2019
The new year is upon us. The holiday time warp is now over. We have to buckle down, get back to some normal schedules, revisit our nutrition and how we want our new year to look on us. It’s a very big year for me. I have had a lot of transition over the past few years but what I do THIS year most likely sets the tone for the rest of my career. This year I will have my biggest and most frightening birthday and I need to use the time I have right now wisely. My wife keeps saying, “New year...new you.” I don’t know that it has ever been more true than this particular year.
In years past, we have done some 30 day challenges in the first few months of the year. Some of those have been helpful for awareness and getting ourselves back into the flow. Some were for fun and some were in the spirit of healthy competition. Several years ago, January became burpee month due to Spartan Race training. The Spartan race requires you to do 30 chest to floor burpees if you fail to complete an obstacle. I have not run that race in a few years but January remains burpee month to the despair of some pf my clients. One year, I did a 30 day challenge in April to ride my bike every day (30daysofbiking.com). This could be outside or on inside. I liked this challenge so much that I continued to commute to work on my bike through the summer and into the fall. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get onboard with the Minnesota winter riding. Bike commuting would be my first choice, if I have that option with my next job. It is an easy way to get more movement into the day and it feels great.
If you look back on our blog archives you will see that there were two posts in particular about sugar. This was April and May of 2015. That May, AX Fitness members took the 30 days no sugar challenge. This created a ton of awareness about how many foods actually have added sugar in them. We ventured together into some greater nutrition awareness and AX had a partnership with Performance Meals. We then followed up with a Healthy Eating resolution for 2017 and another blog post with data from our members. These short, 30 day challenges can be very beneficial for us to grow our healthy lifestyle. Challenges can propel us to another level of health, expose us to new hobbies, help us find out what we like or don’t like, and give us a bit more knowledge on subjects that are ever changing.
My wife and I have decided that it is a good time to revamp our nutrition. Anyone that has been around for class this holiday season knows how many baked goods and food I made. I have not done that in years and it was a blast! Now that is over, time to move on. Once I went to work at the YMCA, time became an even bigger issue. We were hardly home and always tired. We had allowed a few things back in to our diet for convenience which turned into a few more things. That extra beer that soon became even more things and two extra beers. And going out once in a while that turned into eating out at the neighborhood pub too often (love those burgers). We have found ourselves not satisfied with our health.
In my 129th year of life, as a very active trainer, I began to gain weight. This is something I have never worried about before. It makes me angry because I work hard, I am active, and I keep moving. And yes, my nutrition has not been as good as it has in the past, but I know I still eat better than most folks. At any rate, anything leftover from the holidays is going to the garbage today. (And, no, there are no more peanut butter cookies or Scotcharoos). The food prep becomes a real thing again. When I go back to work outside our home, we will look at using a healthy meal service to keep an eye on macros, processed foods, sugar, and free up time spent at home. Food prep is no joke. It does take time, it does take planning and it does generally fall on one person if you are coupled or have a family. We had solid results with our last healthy meal service and it cost no more than we were already spending on groceries.
You know what my plans are for the new year, I hope that you have some yourself. Please share yours! If you have any good job leads (fitness industry or not) send them my way! Also, if you know anyone who has interest in building a community based fitness studio with me, please send them my way! My wife would be full of gratitude and so would I!
I found a couple of fun lists that could help you find a new challenge for yourself.:
No fun videos this time around but no worries, I will post some soon. You can also go to our YouTube channel and check out our latest videos. Good luck to everyone in 2019! If I do not see you in class, I hope to see you around soon!
Here is to rocking 2019!
- The Trainer