31 Days of Healthy Habits Challenge (A New Year's Resolution You Can Keep)
The new year is both a motivating and frustrating time for me (and a lot of trainers). On the one hand, many people are health-focused and motivated to make positive changes to their lifestyle, which is always encouraging! On the other hand, the market is suddenly flooded with quick fixes, detoxes, cleanses, and miracle supplements as weight loss solutions.
Allow me to let you in on a secret, detoxes and cleanses are bullshit, and the only people that tell you otherwise are trying to sell you something. Your liver and kidneys do all the cleansing and detoxing your body needs, and no amount of juices can change that. If your liver and kidneys are not functioning correctly, you have more significant problems than juice or a supplement can solve.
Now, maybe it's semantics. Some people go on a "sugar detox," and they mean they are cutting sugar out of their diets after a period of overindulging. Fine. If you want to detox from sugar, fried foods, fast food, or highly processed foods. Go for it. You can call it whatever you want, and I admire your commitment to an improved lifestyle choice. If you're going to call it a detox because that word motivates you, I am ok what that too.
Eliminating alcohol, added sugars, and highly-processed foods will surely make significant improvements in your health, but there's no reason only to drink juice, eat soup, tea, or hard-boiled eggs.
It's extreme behaviors and mindset that cause the problem. If you spent most of December in a fog of holiday cookie crumbs and hangovers, then a drastic switch to a Kale and juice diet on the first of the year will be too severe to stick with long term. And that's what we want—Long-term changes. Otherwise, what are we doing? Temporary changes lead to short-term results, and long-term lifestyle changes lead to permanent results.
You can choose either a new year resolution that you can keep by making healthy changes to your lifestyle (and yes, can include reduction of sugar if you want) or some extreme diet that won't last more than a few weeks, or days.
31 DAYS OF HEALTHY HABITS CHALLENGE
Here's a better idea. Instead of attempting to make drastic sweeping changes to your whole life that both your mind and body will likely revolt against, spend the entire first month of the year exploring new healthy habits.
If you adopt a quick, easy to apply, healthy practice every day of the month, you build confidence in your ability to follow a program and sample some healthy habits that will improve your lifestyle right away.
When the month is over, you will have experimented with new healthy habits, and you can set goals for February on which ones you will apply to your lifestyle more often. You don't have to do them all every single day, but if you find a habit that can improve your life or health, make a commitment to extending it into February.
Here are some ideas. Use mine or choose some of your own that will improve your lifestyle. Remember, the idea is to adopt habits that can be reasonably applied every day. No extreme behaviors permitted in this challenge. You can do more than one habit a day if you want, but don’t try to change all your habits at once.
If, when February rolls around, you want to step it up a notch and make more changes, you'll be moving forward towards your goals. By that time, most of the people who adopted extreme behaviors in the new year will likely have reverted to their old routines and habits.
31 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR NEW YEAR
COMPLETE ONE A DAY EACH DAY IN JANUARY
Eat three or more servings of fruit (or berries)
Eat a serving of protein (a palm-size or 20-30 grams)
Add a vegetable to breakfast
Go for a 15-20 fast-paced walk
Do some meal prep or batch cooking for the week
Go to bed 15 minutes earlier than usual
Walk up a flight of stairs or walk up a hill
Drink half your body weight in ounces of water (adjust as needed)
Do 15 minutes of bodyweight exercises*
Add a vegetable to breakfast and dinner
Go for a 20-25 minute fast-paced walk
Spend 15 minutes planning your meals for the week
Write five things you are grateful for
Park in the farthest away spot in the parking lot
Replace all caloric drinks with water
Eat a serving of protein (palm-sized or 20-30 grams) with each meal
Eat one meal slowly, put down the fork between bites.
Go for 20-30 minutes fast-paced walk or run/walk interval
Spend 15 minutes planning your exercise schedule for the week
Drink a cup of water (or two) before each meal and snack
Do 20 minutes of bodyweight exercises
Reach out to three friends to say why you are grateful for them
Limit added sugars to 25 grams
Stretch or foam roll right muscles for 10-15 minutes
Do something active outdoors for 30 minutes
Plan a week's worth of healthy snacks
Eat a serving of vegetables with every meal
Turn off your phone 30 minutes to an hour before bed
Eat a vegetable you've never tried (or not in a long while)
Eat all your meals slowly, put down your fork between bites
Write out your goals for February
If any of my suggestions don't resonate with you, feel free to replace it with one that is more meaningful. For instance, play with the kids in the back yard, walk the dog, journal your feelings, read a book, play a game with family, etc..
If an item on this list is already your habit, take it to the next level. For example, bodyweight exercises can be upgraded to dumbbell exercises, upgrade walks to runs, or add more vegetables, etc..
Are you reading this after January 2020? No problem! Start day one today and complete 31 days in a row.
Make small healthy changes to your lifestyle that can last a lifetime. When all the little changes become habits, a new healthy lifestyle eventually emerges. It doesn't happen instantly, but with consistent effort to continually improve, you'll get there.
Feel free to detox from negative people, and cleanse your social media accounts from people who are selling cleanses.
Dream big, start small, then connect the dots. Happy New Year, friends.
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Questions? I’d love to help.