..is YOU!

That’s a very deep and spiritual beginning to this post, but I want to talk about you for a moment. More importantly, I want you to think about you and have a chat with yourself, or start some sort of internal dialogue.

The “New Year” just ticked over into February. But many people are still stuck WAY back in 2011. Stuck in the Silly Season, exercising less, trading training sessions for social functions, drinking alcohol daily, eating crap food. All that stuff.

Now I want to give you another perspective on things here, so please hear me out.

A very small percentage of us really, truly, deeply enjoy and love training hard and working out many times each week. An even smaller percentage of people love to prepare and eat clean, healthy food all of the time. Am I telling you something you don’t already know? Stay with me….

Now, this past period of Christmas, New Year’s and holidays (I’ll keep referring to it as the Silly Season), involves relaxing, hanging out with family and friends, spending more time with your kids, going to places you don’t often go to and generally relaxing the rules you try to diligently live by during the year. So you exchange training time (exercise) for social time (having dinner with friends), because that’s what you enjoy doing more. And so you should! Spending time with those closest to you should be very high on your list of priorities, as should catching up with old friends and staying in touch with those you have a deep connection with.

Am I telling you to eat crap food and skip training?!

No! I’m telling you that you shouldn’t beat yourself up for wanting to spend time with and look after the people that matter most in your life. What I am telling you is that in order to do this longer and more often, you need to look after yourself more than ever!

Each Silly Season, you get a taste of the good life and you try to hold on to it as long as possible. That’s why it’s February and you haven’t got your old routine back yet, you’re still trying to squeeze as much fun and enjoyment out of that time of the year as possible.

But if you keep eating crap food, you won’t have as many Silly Seasons to look forward to! And if you keep putting off exercise, you’ll have even fewer.

You need to put yourself, your health and your wellbeing, at the top of your list of proiorities. Above everything and everyone. You really care about your family and your friends and you want to spend as much time with them and have as much fun with them as possible. Well, I can tell you, you won’t be able to do that if you’re overweight, out of shape and feeling crap all the time. You won’t if you can’t enjoy going to the beach with your kids because you hate how you look in your bathers.

I’m not telling you to be selfish and only care about yourself. Not at all. I’m saying that in order to give more of yourself to the people you love, and have more time and energy to put into your relationships with them, more than you do now, you need to take better care of yorself.

For the past 3 years my priorities have been out of whack and it’s taken that long for me to finally put my own health and wellbeing back where it should be on the list…..at the top! You see, I love working with my clients and I love what my team and I can do for them, but I can’t give every hour of the day to them. In fact, I’m not as good a personal trainer or business owner when I’m juggling too many things or working too hard.

So I’ve let go a bit lately. I went to the Gold Coast in November then took a week off and went to Byron Bay a couple of weeks ago. I’m training more. I’m entering my first powerlifting competition since 2008 in March, I’m playing golf again and I’ve even learned to surf! That was my Silly Season, but for this to happen has meant a change in my work schedule and a shift in my priorities. Is this going to disappoint some people? Yes. Will I lose business because of my reorganised list of priorities? Probably. But I’m less tired, less frustrated and I’m spending more time with my family and my friends and I’m not worrying about the things that really don’t matter in the grand scheme of things anymore. My business is important to me and I have set big goals for myself, but it’s not so important that my health suffers and my family don’t get to see me often.

How can you do this? Instead of thinking of exercise as a drag or as a chore, think of it as doing what you need to do to make your life even more enjoyable. You don’t really need to give that much time to it, either. 5-7 hours per week could make a huge difference to your life. That’s less than 5% of your week…..surely you can allocate 5% of your time to exercise!

Instead of thinking of healthy food as boring and unenjoyable, think about it as the fuel that will keep you lean, help you look great on the beach and allow you to keep up with your kids.

Change your thinking and get your proirities in order!

Make yourself the most important person in your life and you will gradually notice that you’ll enjoy life more and look after yourself better without it being a boring chore or an obligation. You’ll worry less. You’ll be more grateful for what you have and the rest will take care of itself.

Please try this and let me know if you need help on how go further with this or how to take care of the exercise and healthy eating part of your life.

About the Author

Ryan Mitchell is the owner of Evolution Fitness Centre and is a qualified personal trainer and strength and conditioning coach. Ryan is dedicated to helping people achieve their health and fitness goals and draws on his experience and knowledge gained from training people of all ages and fitness levels. Ryan is a former Australian Powerlifiting Champion and Australian team member.