Anything great takes time. We look at the best parts of others and compare them to the worst parts of ourselves. Quick fixes, gadgets, ab crunchers, weight-loss shakes, we are suckers for the overnight 'answers' to our health issues! No one is healthy and happy without some longterm effort.
21: The Magic Number for Habit Change?
I personally find 21 to be a magic number. It is well known that it takes '21 days to make or break a habit' although there doesn't seem to be any clinical research behind it, but I also find that the body really starts to respond to any change in external stimuli after 3 weeks. In terms of weight training, we see quite immediate strength gains as we start to lay down neural wiring to facilitate these new movements, but after 3 weeks we can start to notice muscular growth too as the body learns that we mean business!
Getting Healthier by Doing Good
If you are mid-way through Dry July right now, you may be starting to feel a little despondent. Listen to Nemo and 'just keep swimming' because not only are you raising money for adults living with cancer (YEAH, you're AWESOME!!) but you are also at a crucial point in detoxing your insides! Our bodies are constantly renewing and re-building themselves with new cells every second, so be patient and stay focused, keep reminding yourself about how great you want to feel and let that fuel your drive and determination.
Do You Feel Proud About Your Groceries?
When I lay my groceries down on the conveyer belt, I love to feel proud of what I'm giving to my body and congratulate myself for choosing to nourish and not punish my insides. Try it yourself. Take a well-rounded view of the foods you are purchasing and imagine them inside your body, inside your child's body. In a week, your body will be made of those foods. Do you want to be made of artificial, empty nutrients? These fillers and chemicals slow us down. They are so foreign to us that they require so much energy to somehow be converted into fuel, or our body may say 'stuff this, too hard' and it ends up being stored somewhere as fat or toxins within our fat.
Write Down the Steps - Then Make it Happen!
My key message is this; consistently make healthy choices, and your body will change at the same rate as your mindset and habits.
Powerful, huh.
Set yourself not only long-term health and fitness goals, but also remember to write down the steps you need to take in order to get there! And if you don't know the how, get some help! Only Hamish and Andy ran a marathon without proper training first (I hope!)... the secret to success is all in the mind. Commit yourself to feeling great and you'll leave yourself no other option.
Good luck and keep going! Be healthy & happy, always!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
KIRSTY WELSH
Personal Trainer, Health & Wellness Expert; Health Writer & Presenter
She is a qualified Fitness Trainer & Yogafit Instructor; holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Health and Human Movement; and is a qualified CHEK Holistic Lifestyle Coach & Reiki & NLP and Timeline Therapy Practitioner; and it doesn’t stop there.
For Kirsty, health and wellness is a way of life and she is keenly passionate about inspiring others to help them achieve their optimum health. Aside from running a successful personal training business, Kirsty has also worked extensively in the media & entertainment industry; as the personal trainer for Mel B (Scary Spice), the 2011 Final 12 X-Factor contestants, and as the behind-the-scenes trainer for Channel 9′s BIG: Extreme Makeover.
Today, she appears regularly in The Sunday Telegraph’s Body+Soul weekly lift out, recently becoming the face of their body + soul revolution program – a 10week online diet and fitness program aimed at helping people achieve a balanced and healthy lifestyle.
She also appears regularly on healthyMEtv.com.au, writes for Women’s Fitness magazine and Yahoo! 7 Lifestyle and is regularly quoted by various newspapers and magazines for her outstanding knowledge of health and fitness.
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