Sometimes the answer is to set yourself a big challenge to work together BUT sometimes it isn’t! Yup, you DON’T HAVE TO have a grandiose project to work on to re-engaged with your health, wellness & fitness, nor do you have to have a MASSIVE CHALLENGE for significant change to happen. Sometimes it’s as simple as YOU DON’T WANT TO. Sometimes it’s because you’re not in that place right now, for whatever reason. Sometimes it’s overwhelming, sometimes not a priority – you get the picture – YOU DON’T HAVE TO HAVE A BIG CHALLENGE to make significant progress or love caring for your health & wellbeing (and in fact, sometimes it’s better not to! << I could talk more about that one if you want i.e. when to change the way you set goals and targets).
So, what can you do instead?
What’s can help you re-engage?
walk/run/cycle a different route, turn left instead of right, change the scenery, go somewhere different, grab a map and explore, simply look up and take in the buildings around you to re-engage you with your environment – make your daily walk feel more like playing out.
give yourself a dares! No-one can back down from a dares! It might be to walk/run/cycle a set route a wee bit faster than last time, it might be to go a little further (i.e. an extra 5 minutes a day), it might be to hit a weekly number of minutes or distance.
Cook something different. During lockdown I know that one of the central parts of the day for the whole family was meal times. Add to that that we had more meal times together than we had had since the kids were toddlers and soon it all got a bit samey. I introduced NEW THURSDAY. It was the day that we tried a whole new recipe that we’d not had before – we have some gorgeous new stuff now in our regular meals.
Buddy up! Why not spend active time with a friend or family member. There’s nothing quite like being in someone else’s company for the time to fly (unless they are a knob of course, don’t pick those people to buddy up with 
). You could also alternate deciding where you go and/or what you do.
Change the intensity. I gave myself a little dares to decrease the time it took me to walk a mile on my dog walks recently. Striding out and seeing just what I could do. I took around 3 minutes per mile off my walking pace 
Mix it up! Try something brand new. You know that thing you have always fancied trying? Why put it off any longer? Why not get some time set aside to give it a whirl. OR pick a 10 min YouTube workout that’s totally different to what you’d normally do.
Shift your focus. You might measure your movement and fitness in one way but there’s other directions you could take a look at. You might move a lot but not give any focus to your strength, you may be enjoying your walks but instead you could log all the streets or footpaths in your local area that you’ve walked and add in new ones each week.
Check in on your sleep – everything feels harder & a wee bit “meh” when you’re tired 
Tiredness links to compromised cognitive function, mood and even an increased calorific intake.
Troubleshoot what’s stopping you. It might be that you want to increase your activity and movement but aren’t sure how to fit it in. For example you could add a 15 min walk into your day. If you walk for 15 minutes per day at 3 miles per hour (20 mins per mile) then you can walk an additional 273.75 miles per year. Alternatively you can sub a journey. I know that certain journeys take me 20 minutes in the car but only 30 minutes self propelled, so for an extra 10 minutes I can add some activity and movement into my day (I don’t always, but sometimes I do). I dares ya to sub a journey in the coming week.
Swap recipe ideas. It could be that you gather a couple of friends together – either in real life or in a group chat and each of you share your 1 favourite recipe so that there’s stacks of new food ideas rolling around.Yeah, you could have a big challenge or you can tweak a little.
So if we are looking at MOVEMENT – longer, further, faster/change the intensity, more elevation, new routes, a weekly target, frequency, an extra 15. NUTRITION – try something new, get ideas from friends, buy a new recipe book, work with a nutrition coach (
). SLEEP – see how you can prioritise it if you’re not already, think enviroment you sleep in, removing tech, having a bedtime routine (I talk about treating yourself like a toddler). HYDRATION – do it! I work with clients to find ways that they can make hydration a habit because it impacts on EVERYTHING!
