The month of restart is September. If it is true that a new year begins in January, it is in September, when you return from longer holidays, that you need to give your life a boost of energy. September is the month in which you want to go back to playing sports, lose weight or dedicate yourself to a new hobby. In short, a period in which many good intentions can be put into practice, to be cultivated and transformed into good habits, following the advice of Francesco Giuliani, Fitprime’s Physical Pillar Leader.
September and back to training: from good intentions to results
“Set a goal and do everything to achieve it, give your best”. How many times have we heard similar phrases? What if today we discover that it is wrong or, better, not entirely effective? If it were enough to set ambitious goals we shouldn’t have so much difficulty doing what we would like. Sport is one of the best examples. We start every September by setting ourselves results to achieve, many and fast, and then most of the time we give up. Yet training itself teaches it: training means committing oneself consistently to reach the finish line, one step at a time. Big change can’t come from just one big breakthrough (or 3 months in the gym), but from many small steps, all in the same direction without ignoring our identity and who we are. A similar thesis is also supported by one of the leading experts in personal growth, James Clear, author of the book Small habits for big changes. Transform your life one small step at a time, according to which we are not our goals, but the sum of our habits.
Rediscover well-being in 6 simple steps
So here’s how to find well-being in 6 simple steps
1. Resume progressively, setting small goals
When we start something new, we are always enthusiastic and in the case of returning to physical activity we want big results immediately. The theme of goals is important: you need to set realistic and easily achievable goals, otherwise it will be easier to abandon early, generating a deep sense of frustration. This applies to everything, even sport: the body begins to perceive the well-being of movement, then the results come, such as weight loss and an increase in muscle mass.
2. Find the motivation
Saying “start tomorrow” is not enough, we know it. We have to be motivated to start something, to create a routine. So why not think about starting something new, trying something you’ve never done before? The novelties stimulate our adrenaline-pumping side and are an incentive to take the first step and set up a new routine or return to the one we followed before the holidays.
3. Choose a sponsor or partner
Talking to someone or even just announcing our intentions makes it less easy to escape the commitment made. We can declare our commitment to a family member or to our friends. Another effective method is to choose a companion in our “adventure” of return, someone with whom to physically go to the gym, the important thing is that he is a motivated person.
4. Rebalance your nutrition
On vacation it is difficult to follow the diet of our daily lives. Also in terms of nutrition, it is better not to start a diet or a new diet drastically, but step by step. So let’s start respecting meal times, reduce portions and start eliminating all refined foods and eating lots of fruit and vegetables. Remember not to stop drinking water, even if it’s not as hot as the summer months.
5. Know how to rest
We must always find the moment to rest, otherwise the tired and tired body will make it easier for us to abandon all our good intentions. By rest we mean both between one workout and another, but also that of sleep: sleep is our fuel, the night is the moment in which our body can finally recover the energy to use to face the next day.
6. Well-being at 360°
Sport is essential to maintain a good psycho-physical balance. But in addition to training our body, we can also dedicate ourselves to training our mind. Activities such as meditation or the practice of yoga allow for example to experience the relationship with emotions more correctly, acquire greater awareness of one’s abilities and discipline the intellect, mind, emotions and will. What it takes to be able to carry on with the right balance all the good September resolutions.
From good intentions to healthy habits: is it possible?
Effectively changing our habits and starting an ongoing wellness routine is not easy but neither is it impossible. When, even in the face of achievable goals such as those indicated above, perhaps we are discouraged and have to choose between going to the gym or staying on the sofa, between eating fruit or a packet of crisps – it is worth borrowing a piece of advice that always found in the pages of James Clear’s book. Let’s always ask ourselves the right question, namely: what would a healthy person do in my place, right now? It’s a simple but very powerful question, because basically what we all try to do is feel better and live healthier. We want to be physically active, eat a good diet, minimize stress, sleep well, maintain a good number of positive relationships. They may seem obvious things but they are also, according to a study by the Carle Illinois College of Medicine (USA), presented in Boston on the occasion of Nutrition 2023, five of the eight habits that can extend life by almost half a century.
A question that also helps us to promote a culture of “healthy living”. A culture that must be promoted on several levels. And since we are talking about “back to work” we can say that companies too must contribute to creating this culture starting from wellbeing programs that help employees play sports (in terms of time and cost reduction). According to “Wellbeing & Corporate”, the Fitprime Observatory created to measure the wellbeing of workers who are offered wellbeing programmes, if it is the company that offers the possibility of attending gyms and sports centers at discounted prices, the result is not only a better perception of it for 55.5% of those interviewed, but also the opportunity to start playing sports for inactive people (31.3%). And again from this research it shows that those who start playing sports experience greater general well-being (86.1%), a reduction in stress (56.1%) and an improvement in their work performance (13%).
Companies play a fundamental role in acting on people’s will and stimulating it, helping to make them healthier and therefore reducing the burden on the national health system. But for now let’s think about September: let’s proceed in small steps!
READ ALSO: 6 fitness resolutions that work
Photo by Andreea Boncota / Yulissa Tagle on Unsplash
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2023-09-06 10:27:40
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