Mindful Movement Club 01: HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Welcome to 2025!! What’s on your heart for the new year? ♥️

Is it getting to the studio 3 times a week? 🧘

Being half-marathon ready by Spring?👟

Losing some extra weight or bulking up? 🏋️

I’m here to tell you to throw it all out and embark on a New Year’s REVOLUTION instead of a resolution!!🎋🎊🪅🙌

If you’re like me, you have for YEARS set crazy high, unrealistic New Year’s goals that are burdensome and designed to fail. 

A quick Google search reveals that most New Year’s Resolutions fall apart between two weeks and four months after January 1st.

But we do it every year….again…..and again….and again…..didn’t someone, somewhere at some time say that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results? 🤯🤯🤯

I think most of us are sane, level-headed people.😜

Yet. Here. We. Are. 

So, this year, I’m doing something different. I’m committed to a REVOLUTION over approaching my health and fitness goals, not a resolution. 

A few months ago, I started working with a health coach. I was frustrated with years of going in circles trying to eat right and build strength. You see, my body type doesn’t build muscle easily. Some people are born strong. Not me. I have to work hard for each and every gain and continue that work to hold onto the progress I’ve made.👷 Failure propels me into giving up and emotional eating. A vicious cycle I have fallen to every year since I started making resolutions. 

Not this time. 👊👊

This time, I’m focusing on progress over perfection. I’m celebrating the wins - even on days when I don’t eat the way I wish I had, on the days I go easy on my workouts, on the days I choose restorative yoga over vinyasa. This time I’m throwing the pressure of “all or nothing” thinking in the garbage. 🗑️

In case you are wondering, “all or nothing” thinking is a mind/behaviour pattern you and I and millions and millions of people do every time the calendar changes from December 31st to January 1st. 🗓️

We set ourselves up with unrealistic goals and drastic lifestyle changes, and when we fail, we tell ourselves it’s too hard, we just can’t do it, we aren’t good enough or self-disciplined enough or whatever lie makes us feel better while we down a carton of Ben and Jerry’s with a side of Ruffles. Then we feel even worse.😢🍩😢🍨😢🍟😢

Here’s the thing - so what if we have a bad day or a bad few weeks? So what if we go on a binge with Ruffles and Ben and Jerry 🍧? Is there really a good food and a bad food? Sure, a steady diet of the above could cause some long-term health damage, but what’s worse is getting so discouraged when we “cheat” that we eat more of the above or give up altogether. 

Which is what most of us do. 💔💔💔

Let’s decide that it’s okay to have days where we “phone it in” at the gym. 📲Let’s decide that there is no “good” food and “bad” food but enjoy all the things in moderation. 😋 Let’s squash the guilt and make small and steady gains. If you get on your mat once this week - celebrate.🎉 If you have one day where you eat well - celebrate ✅. Then, check in with how you feel that day and use that feeling of accomplishment to fuel you for the next day. ⛽

Choose to have some chips one day? That’s fine; don’t beat yourself up. Enjoy them, 😃 and know that your day isn’t ruined because you had a bag of chips. Your progress isn’t ruined. You aren’t a failure. 

Don’t let discouragement call you a failure.  Enjoy all of the things, and celebrate the wins.🙌 Focus on what is the most nourishing for your body over good vs. bad. Focus on moving your body🏃 just a little bit several times a week - doesn’t have to be crazy hard. Focus on what works well in your lifestyle and slowly but steadily you’ll start to shift your mindset around food and exercise and then your actions will be sure to follow. 💞

It won’t happen overnight.🌃 It won’t happen in two weeks. It might not even happen in 4 months🗓️ (the time most of us give up our New Year’s resolutions), but if you stick with small and manageable goals and celebrate the wins and stomp on the all-or-nothing thinking, it WILL happen. 💪💪💪

You got this.💯