensure we make space for the activities that we prioritize as important. In order to design a person daily routine we need to appreciate our natural body clock. Some of us are rosters while others are owls so once you understand this you can build the most effective time management plan for yourself.

I am a morning person so 4:30 am reveille suits me well with pre breakfast exercise sessions daily however the flip side is that I sleep by 9 pm. Many of my friends exercise at night and the thought of waking up before 7 am horrifies them. After work gym sessions or long runs and bike rides in the evening is exactly their cup of tea! Being semi-retired now I have the luxury of being able to exercise multiple times per day however not many people are in this situation.

Of course, we do not live alone in an insulated bubble, we build our daily routine around friends, family and work commitments so this is a given and can be considered to be the foundation of the routine. We know what time we need to be at work so the decision is around do I get up early to allow time for exercise or plan for sleep after exercising at night?

There is no right or wrong.

What suits you best is what needs to form the anchor for building a daily routine.?

As many of us found in our adult lives, if we don’t have an exercise régime planned out we will fill time with movies, Social Media and other time zapping activities. While none of these are bad per se, they do come at a cost, the cost is time that could have been used on other activities.

The bottom line is we need to build and then commit to our routine. Sleep, meals, exercise, work and social time.

Positivity and self-motivation

I briefly touched on this earlier so let’s expand a little more. Positively and self-motivation are at the very core of achieving our goals which we will discuss soon. Being surrounded by the constant negativity that is portrayed in the media and on many social media platforms impacts our thinking and personal motivation. Hate speech, discrimination and derogatory content weighs heavy on us all. Divergence of thought pulls the community apart and each of us can act to prevent this.

We are in control of the content that is piped in to our life. We have the power to choose which content we read and which content we filter out. Subscribing to positive content that encourages healthy living, good diet, positive behavior, building a spirit of community service and the like fills our minds with enthusiasm, excitement and a sense of goodness.

Through the power of positivity we will build our own self-esteem and motivation which leads to adhering to our daily routine.

Being a member of a network that provides each other with encouragement and support adds value to our daily life, gives meaning to our professional and personal efforts and manifests in to a self-fulfilling prophecy. I was fortunate in several of the countries I lived and worked over the past few decades to build a network of like minded fitness friends and now in my new home I have joined a MTB riding club and started to make a wide range of social contacts who are also committed to exercising and living and outdoor lifestyle

Health and fitness goals for 2023

If you don’t plan you plan to fail.

Everyone has heard this saying before and it is so true when it comes to health and fitness! Most of my career was spent with engineering companies that planned and measured everything. I don’t advocate this is your fitness life however we all must set goals to some degree or another.

There are so so many open sources available that we can research personal training plans and healthy diets so I will leave this to you however what we need to do now is set personal Health and Fitness Goals for this year.

This is more than a training plan.

This is a commitment to achieving a healthy lifestyle and building our fitness through 2023.

I ask you to set 3-4 realistic, achievable and measurable goals for this year. Write them down now and start measuring your progress against them weekly.

They can be time or distance goals with regards to exercise sessions, they can be as simple as building a weekly meal plan that focuses on a healthy diet or even get together with some friends and set team goals.

It’s up to you how to document and record your progress however we will revisit these in the next article so start tracking now.

Looking forward to future articles

Through the remainder of this year we will take a deeper dive into diet, nutrition, hydration, cardio and strength training whilst checking in on our progress towards our health and fitness goals for 2023.

Have an amazing few months ahead, enjoy the last few warm months before we turn to winter for those of us who live south of the equator and I looking forward to hearing awesome stories about each of you and the achievement of your personal health and fitness goals for this year.