As a private coach for 15 years, I’ve spent many vacation seasons serving to purchasers stop weight acquire and different undesirable uncomfortable side effects of the celebratory time between Thanksgiving and New Yr’s Day.
The very first thing I educate them is the 50 per cent rule.
For years I’ve been utilizing this methodology myself and since it labored so nicely in serving to me preserve my very own well being over the vacations, I made a decision to begin introducing it to my personal purchasers.
I’ve been blown away by the distinction it’s made.
The 50 per cent rule is easy: You solely put in 50 per cent of the trouble towards your aim. In different phrases, take your aim, no matter it’s, and slice it in half.
Living proof: Certainly one of my purchasers had set a aim to stroll 10,000 steps a day. It was the day after Thanksgiving, and he or she was so down on herself in our teaching session.
She felt like a “failure.” I requested her if this aim was actually reasonable and the way she would really feel if her aim was 50 per cent of that, simply 5,000 steps a day.
She advised me she could be ecstatic as a result of she simply hits 5,000 steps every single day. So we determined that in the course of the holidays we might minimize her aim by 50 per cent and set it at 5,000 steps a day.
Anytime she went over (which she did, 100 per cent of the time!) I needed her to have fun.
Consequently, she had the healthiest vacation season of her life as a result of she felt so motivated by reaching (and surpassing) her aim. The success inspired her to stay to different wholesome habits and stored the momentum going.
You can even apply the 50 per cent rule to having fun with indulgences in the course of the vacation season, whether or not it’s consolation meals or festive cocktails.
Listed here are three frequent (but unrealistic) well being guidelines that I hear purchasers set this time of yr and the way we use my 50 per cent rule to switch them and encourage wholesome behaviours, minus the guilt.
‘I gained’t eat any dessert at vacation events’
Actually?! Let’s strive: I’ll eat half of the desserts that I usually do. I exploit this rule myself. As a substitute of grabbing a sugar cookie out of the cookie jar, I break it in half and solely eat one half at a time.
My 50 per cent rule permits me to benefit from the cookie, however helps stop me from overdoing it. I take pleasure in the way it tastes, the feel in my mouth and the scent, after which I transfer on. If I need one other cookie, I break off half of it and revel in.
If I don’t have half-hour for a exercise, it’s not price it
I used to really feel this fashion and it stored me in a vacation exercise desert for years! Nonetheless, once I actually labored on my mindset I realised that quarter-hour was higher than zero.
Simply because I take pleasure in 30-minute exercises on common days doesn’t imply I wanted to forego my exercise utterly on the times that I don’t have that a lot time.
So in the course of the holidays, once I’m spending time with my family and associates, I minimize my exercise time in half.
As soon as I did this for the primary time (the day earlier than Thanksgiving about 10 years in the past), I by no means regarded again. I nonetheless get the “feel-good” endorphins and I’m happy with myself, like I did one thing constructive.
Each time I discover myself caught within the mindset of “I must do a exercise for X variety of minutes to ensure that it to be price it” I at all times remind myself that I’ll reap the identical psychological advantages by exercising for half the time.
Vacation cocktails are unavoidable. I’ll simply begin over for Dry January
That is what number of of my purchasers view their consuming habits in the course of the holidays.
I exploit my 50 per cent rule each season to make sure that I’m not waking up hungover or sluggish.
I began to deal with how I needed to really feel every single day. Did I wish to get up the following day feeling sluggish, torpid or having a headache? No!
So I made a decision to look forward after which plan forward. I begin by estimating what number of glasses of wine or cocktails I could devour on a given event.
Pink wine with my mum’s annual Christmas Eve’s spaghetti evening? As a substitute of three glasses, my aim is 1.5 glasses whole.
This easy rule single-handedly made me grow to be extra cognizant of my alcohol consumption and permits me to take pleasure in myself whereas guaranteeing I’ve a productive and energetic morning the following day!
