Welcome to February. The month where you’re either feeling really good about your health and fitness goals. Or the month where you’re struggling to get back on track.
Maybe you gave up on your “new year, new you” mantra halfway through January. Or maybe you’re struggling to stay on train, just hanging on for dear life, hoping you don’t go flying off.
Either way, you’re likely here because you want the 5 easy steps to effortlessly walk up to the train and stay on for good.
Step 1 for Getting Back On Track: Remember your why
There honestly might not even be additional steps after this one, it’s literally that important. {Don’t worry though, I do have four more steps for you!}
Health and fitness has a lot to do with your mindset.
You may or may not have heard that before, but without a mindset that is ready and really wants to make this change, it’s highly unlikely you’re actually going to stick to any sort of health and fitness routine.
Why did you decide to start living a healthier lifestyle in the first place? If it was because everyone says at the new year they want to lose weight, or they want to live healthier isn’t good enough. And is likely why you’ve already given up.
If it’s to show your kids that living a healthy lifestyle is important. Or if it’s to feel more confident in your own skin. Or if its to have a way to release that pent up stress. Those are all good reasons why.
They’re the reasons that will make you continue to go to the gym, to press play on your workouts, or to get outside for a walk. They’re the reasons that will truly help you to get back on track and take that first step towards the train again.
Step 2 for Getting Back on Track: Just start
Now that you have your why {and it’s a really good, deep reason, as to why you want this}, you have to just start.
It may seem like a given. Like, “Danielle, I know you said these were easy steps, but I thought there was going to be more.”
The problem is though, you’re only thinking about getting back on track. You’re not actually doing anything to get there. You’re sitting on the couch at night scrolling through Instagram or Facebook. No wonder you’re so far off the track right now. {#hardtruths}
Instead of saying you’re going to get back on track, why not just get back on the damn track? {sorry, I don’t usually swear, but it’s time to light a fire under that a**}.
Sure, you may have fallen off, but that doesn’t mean there’s no way to get back on. It just means you maybe have to take a different path to get back on the train.
Rather than doing the mindless scroll, why not go for a walk? Why not do a quick 20 minute workout {I have the most perfect one for you btw!}?
Working out doesn’t need to be difficult. You can workout at home with body weight exercises, or you can head to the gym and walk on the treadmill {-50 degree windchill anyone??}.
2 hours and 30 minutes of moderate exercise {walking is included} each week is all you need to counterbalance a whole slew of degenerative diseases. Just think, that’s only 5 days a week, 30 minutes a day. And all for better health.
So just start doing something. If you need help getting started on a program, let me know, I have some incredible options for you!
Step 3 for Getting Back on Track: Create a 30-Day plan
I know the typical saying is that 21 days makes a habit, but I’d like to extend that to 30 days to create a habit.
If you struggle with staying on tracking, creating a plan is so important. Getting back on track with a 30-day plan can really help with that.
Create manageable goals for those 30 days.
In my health and fitness Facebook group {which you can be a part of too!}, we’re currently doing a 30-day challenge for creating a new habit we’ve wanted to do, but just haven’t stuck with.
My personal goal was to meditate for 10 minutes a day. Sure, there have been a few days that I haven’t completed the goal, but I don’t beat myself up about it. I keep going to the next day and I continue to meditate. I’m creating a habit for mindfulness and continued personal development.
One person’s goal was to stretch for 10 minutes every day. Flexibility is actually such a key component to fitness, so don’t discount adding this to your health and wellness routine.
But these 30-day goals have set something into motion for everyone. We check-in every day to ensure we’ve done our set challenge. And you know what? Almost everyone has consistently hit their challenge goal.
Getting back on track with a 30-day plan could consist of something like this: Day 1 – drink one more glass of water. Day 2 – try a new healthy recipe I’ve never tried before. Day 3 – go for three 10 minute walks {morning, afternoon and evening}.
See how simple it can be to get back on track with easy, manageable goals? And I don’t know about you, but it feels dang good to cross something off the calendar when I’ve completed it.
By the time you get to the end of 30 days you’ll be so ready to keep up with these healthy habits, and start to add more to the list.
Download this FREE 30-day health plan to kick off your goals and keep them going throughout the year.
Step 4 for Getting Back on Track: Create a rewards system
This one should be fun!
Rather than thinking of health and fitness as something you have to do, think of it as something you get to do. It will be so much easier to accomplish something you get to do, especially when there’s a reward involved.
This is where the fun comes in. Pick a reward: getting a massage, getting your nails done, picking up a new workout outfit. Or even something small like going for a coffee with a good friend.
Then pick what you need to do to get that reward. Let’s say it’s completing one week of the 30-day health calendar download above. Or maybe it’s making it to the gym four times in one week. Or what about taking a healthy lunch to work every day for one week.
Whatever health goal you’ve set, you must complete it to receive the reward. If you don’t complete the goal, you have to cancel that massage, nail appointment or coffee with a friend.
Those rewards should be motivation enough to really accomplish your health goal and help you with getting back on track.
Step 5 for Getting Back on Track: Give yourself grace, but don’t give up
The last, and very important step of this ‘getting back on track’ process.
You must give yourself grace throughout this journey. What do I mean by give yourself grace? I mean, don’t beat yourself up if you eat a cookie, or you skip a workout because you’re just not feeling it that day.
Talking down on yourself after a “slip-up” isn’t going to get you anywhere closer to the getting-back-on-track train or your health goals. If anything that’s likely way more discouraging than giving yourself grace and building yourself back up.
On the days you want to tell yourself you might as well quit because you did something “wrong”, I want you to look in the mirror and tell yourself one thing you did well that day.
Rather than saying, “you should just give up, you ate a whole bunch of brownies today”, I want you to say something like, “you are strong. You smiled at someone today and it brightened their day. You gave your full attention to your kids, hearing about their day, and they really felt heard.”
See how that drastically changes things? Don’t you just feel so much better giving yourself a compliment?
Giving yourself grace allows you to stay on track. You’re not spending time saying all the reasons why you can’t do something. Instead, you’re giving yourself all the reasons why quitting wouldn’t help you or anyone else around you.
So stay on track. Use these five tips to keep yourself motivated, and download the free 30 day calendar to kick-start your steps towards getting back on track.
