Be kind to yourself.
At the end of my 30 days of healthy habits I wanted to reflect on how best to use these tools, which are all things I speak to my patients about every day. Some key points: Don’t try and do all of the healthy habits at once, if they are new to you. Pick whichever seems like it will serve you best, and build it into your routine. Once it is a habit, and less effort to do, then pick another one. Making one change at a time is more likely to succeed than overwhelming yourself and trying to do too much. Each healthy habit on its own may not…
30th January – Goals
Set yourself goals to aim for. This is useful because it gives the mind something to focus on, and something to aim for. If you have a clear plan, you are more likely to achieve your aims. The ‘smart’ acronym is often used for goal setting, and this stands for picking goals that are: Specific Realistic Acheiveable Measureable Time-limited We can have big long-term goals, for example “I’m going to lose [x]amount of weight” or “I’m going to run 5k” (or 10k, or 10miles or a marathon, whatever is right for you) and these bigger goals are great, and can be really helpful with motivating you to keep going in…
28th January – Movement Snacks
Move frequently throughout the day. 📚Evidence shows that sedentary behaviour (not moving for long periods of time) increases the likelihood of developing chronic disease such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer. What’s more, you can’t outrun sedentary behaviour – Even if you meet the recommended guideline targets for physical activity at other times during the day or week, having long periods of sedentary behaviour still increases your risk of chronic diseases. The good news is that you don’t have to do lots of exercise to avoid this – just getting up and walking around for 2minutes every 20minutes has been shown to have beneficial effect. I’m finding that I am…
