This question i get asked quite a bit this time of year, and as i get older here’s my answer from experience. “Should i even bother starting exercising before Christmas or wait until the New year?”.
I see people at the gym start with diabetes, and they ALL wish they started well before they actually did. When you suffer from diabetes, the impact from exercise and healthy eating can be dramatic and life changing, so the “let’s wait approach” only holds you back you feeling better and your body responding in a positive way.
There are masses of people every day in severe pain. Living with pain is no joke and exercise has been proven to be strong medicine for those with joint trouble, knee and hip replacements, as well as those after back surgery and severe back problems full stop. Don’t tell those people that an extra two months wait and pain would “benefit” them.
Exercise is one of the most powerful weapons for mental health. The change mentally when you exercise is dramatic and a much better long term strategy for life. Feeling better full stop is a right, and exercise and eating better takes you a long way in the direction you want to go. Waiting another couple of months when you suffer anxiety and depression for example, can prolong the feeling as if you are not getting out of this vicious circle.
Putting on weight and getting more unfit before christmas has almost become a national sport. “I’ll do it in the new year” when you think about it is one of the toughest things you can do. If you are already suffering with your health, struggling to be fit and healthy, then adding even more barriers such as the next few weeks and then starting some “miracle” plan in january is unlikely to work.
“Cowboys” are waiting to fleece you of your hard earned money by offering you some liquid diet that loses weight initially, but piles it back on and more once you start eating properly, causing more long term misery.
Starting slowly and gradually right now will protect you from the shock that a sudden lifestyle “reversal” could bring to your body in january. How many do you know who start some kind of radical diet in january, and give it up a couple of weeks later due it not being sustainable and trying to change too quick?
Don’t forget, as it feels more like winter today, we are more susceptible to colds and flus. Add on to that our human systems become weaker due to us being inactive, and being fed a diet that often contains a deficiency of the nutrients our bodies really need to be healthy.
Life teaches us to make every day count, every day is an opportunity to get better and if your health is not what it should be and holdback you back in life, then you need to say “no more” and actively do something about it right now.
Start with small steps, make your health plan this time a true healthy LIFESTYLE change, and you are capable of getting very positive results this side of christmas, and starting the new year with massive momentum that will make you unstoppable, and most of all FEELING BETTER.
