Simple healthy habits yield the best results! How many years have you made a resolution to lose weight and have been unsuccessful?
It’s time to end the never-ending battle and approach this differently. The start of a new year is when most of us make a resolution to eat healthier, exercise more, and be healthier.
It’s time to ditch the weight loss resolutions and cultivate some simple healthy habits every day to get big results.
How can you do this? What simple healthy habits can you cultivate?
That’s what my chat with Jennifer Nagel of Figured Out Fitness is all about! Jennifer is personal trainer who helps women over 30 to create a foundation of health to elevate their life.
Through her signature 1:1 coaching program, The Body Blueprint and free online community Modern Women Getting Fit, she’s going to shake up what you THINK you know about health and fitness — while making it feel like the easiest thing since sliced bread.
So during my chat with Jennifer she shared some simple, healthy habits that you can develop, that will help you get better results than setting those lofty goals that end up leaving you feeling defeated. Jennifer talked about ways to get in anywhere from 5 minutes of exercise to 30 minutes of exercise and more!
So grab a pen and paper and take some notes!
Focus on Exercise and Movement
Movement can look quite different from person to person. It’s really about incorporating the small snippets of activity multiple times a day, or really just simplifying the activity that you’re considering exercise.
Create simple healthy habit stacks and build on a win. For example, if you are sitting at a desk all day, focus on getting up and moving every hour. Set an alarm on your phone that says get up and move. Then walk around for a couple of minutes or do some things at your desk or with your kids if they’re at home.
Do something at home like a five minute bodyweight circuit. Have some simple exercises and do that maybe once an hour for a few hours a day. You can even incorporate walks or a dance party with your kids to get everyone moving.
That burns calories and gets your body moving – gets your heart pumping. So it doesn’t always have to look like this very formal kind of workout. The reality is most of us just don’t have the time, the capacity or the desire to do that.
So it’s really about incorporating the small snippets of activity multiple times a day, or really just simplifying the activity that you’re considering exercise. That’s how you cumulatively get to 20 or 30 minutes of exercise.
“Sometimes we have this all or nothing mentality where if I can’t do it perfectly then I can’t do it at all, or I don’t won’t do it at all.” – Jennifer Nagel
It’s okay to start slow! It’s okay to start with 30 seconds. It’s okay to start by just simply setting the timer. Those things are wins! And you can always build on that habit over time. And who knows, maybe next month you’ll work up to six minutes. Then you might decide, oh, this feels really good! Then you might just carve out 20 minutes for exercise.
Those are the habits and behaviors that actually make a difference over time. So if you want to try this, just create a good playlist and go for it!
Do Some Meal Prepping
Think about meals as building blocks. If you have like a like Tetris, you have blocks. One for protein, one for healthy carbohydrates like your whole grains or starchy carbs. Then you have a block that’s fruits and vegetables. Don’t worry about healthy fats because you’re gonna get that. Then you have a block that Jennifer calls flavor pops. The are the things that really set off your meals and make them go from bland to bam.
Then you have a block of the way you cook something. So literally look from block A, B, or C and post something and create a meal. And so the meal planning piece becomes extremely simple. The planning piece is critical.
Now for the prep piece, try Jennifer’s fast dash method of meal prep. Group the foods that have similar cook times and can cook it all at once. Then you won’t have to worry about what’s for dinner because it’s already planned out.
You, your husband and the kids can go into the fridge and pull things out and put them together and create their own meals. This will really reduce your anxiety and your grocery bill. Using your plan, you will know exactly which items and quantities you need to buy.
This planning and prep method will completely transform the way that your family eats and will save you time. Most of us don’t have a lot of time for meal prepping. The great thing about this specific topic is you can take tips from other people that work, and then convert them to what works for you.
You have to eat every day. And so planning in advance and having some sort of system that works for you is one of the one of the big major wins that you can work on for 2021.
Have a Sleep Routine
A lot of times sleep or rest gets pushed aside because we’re always like ‘Team Hustle’ or ‘Team No Days Off.’ But at the end of the day, if you’re not getting proper rest, no matter how much you exercise, what good food you’re eating, your health goals are going to suffer.
Try the bath, bottle, bed method. It’s same thing you teach to new parents for children, but it applies. The adult version might be a bubble bath or a warm shower. Or taking your makeup off and washing your face and brushing your teeth. Then bottle might be a cup of tea or having a glass of water by your bed or something like that. Bed is your bedtime so it might be turning off the television or putting on a sleep mask that black’s everything out.
Work on getting a good eight hours of sleep. Maybe seven to nine hours of sleep each night of restful sleep because your body repairs itself at night. This is not only for your health but also for your skin and all those things.
There are a lot of weight management hormones that are being optimized at night. They can be impacted if you don’t have enough sleep. So it’s really important to get good quality sleep.
Ditch the Deadlines
You start off with that with a new year’s resolution. In 2021 I’m gonna finally lose 30 pounds by my high school reunion on June 15. And we’re all taught to set SMART goals, which is not a bad thing. But if that’s where you stop, you’re likely going to be derailed because then everything is about that deadline.
So if you have a bad week or you’re not able to eat the foods that you want, mentally, you’re like, oh, I’m further away from this deadline. Instead, focus on those little activities that you can commit to, and celebrate your wins.
Create a behavior goal. That’s a process goal, something small that you celebrate. So instead of worrying about what happens in six months, worry about what you’re doing from a day to day basis in the little stuff, not the big stuff. Because the little stuff adds up to the big stuff.
So take that deadline off, take that pressure off. What typically happens, especially with any health goal, but especially with a weight loss goal, you kind of get on the scale, and it’s like nothing happened and it’s not working and then people stop. It’s because the encouragement or the incentive is in the wrong place.
Let the incentive be on the little small, habitual things that you can do. And maybe you look back and say I had so much fun because I was able to do this three times this week. Or you know, I feel really good about what I ate today. Or I did whatever and that’s going to keep you going because you’re going to be able to reflect on the good stuff that happened and not necessarily how far away you are from that big goal.
If you want help to create a meal plan, grab a copy of Jennifer’s meal planner guide here. It will help you plan 30 meals in under 30 minutes! Be sure to check out the amazing FREE masterclass Jennifer offers which is called Maximize Fat Loss Even with a Busy Schedule. It’s perfect for us busy women who are trying to take care of ourselves without falling victim to the crazy diets out there. Check out the masterclass to help you reach your fitness and fat loss goals – for good!
To hear all of my chat with Jennifer, tune in to episode 42 of the podcast. Click below and tune in on your favorite platform.
Links mentioned in this episode:
Connect with Jennifer on Instagram @therealjennifernagel
Join Jennifer’s Community on Facebook
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