QUITTERS DAY

Two weeks into January and the chances are you have already quit your new year resolution.

Why? Because it was a wish or an idea, something that you thought might be great to do. We consider things over a long period of time without really thinking about what to do to make the change. Come New Year we have the ultimate date of excitement and sentiment to make all the changes we want to make. We build up to it, possibly have the biggest party of the year, do a lot of the thighs we are thinking we want to give up, the late night, the boozing, the partying, eating more party food. Then the next day we wake up feeling hungover, a head like you’ve gone a few rounds with Thor's hammer, a mouth like somebody pointed a leaf blower in your face all night, bloated, exhausted. So youre ready to take on all the New Year's resolutions set the night before. NO. It all seemed like a great idea and we all got caught up in the hype and excitement of the night before.

The thing is, for a lot of people wanting to improve their health they have smashed their ideals before they have even started. To improve in all these areas it is good to start genuine new habits of taking a little exercise, tipping the balance of our diet so that 80% of what we eat is healthy, cut down the drinking a little to a more moderate level. So, what do we do for possibly the last month or two before New Years Day. We party, eat too much, sat on the sofa doing less exercise watching another Christmas movie, balancing a tub of your favourite chocolate selection on your ever growing tummy, possibly with a glass of wine or beer on the side because it’s Chirtmas. For some, your chocolate and alcohol intake over these months can be equal to the ten months preceding it. We have just gone olympian in our level of commitment to eating, slumping on the sofa after gorging on Cgristmas dinner, adjusting our clothing and letting in just one more roast potato or pig in blanket, drinking, late nights and so on. Then, New Year new me comes along. Guess what, you've been training yourself to do the exact opposite for the last month or two. So when your mate says to pop along to park run, you pull back the curtain to a Siberian view of ice and frost, and you're in you christmas jimjams (pajamas) unwrapping that last quality street or snorting another Ferrero Rocher and thinking about how early is too early to have another beer or glug that last drop of Baileys from the bottle, don’t be surprised that you have failed before you have even began!! You’ve trained hard to get there.

When you get back to work the competition of who failed the best starts. It runs quite similarly to most Monday mornings.

Person 1)        What time did you get to bed on New Years? 1am for me, I was wasted on two bottles of wine, I was blasted.

Person 2)        3am for me. Three bottles of wine and three whiskies, I was mullered.

Person 3)        6am for me, wine, champagne, then back to mine, I don’t know how I got there. Then I opened the brandy, I'm still drunk.

Person 1)        Haha, you’d think I have shares in Cadburys the amount of chocolate I’ve eaten.

Person 2)        Yeah I know, Mr Kiplin sends me a Christmas card every year for my contribution to his profits, hahahahaha.

Person 3)        Did you do Park run?

Person 1)        Na, blooming Siberia out there, did you see the ice and frost?

Person 2)        Yeah, I know what you mean.

Person 1)        Plans this weekend?

Person 3)        Pub probably maybe a club, coming

Person 1)        Yeah.

Person 2)        Hell, Yeah!

Person 1)        Park run, maybe…………?

Person 2)        Nah..

Person 3)        Nah.

Person 1)        Tidy. Mince pie anyone?

Look at the preparation it took to get to this moment. No doubt come October and definitely in November there would have been chat about Christmas plans, Christmas parties. The chocolate and the booze included. As time draws closer to Christmas the consumption of mince pies and likely a few tubs of chocolates find their way into the office or staff canteen. The parties soon get underway and the premonition of what will be starts. The booze, the food, the late nights. Christmas hits and the drinking starts earlier and earlier in the day. The chocolates seem to run out quickly and are equally replaced in good time. Christmas holidays start and the film watching begins and the consuming of christmas treats and booze continues. You overindulge on Christmas day, rolling your way from the dinner table to the sofa.

Crimbo Limbo hits and if you haven’t lost your way by now this will get you. Not knowing what day it is or what is happening when. You potentially drag yourself out for one of those walks, feeling far heavier and surprisingly a little breathless. Just think of all the time you have been sitting around doing nothing. Eating chocolate and Christmas treats, drinking. Think about the effort you have given to this point. Now your thoughts start running to New Years. Are the neighbours coming round? Are you hitting the clubs? Maybe going to the local for a special evening? Perhaps just staying up with your other half to watch Jools Holland then the London fireworks.

Best not start on the booze too early, you don't want to peak. Lunch has been organised so you can line your stomach but not too late so you can enjoy all the evening nibbles. Perhaps some more cheese, perhaps party platters from the shop that sells frozen party food at £1. New Year celebrations are underway. We’ve had a good lunch, we’re now onto the party food, the booze is flowing, we are having a great evening. Midnight approaches, we make sure our glasses are filled. Auld Lang Syne starts to ring out (just a few lines because nobody really knows what they are singing). We kiss and hug each other then…..then….. New Year's resolutions!!!!

I’m going to eat healthily

I’m going to be more active

I’m going to quit smoking

I’m going to reduce the booze

Etc, etc, etc

So consider this. For nearly three months you have been thinking about and partaking in one of the longest party and social events. You have likely been the least active you have been all year. Which is great, it is all guilt free, because it is Christmas. Just think back to when the first furniture commercial pops a Christmas tree in the background of their ad, giving the hint, saying, come on, it’s time. Come on let the mince pies and chocolates start. The chocolates that have been sat in the supermarket since the beginning of July. Come on!! After all of this, over one night, one night fuelled with fun and alcohol, food and cigarettes or vapes and a particularly late night, you exclaim, IT’S NEW YEAR, I’M STOPPING THIS. I’M GOING TO BE A NEW ME, YES!!!!

Hmmm, sounds like that’s going to work - not! It’s impossible, you have set yourself up to fail before you start. You have conditioned yourself to get to quite a high level of over indulgence. Well, over everything really and then you want to stop, over night, just like that with your amazing strength and willpower. You have created new habits of eating badly and drinking. You have been snacking regularly on sweets and christmas treats at all times of the day. Your wake sleep pattern is all over the place. Your levels of physical activity are likely at their worst. Taking a Crimbo Limbo walk or dancing at New Year until you are in a sweaty mess doesn’t count. You have totally conditioned yourself to fail and fail miserably at keeping up any New Year's healthy resolution.

If you want to make any changes for New Year or anytime. Consider your lifestyle before you want to change. The lifestyle itself is making you want to change but can you just make the change over night. Unlikely. Let's look at this a bit closer to make some comparisons. We go through a few stages before we actually start and commit to making any change. First we consider and contemplate change. Then we action those changes and then form habits, with some discipline to maintain those habits. Like Christmas, we start thinking about it all, we then start to indulge in it all. Then, for a period we pretty much maintain and develop our bad ways. So, consider this. You want to get a little fitter and work on your strength, flexibility and cardio. So, you start to contemplate it. You start thinking about, one I need to do this and secondly where and how would I do this. Perhaps you ask some friends and see what they are doing. Next you take a look at the gym, maybe go along to park run and see what that is all about. You might go and purchase some relevant clothes which means you can turn up to your local gym or start at the end of your road for a little jog. You start to make the changes and start getting involved. By including some peers helps as this can help give you that extra motivation you need and likewise with them from you. You start making changes. You have thought about it, you have discussed it. You are getting involved and then, before you know it, you are doing it. Gym bag packed ready for when you come home. Trainers dried and ready for the next park run (this is the UK) Some more fruit hits the fruit bowl at home and maybe there are a few energy bars in the cupboard. Changes are happening.

My point being and to summarise. We contemplate before we take action. We then start taking action, then we start making habits. This is put in very simple terms. During Christmas we do exactly this. You can add ‘bad’ in front of each sentence there. To do something of benefit with less chance of failing, as per New Year resolutions, we contemplate the good ‘thing’. Then we take action on good things, then we form good habits.

If we were to turn all the bad things around from the example of Christmas, New Year resolutions are possible and maybe you can create a new you. However, like puppies, resolutions are not just for Christmas, they can be started at any time of the year. The feeling of indulgence over Christmas is temporary, the feeling of sleeping well, keeping active, reduced or no alcohol, is a lifestyle that you can keep forever. Balance is everything!