I have said it before don’t set New Year Resolutions. They often fail and fail for many reasons. Set goals!
What is a resolution?
A resolution is a statement to stop doing something. A person may say, “this year I am going to make the resolution to stop X.” (Where X = smoking, drinking, eating sugar, skipping workouts, etc). Resolutions many times are restrictions you set for yourself.
What is a goal?
A goal these tends to be a series of calculated steps designed to help you get to that goal. A resolution can help you get to your goal, it can be part of the steps involved in the process to get to a goal, but if you just set a resolution it may and often does fail.
However, if you couple resolutions with goals you have a purpose for those restrictions. Finding that purpose is important it is the key to making the changes you want to make.
I say lets do away with resolutions, and focus on objectives we can obtain.
Its important to streamline your goal process.
When things get to muddy its is easy to loose track of your goals. Here are some ways to help you streamline your goals.
- Make a commitment to making a change. That is the scary part… deciding to make that change. Making changes often times are not fun, hard work, may take you away from things you love already, and may completely upend your schedule. But you have to have a mindset of change, no resolution/restriction is going to do that. You have to commit to make a change in your lifestyle, and then commit to make it happen.
- Make micro goals for yourself. Making that big “I want to be healthier” goal is great. I am all for it, but think about the small steps or even goals you can make to get to that point. For instance lets look at the above goal, “I want to be healthier”, what does that entail for you? Do you have to stop smoking? Do you want to eat whole foods. Find the small goals or steps you would need to take to get to your larger goal. When you hit those smaller goals you will feel great and it helps to keep your momentum going. Also smaller goals make the big one seem less daunting.
- Document your goals. Document the steps or micro goals or sometimes you will have steps to the micro goals you set for yourself. You can then look back on your document and re-right your ship if you veer off course. Writing it down on paper may help you figure out the ‘why‘ you are doing it also.
- Believe in your ability to achieve your goal. A soccer player does not go after a ball to kick it into the goal if he or she is thinking, “nah, I cannot kick that into the goal.” They go at it like they know what they are doing. They run up to the ball swing their leg back and assume that all the training they have done will put their foot in the right position to kick the ball into the net. Often times athletes envision the goal. Hah see what I did there? They envision the goal, or winning that race, or even hitting that target. They envision it because they know their brain is powerful, and will help them hone all their training into the action that they want to achieve. You and your brain can do the same thing. You have to believe you can do it. You have to want to do it. You have to grasp at the goal and go for it.
- Find a way to measure your progress. Yeah yeah… this makes sense, and it is a way to show you that you are hopefully making positive progress toward your goal. But it can also tell you where you need to tighten down you training, eating, sleeping, etc. I say find a way because just wanting “to get healthier” is not an easy thing to measure. You might want to start taking your blood pressure to see if you can get it down. You might want to start getting cholesterol screenings. You can use a tape measure to see if you are gaining muscle or losing fat. There are many ways to measure progress, and the ways you choose will often inform your micro goals/steps. Figuring out how and what to measure can also inform your why.
- Figure out why you are doing it. You can set goals for yourself and still be unsure of how to get there, and or what to do. This is where reading comes in. I find reading or listening to experts as many as you can find helps. I listen to people I don’t agree with, and people I do agree with outright. I read as much as I can. So that I can find the common ground between them all. Most often there are multiple sides to every theory, but the common ground between them I feel is the truth. Figure out your why, like I said above the documenting, and figuring out how to measure your progress will help you find your why. Why do you want in this case, “to feel/get healthier“? Did you have a scare? Did someone you know/love have a scare? Are you tired of feeling lethargic? Do you want to look different? These are all possible reasons for the goal above. There are many many more possible. But knowing why will help you narrow down the topic and the goals.
- Finally keep going. Just keep going. It is not going to be easy all the time. The euphoria of a new shiny thing will wear off. The day where you had a shit day at work and you still have your workout left to do, when all you want to do is sit on the couch binge watch your show and eat ice cream will have you more than annoyed that you set this goal. If you fall off the proverbial wagon, get back up and get back on. Everyone does, and like I have said it takes 21 days to create a habit. Give yourself grace, understand things get in the way, but keep going. Don’t make excuses if you can say do your workout. But understand that if your train from work is stuck for 3 hours, and you still have to make dinner missing one night is not going to hurt anything.
This is not a race, its is a… lets see how has everyone else I have read say it… lifestyle change, its a journey, its a marathon. I know lets say its just life with a series of steps to get you to your goal, its an adventure, it is your story that is unique to you.
Monday 12/28/2020: 35 min – 25 minute HIIT, and 10 minute core
To start out this week I started Monday with a fantastic HIIT. It’s cold outside today again. So I decided to do a plyometric HIIT workout inside. It was a great workout and kicked my butt.
Then I did a core workout to round out my morning.
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HIIT: 1 minute on, 50 seconds active rest
Warm up
1) jump squats, skaters, jump rope, star jacks, jogging in place
2) repeat above
3) skiers, sumo squat jumps, high knees, pulsing squat jumps
4) repeat above
5) high knees, star jacks, skaters, jump squats, jumping jacks
6) repeat above
7) burpees, high knees, star jacks, sump squat jumps, skaters
8 ) repeat above
Cool down
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Core: Dana Lynn Bailey’s 10 minute core workout.
45 seconds on with 15 seconds rest between each
1) Hollow body
2) Hollow body reverse crunches
3) Sit Bicycles
4) Star Crunches
5) Side Right planks dips
6) Side Left planks dips
7) High Plank opposite Side Knee to Elbow
8 ) V Sit Leg Circles
9) Heel Touches
10) Explosive Sit Ups
Wednesday 12/30/2020: 31 minute – plyometric HIIT, and Core
Today is not a great day for me. Having some brain weasel activity making me feel bad about myself. On top of that I believe I am having my period. I say I “believe” because I have never been regular, and I had a hysterectomy due to a cancerous tumor. So no usual outward indicator. I am not sorry I don’t have shark week any more.
So fun fun, I still have my ovaries and it still have the great and wonderful hormone swings. And water retention. Meh!
Enough whinging from me. Anyway get out there and do what you can. Here is a what I did today:
Plyometric HIIT: 21 minutes
Warm up 3 min
34 seconds on 110% 31 seconds active rest (should be huffing and puffing)
1) 8 squat and jumps, skiers, 4x half turn jumps, skiers, 4x half turn jumps, 4 jacks, 4 star jumps, 4 jacks, 4 star jumps,
2) same routine above
3) 2x jacks, run, 2x jacks, run, 4x lunge sideways and tap floor, 4x jump lunge with side punches, 4x high knee and run
4) same routine as above
5) jump rope, 4x jacks, 4x star jump, 4x reach high lunge sideways low reach, 3x right reach high reach low, 2x jacks, 3x left reach high reach low, 4x high jump reach high then low right side, 4x high jump reach high then low left side, 4x sumo burpees
6) same routine as above
7) quick feet, high knee run, 4x high jump reach high then low right side, 4x high jump reach high then low left side, 4x sumo squats to basket ball shoot, 4x sumo burpees, 4x high tuck jumps
8 ) same as above
3 minute cool down and stretch
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Core: Dana Lynn Bailey’s 10 minute core workout.
45 seconds on with 15 seconds rest between each
1) Hollow body
2) Hollow body reverse crunches
3) Sit Bicycles
4) Star Crunches
5) Side Right planks dips
6) Side Left planks dips
7) High Plank opposite Side Knee to Elbow
8 ) V Sit Leg Circles
9) Heel Touches
10) Explosive Sit Ups
Saturday 01/02/2021: 2 mile run
I ran 2 miles today yay!
So last year I ran a total of 102 miles, that surprised me because I was not trying to get that many in, this years goals are 180 miles.
I have been a little relaxed about my training during the the holidays. I wanted to spend time with family and just enjoy the ending of this year. I normally train 5 to 6 days a week. So this week I only trained 3 days and today was just a run.
But I am back to my normal routine next week, plus a Shefit30 challenge I will be doing.
Also if you did not know I am a dork and love these leggings cause I look like an cyborg and therefore must go faster. Lol 😂
Some of my goals this year are:
- To add more HIIT workouts to my training. (Trying for two HIIT a week at least, with my Martial Arts/weight lifting/running its going to be a squeeze)
- Set new PR (personal records) for my weight lifting
- Run 180 miles this year (last year I ran a total of 102 and was not even keeping count)
- Polish off my south paw fighting so I can become a switch fighter.
- Obviously improve on the martial art I love Muay Thai.
- Keep working on my agility.
What are you goals, what is your adventure going to look like this year? What story do you want to tell, and what story do you want the people that love you to tell about you?
Thanks for reading. I am floored by all the people that are subscribing thank you. To all my followers I hope you have a happy new year and I hope that this new one is so much better than 2020. If you liked what you read please let me know and hit the like button. If you want to read more subscribe. If you want to drop a comment, or just say hi, please feel free.
And as always… Don’t photo edit, just go get it!
Thinks with Spinks 