SO’s resident fitness guru Sarah Gorman, who has just been revealed as one of P&O’s new celebrity fitness ambassadors, tells us why September is the perfect time to hit reset on your fitness routine…
September is upon us. The summer is all but a distant memory and suddenly Halloween is just around the corner – have you seen how much tat is already filling the shelves in every shop on the high street?! So, let’s take a breath and work out where we’re at.
After any big moments in the year, i.e. the summer holidays and Christmas, we often need to pause and reflect and then regroup. I call this the ‘ReFrame’.
It’s the moment that we look back on what we did over the last six months or so and reflect on what worked well, and what did not, and what we want to achieve in the next six months.
And if we reframe how we look at these moments, it can help us with the way we move forward. So, rather than thinking that we failed because we didn’t do the exercise plan that we had intended or that we failed when we fell off the good nutrition wagon (or perhaps never even made it onto the wagon at all), why not try to reframe the thought and reflect on why it didn’t work? Maybe the goals were set too high? Perhaps you had set yourself up to fail. I think it’s important to try not to see any of these as a failure at all, but simply a first attempt.
Following this, we need to consider how we will set ourselves up differently this time, in order to succeed. I’m a huge fan of being kind and gentle with ourselves and making small, consistent steps towards glowing good health.
That’s why I don’t go in for the big detox/diet/radical overhaul thing. I’ve found from my years of coaching clients in fitness and nutrition that those dramatic all-or-nothing plans rarely last for long. Instead, for me, it’s the cumulative effect of small, consistent steps that add up to lasting changes.
The same goes with a fitness regime. Rather than busting out a huge price tag on an annual pass that might sit there nagging at you when you haven’t used it for three months, take smaller steps. Schedule walks into your diary, even walks to work, the school run or the local shops. Start wearing a back-pack and put bottles of water in there to add weight (strength training at its easiest). Once you have started moving your body in these small ways, you will find it easier to increase the intensity of your exercise and fitness.
My suggestion from here would be that month by month you set yourself a new challenge with one…ONE…single overall goal. Remember we are in this for the long haul, not to fit into a bikini!
And if you are in need of accountability, which many of us are, why not get a Personal Trainer for a couple of sessions to give you tips on form and how to get started. Or another cheaper option is to subscribe to an online platform (such as my BlendFit App) that has a beginners’ programme that has levels for all abilities. It’s also important to remember the following:
Be kind to yourself.
Take small steps.
Reframe your fitness.
