My Confession

I have a confession to make: I'm not a very regimented person. I know, as a personal trainer and integrative nutrition coach, you'd think I'd have myself programmed to the hilt. But really, It's just not in my nature. I DO have some good eating and movement habits. When the benefits are so tangible, I find it easy to stay motivated. However, scheduling myself is the challenging part. I know people who eat the same meal each Christmas, do the same thing every Mother's day, and go to the same fitness class on the same night for years on end. For those of you who love ritual and routine, that's downright comforting. For me, it's almost excruciating. So how do I reconcile the need for consistency with a very ingrained resistance to monotony? I don't push myself to choose a specific day or time for things, necessarily. I just give myself a number of days I want to exercise or a minimum number of meals I want to be, say, meatless, in the course of a week. That allows me to move things around, depending on how my week shapes up. Heavy with clients on the back end? Maybe I need to front-load my cooking and meal prep into the first part of the week. Littered with appointments here and there all week long? It's time to throw my sneakers into the car so I can bust out 30 quick minutes on the arc trainer between obligations. Though this type of willy-nilly squeezing in may seem like pure mayhem to a disciplined scheduler, it works for me and that's really the key.

If you're a schedule junkie, schedule away. Knowing what works for you is a kind of superpower in its own right. But don't underestimate the value of baby steps to bring the big picture together sufficiently. You can accumulate 5 hours of exercise in a week by sprinkling 30-40 minutes in here and there. And, in the work-smarter-not-harder vein, do a few high-intensity workouts so you can reap the benefits of a 40 minute workout in a 20-minute spurt. Need more discipline when it comes to healthy meals? Start counting the servings of fruits and veggies you eat per day. Aim for 6-10 and have snacks on standby so you can add some on the fly. The truth is, the principles of healthy living are pretty basic: Take out the bad. Add in more of the good.

How you do this can be as individual as you are. Working with your nature only makes it more likely that you'll find the best methods to make your habits sustainable in the long-run. So, as this new year unfolds, honor your nature, your body and your spirit. Here's to creating habits that renew you in 2022 and beyond. As always, hearing what works for you can really help others, so be sure to share your experiences.