New Year! New Me? Maybe...

Year-end always has me in a reflecting and planning state of mind. Grading the last 12 months performance against my personal goals, and how that performance will impact my next year’s plans. 

1. Grading last 12 months is a LONG, too long period to have to grade - a LOT happens in a year! 

For example, I was killin it the first half of the year, but then this summer my dad died, very unexpectedly, Mom moved in (with her two mini pups) and chaos ensued. Sure, I was surviving, but helping my mom glue pieces back together to create a new normal, my training and nutrition were the first thing out the window and off the rails! I lost weight -mostly muscle- became undertrained, underfed, and under motivated. Once life leveled out - I could finally process the stress and that led to, you guessed it -weight gained- mostly fat, still undertrained, overfed, and slowly returning to motivation and self-discipline. 

Trainers are humans and subject to the demands, and stresses of normal life. Especially ones with day jobs, and families to nurture.

2. Too many goals, too many targets...

Too many goals with too many generic/general targets and no real measuring stick leaves you stuck! 

Lose Weight, Gain Muscle, Get up Earlier, Read More, Spend More Time With Family, Eat Cleaner, Get to the Gym More, Do More Mobility Work, Start Meditating, Show Up More in My Life... 

Too general, too many, for too long.... you see where we're going here???

What if we changed the approach? - What to Measure:

I support the 5 Factors of Health (thanks Chasing Excellence Podcast -10/10 recommend)

1.     The way you Eat - Eat Real Food, not too much, and in balance with your real life.

a.      I use the RP Diet App for all phases of my nutrition - my goal is to track there daily (even when I'm not on track) whether I'm on a fat loss, maintenance or other phase.

2.     The way you Recover - Sleep 7-9 hours daily, chase and protect this!

a.      No electronics once I get in the bed is my new rule. Horizontal before 10 is another.

3.     The way you Train - Constantly Varied, Functional Movement at High- Relative to you- Intensity 5-6 days a week.

a.      Following my program M-T-W-F, Thursday is active recovery, Saturday is program day, or a long slow run, and Sunday is my rest day.

4.     The way you Think - Focusing on what you can control. Actively practice positive thinking.

a.      I’m reading more on Stoic philosophy, ending my day with my audio daily devotion, and prayer before bed.

5.     The way you Connect - Build and grow relationships with others. Make the calls, make intentional time.

a.      Sunday is my rest day, but it’s also my connect day! Who did I miss this week? Even a quick text message, or call can recharge the souls’ batteries. I also have a goal of attending church at least 80% - or 4/5 Sundays.

Measure these things not annually, but around every 12 weeks so you can see patterns develop. Set a few minutes weekly to checkin on your top 5 above.

Set an appointment in your calendar every 3^rd month or 12^th week to be intentional on your “How you livin” checklist. See a pattern you like - keep it up! See a pattern that's not serving you? Change it up!

Check-ins with a coach or accountability partner regularly will help you stay on track.

Need help setting up your list? Yep – that’s what coaches do...we’re so much more than rep-counters! Setup a time now before you get caught up in life!