Lifestyle Tips — Fruits
How to Make Resolutions That Will Stick In 2018
It’s that time again when the curtains fall, and a new chance to do better comes wrapped up as a new year. A time when you look back on the past year and identify areas that you want to improve on. A time when we feel that a new year will be a motivation to finally achieve the resolutions that have been prominent on our list every other year. A time when it’s ideal to adopt new habits and make new goals.The majority of us like to make resolutions early in the year. If you’re like me and most of us – being in better shape, healthy eating, and exercise may feature on your list. Or maybe your goals are to lose weight, save more money, be happy, and advance your career. Sadly, only 8% of people are successful in achieving their resolutions.1 If you wish to be in this top crop of people, use these techniques to make resolutions that stick.
One resolution at a time
We possess a limited will power.1 Hence, it is overwhelming to make multiple resolutions work at the same time.2 You will fail if you try to change everything at once. If you want to achieve your goal and stay on track, stick to one thing, make it happen, and then move on to the next.3
Not to mention, you will need commitment and action. Pick just one area to begin with then give yourself a month to make the habit stick.2
Practice the habit every day without fail, paying attention to the little steps of action that will propel you to achieve your bigger goal. It would be impossible to lose weight if you practice the foundations like eating healthy and starting an exercise regimen.1
Start small
Start from somewhere.
You don’t climb an entire mountain in a day. Losing weight is too broad a resolution. Equally, you can't lose all the weight in a month. Set a small and attainable goal for a start. Be specific about how many pounds you want to lose and at what time. Then, start with a manageable figure and work upward.3
Once you can follow through and it becomes a habit, then you can set more significant target. Likewise, you can’t start by going to the gym for two hours every day. It is wise to start with 30 minutes every other day, and then, improve on that daily.1
Set smart goals
You must set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound targets. If you want to lose weight, there are many things that are involved. What exactly does it mean to you to lose weight? Is it weighing fewer pounds or fitting into a particular dress size?
Figure out what exactly you want to do. Say you want to lose ten pounds in a months’ time. Then, find steps that can drive you to achieve that. Plan your meals in advance, pay for a gym membership, and go three times a week.
Have a strong why
Why are you making those resolutions? Why do you want that change? Having a strong why makes it easy to change your habit for the better. “Why” gives you the motivation to stick to your goals even in the face of adversity and challenges. A strong why will keep you going even when you want to quit.
You don’t just need any motivation, but a quality motivation that instigates change within you and propels you to success and greatness. Resolve to change a lousy habit, because you want to improve the quality of your life. Don‘t set resolutions just because your friends are setting resolutions. Don’t set resolutions that people think you should set. Be honest with yourself, and choose what you feel you want to change. That way the motivation will come from within.
Make a monetary incentive
Set a monetary reward for when you achieve your goal. Decide on the value of money you will pay if you don’t go to the gym. You could give the money to a friend, or donate to a charity, or send to a friend who has achieved his/her goal.
The reward, no matter how little, will encourage you to go through with it: a movie, ice cream, or whatever makes you happy.2 Of course, it is easy to be hard on yourself when you don’t achieve your goal than to celebrate when you succeed. Make effort to celebrate when you succeed and pay yourself the reward.3 Apply this tactic to any resolution and see it work.
Expect obstacles and accept failure
Making a habit change is not easy; otherwise, we’d all be who we want to be in a jiffy.
In fact, you may feel like giving up a few days or weeks into the change. Chances are you’ll get distracted. Therefore, you need to on the lookout. List the potential challenges that may hinder you from following through with your plan. Then, come up with solutions to those obstacles.
If you find it difficult to get out of bed and you keep hitting the snooze button, keep it on the other side of the room, so you’re forced to wake up and turn it off. Don’t forget to remove all triggers, like junk foods in your pantry, and replace them with healthier foods, like fruits and vegetables.3
In any event that you lose track, don’t give up altogether. Don't beat yourself up. You don’t just pack up and go. Instead, tell yourself it’s just a bad day at the office, and tomorrow you’ll do better. Dust yourself off and analyze the triggers that caused the setback and learn from them. If you’re going out with friends is the trigger for drinking alcohol, minimize that interaction.2
Have an accountability partner
Share your resolutions with your family and friends. Likewise, you can share on social media to make yourself accountable to your goal.3 Additionally, you can join a group of people who have the same goal as yours for accountability and support. When you share your success and struggle with others, the journey to your dreams seems more accessible and less daunting. You remain inspired, dedicated, and committed, because it’s no longer just about you, but others would be disappointed if you don’t achieve your goal.1
Get out of your comfort zone, and get support from other people with the similar goals.
Track your progress
Keeping a log is vital to making your resolutions stick. Once you have your specific goal and action plan, track your daily progress.2 When you monitor your performance, it becomes more likely that you’ll achieve your goals. Not to mention, the feedback you get encourages you to keep going.
If you set up a financial goal to save a certain amount every day, every time you see the bank balance grow is a tremendous motivating factor. The feeling of the ticking off your list will prompt you to set even bigger goals.1
Summarily, whatever you want, you have all it takes to achieve it. All you need to decide what you want, take action, and don’t stop until you follow through with it.
What do you want to achieve in 2018? Is it financial success? Is it weight loss?
Share with us in the comments!
Happy New Year from Mother Earth Products.
References
Importance of Eating Well for Workout Recovery
Eating a healthy and balanced diet is required everyday, despite your activity level. However, eating healthy foods has a greater impact than working out for maintaining or losing weight.1
Did you know that the foods you eat after hitting the gym are the most important foods you will ever eat? So before you think of rewarding yourself for working hard at the gym with fries and burger, think again.
Importance of food for workout
Carbohydrates
You need carbohydrates to give your body energy. The more you work out, the more carbs you need because the stored energy will be depleted.1 Eating less energy-giving foods will deny you adequate energy during exercise and can delay recovery. Foods such as pasta, whole grain bread, potatoes, brown rice, and fruits are perfect sources of carbohydrates.2
Protein
Also referred to as body builders, protein is essential for muscle growth and recovery.2 Your body readily uses protein for muscle building immediately after workout. Eating protein within 2 hours post workout helps your body to build lean muscle.3
Get protein both from plant and animal sources to increase your intake. Some protein sources include legumes, dairy/ alternative dairy products, eggs, beef, fish, nuts, and poultry. Choose lean meats and low-fat dairy/ non-dairy products. Add a protein in your meals before and after a workout to aid with muscle repair.
A combination of strength exercises to build muscle with a diet rich in protein and energy from carbs and fat helps to keep the body fit and strong.
The post workout window
The first 45 minutes after finishing your workout is called the recovery period, which is a window of opportunity to help the body in muscle repair and growth.1 3 It is a critical period for muscle tissue recovery and repair, for the body to replace lost fluids, and for the body to recover from the stress of the workout.
Let's dig in deeper into some gym science. Your body breaks down food to get energy. It stores the excess energy in the form of glycogen and protein for future use. During your workout, the body breaks down the food you ate before the workout to provide energy. It also breaks down the stored glycogen. After your workout, your muscles break down the available protein to rebuild its cells.1 But most importantly, during the first 45 minutes post-workout, the body absorbs carbs and proteins for recovery. That is the workout window for recovery. For proper recovery and replenishment for your muscles, your goal should be to eat 30g of protein and 30 to 35g of carbs within 15 minutes post workout.1
For cardio exercises, ensure to replenish the energy stores within 30 minutes, while for strength training the window of opportunity extends up to 2 hours.3
Foods for post workout recovery
What you eat and drink after your workout can make or break your recovery process. You need to boost your carbs and protein to help you recover faster. Also, rehydrate with water to replace the water lost during the workout. Proteins and carbs are required to replenish glycogen stores in the body, repair muscles, and prevent muscle soreness.3
Therefore, it is important to choose healthy food options after your workout. Whole foods are ideal, because they offer complete nutrition, and they are rich in micronutrients, fiber, and high quality protein: (non-farmed) fish, chicken, eggs, milk/ alternative milks, and yogurt.3
Wondering what to eat to promote muscle growth and for post-workout recovery? The following foods are ideal.
Eggs
Eggs are a perfect post-workout food. They are rich in protein required to replenish the muscles.2 Research reports that taking 10-20g of high quality protein within 2 hours after strength training is adequate for recovery and prevention of muscle loss.3 They can be eaten at any time of the day. You can eat them the way you love - scrambled, poached, or hard boiled. Eat them with a few slices of bread and vegetables, like onions, tomatoes, or lettuce. You can also eat them with avocado to give a healthy fat boost or lean turkey for an added boost of protein.
Protein Shake
To get a quick supply of protein, make a simple recipe of protein shake. Add fruit and a nut butter to your favorite milk to get a boost of protein. If you’re a vegetarian, you can consider adding protein powder to the drink of your choice. Chocolate milk has been found to be a great post-workout option. Ensure to choose low-fat or even a low/ no added sugar one to avoid consuming too much added sugar and excess fat.3
Chocolate protein powder made with milk/ alternative milk, and an added banana is a good option.
Whole grain cereal
Oatmeal is a perfect cereal that is rich in fiber. You can eat it alongside a high protein snack, like walnuts, almond butter, or use a protein powder. Add honey to give a boost of energy. This can be a quick snack after hitting the gym. It will help to boost blood sugar levels, especially after a high intensity cardio workout.
Choose a high protein cereal rich in fiber and low in sugar. This helps to quickly replenish the energy stores in your muscles. You can also opt to add milk or yogurt to the cereal.
Whole grain sandwich
A sandwich is an ideal meal, especially for post-workout snacking during lunch break. You can make a chicken or turkey sandwich, with a bowl of vegetable soup. The sandwich is quick to prepare, and you can carry it to the gym. You can add salads to the sandwich to give it a vegetable boost. For example: stuff spinach salad with slices of chicken breast onto your toast. You can also layer avocado, tomato, and cottage cheese onto your sandwich for a boost of energy. You can also make a sandwich with banana. Slice the banana and place on the bread spread with peanut or almond butter.
Fruits
They are a portable snack packed with healthy nutrients. They contain enzymes that help your body to break down nutrients quickly and assist in replenishing your exhausted muscles.2 Fruits, such as kiwi and oranges, contain antioxidants that protect your cells from damage. Pineapple has anti-inflammatory properties that aid your muscles recovery.3 You can combine fruits and nuts, like a sliced apple with a handful of peanuts or walnuts.
Smoothies
Although whole foods are ideal, smoothies are a quick, healthy fix when you are too tired to make a meal, or need to boost your blood sugars quickly.
You can make your favorite smoothie using our Tropical De-lite Blend - a mix of banana slices, pineapple chunks, orange segments (our newest recipe incorporates freeze dried strawberry slices), mango dices, and papaya dices.
This blend will provide calories for workout recovery and also provide fiber, antioxidants and minerals.
To prepare, rehydrate by soaking in water for a few minutes to make the texture smooth and pleasant. Add to a blender with yogurt or milk (depending on your preference), and blend until smooth. Viola! You have a power smoothie!
Water
Water is also essential post-workout to replace the fluids lost through sweat. You can take pure water or electrolyte-rich sports drinks to replenish lost electrolytes. However, some of them contain high levels of sugar and calories.3 You should opt for snacks and water instead. You can take coconut water, rich in potassium and magnesium, to restore the lost electrolytes.3
For any workout to be effective, nutrition has to be the center of it all. You need to make the right choice to replenish energy and nutrients lost during the workout.
References
