Five real ways to get back in shape

IF YOUR holidays involved more pudding than pounding the pavement, then this is for you. Here are five real ways to get back in shape.

The trick to getting back in shape

IF YOUR holidays involved more pudding than pounding the pavement, you may be tempted to go to extreme measures to undo the damage.

Here are five real ways to bounce back after slipping up — both mentally and physically.

1. BEYOND THE NUMBERS

So many New Year’s goals focus on decreasing weight, running a certain distance, or fitting into a particular size of clothing. While the end goal is important, it overshadows the real reason why you are engaging in exercising and eating well more often.

Rather than just focus on the numbers, asking the ‘why’ question adds a deeper meaning and helps to better connect your health goals to your values. For example, if your goal is to exercise four days a week but you continue to make up a long list of excuses — such as ‘I don’t have time’, ‘bad weather’ or ‘I’m too tired’ — it is, without doubt, worth reflecting on what your values are about the role exercise plays in your life.

2. FIND SHORT-TERM REWARDS

As a culture that thrives on ‘quick-fix’, most people give up on their new fitness or nutrition regimen because they don’t notice results straight away. However, real change takes time (at least a few months) so it’s important to focus on other rewards you reap along the way, such as more energy, less bloating, better sleep. Individually, these affects may seem pretty insignificant, but it’s the cumulative impact of always sticking to daily healthy habits that will carry you to long — term success.

3. FORGET THE FADS

What to eat? It’s a question we have to think about multiple times a day. With so much conflicting diet information available, choosing the right foods to fuel your body can be confusing. However, all healthy diets have one common denominator: A diet of minimally processed foods and predominantly plants (with or without meat).

Yes, broccoli may be boring, but learning different ways to prepare your vegetables, fruit and experimenting with different whole grains can transform your opinion from dull and tasteless to delicious.

TASTE RECIPE PICS Jan 5 ... must run with taste.com.au pointer. Greek salad and chicken skewers. Recipe by Claire Brookman; Photography by Andrew Young

4. ZEN HABITS

If you’re working on reducing your waistline, learning to calm down and manage your stress is key. The situations that cause stress are varied, but the reactions within your body are all the same. Your heart rate and blood pressure rises, and many stress hormones soar. One such hormone is cortisol, and chronically high levels are associated with increased belly fat. To counteract cortisol it’s important to take some down time by practising deep breathing, enjoying a cup of tea away from your desk, doing a slow yoga class, or having a bath before bed.

5. DESIGN YOUR ENVIRONMENT FOR SUCCESS

Willpower is a fickle beast. Some days you feel in control. Some days you don’t. But the truth is, a large portion of our daily actions is simply a response to the environment around us. According to Food Psychologist Brian Wansink, making changes — big and small — to the world around us is much easier than mustering the willpower when it comes to our levels of physical activity and how much we eat.

If you serve yourself on a smaller plate, you’ll eat less; if you lay out your running kit or pack your gym bag the night before, you’ll hit the gym. In other words, in order to change individual health behaviours, you need to change the environments that give rise to them.

Kathleen Alleaume is a nutrition and exercise scientist and Author of What’s Eating You? Follow her on Twitter @therightbalance