IN FITNESS AND IN HEALTH

How To Crush Your Health Goals In 2024

It all starts from the top

2024 is the year you finally crush all your health goals — be it weight lost, weight gain, etc., but not just that, you’re also going to maintain all of them for the rest of your life.

That was what I told myself at the start of this year after almost 4 years (since the start of the pandemic) of neglecting my overall health and just feeling really shitty on most days.

I’m proud to say that for the first time in over 2 plus years (since the pandemic slowed down), I’m finally doing what is needed to get back to my pre-pandemic health levels.

I’ve been eating well, I’m getting more rest, and most importantly, I’ve been very consistent with my workouts.

In the first 22 days of January, I’ve done workouts on 21 days, only missing out on one day when I had a really long outstation drive for work and I just felt too tired to do anything after reaching my hotel.

But aside from that, even when I was outstation for work throughout the whole of last week, I was still putting in at least a 30-minute workout each day.

Was it easy though?

Hell no.

It’s been one of the hardest things I’ve had to do — keeping myself working out consistently over the last 3 weeks.

But I’ve managed it so far and I’m actually feeling pretty confident that I will keep it going until I no longer want to anymore.

And the reason why I know I’m going to succeed this time around and not fail again like I did on many previous occasions — my mind.

I used to think that the biggest factor in me getting my dream body and being the healthiest I’d ever be is the gym — or the act of going to the gym/putting in a workout.

While that is still very true, it’s not the biggest factor in a person getting fit or healthy.

The biggest factor is actually the mind.

An obese person will know what needs to be done in order to lose weight — exercising regularly, eating a balanced diet, getting enough rest, etc., but more often than not, they struggle to do it.

I think everybody who wants to lose weight know what needs to be done.

The problem or the challenge is actually doing all those things — and doing them regularly enough to finally start seeing and feeling results.

And the biggest factor in enabling you to achieve that is actually your mind.

The biggest obstacle in almost any challenge you face is actually within your own head. It’s not the obstacle itself that is the problem, rather it’s your perception of the challenge and how you view it.

I used to dread thinking about getting myself back into shape.

Why?

Because I was really overweight (I still am but making good progress) and it was obviously a much harder task to get fit again compared to when I was already fit and just trying to maintain it.

In my head, I was already defeated.

There were just so many reasons for failing which I kept repeating in my head over and over again.

Things like:

• I’m a 37-year old dad with a full-time job who travels more than 75% of the time, when am I going to find the time and energy to workout?
• I’m almost 20kg (around 45lbs) over my supposed ideal weight for someone of my height, there’s no way I’m going to be able to lose all that excess weight.
• I’m so much older now, how am I going to find the energy as I’m also always feeling tired.
• I don’t have time to even think about working out because I have so many other things to do.
• With all my traveling, how am I going to control my diet and eat well?

Do you know what those things sound like?

Excuses.

Nothing more, nothing less.

Just endless excuses to justify myself when I do eventually fail.

And it worked.

Each time I got sidetracked or didn’t do what I was supposed to do, I just picked the relevant excuses and made myself feel better for not doing what I said I would do.

Then finally during the last day of 2023, I looked myself in the mirror and just really disliked what I saw.

I didn’t recognise the man in the mirror anymore.

That wasn’t me — the me that I want to be.

But it was who I currently am.

And I didn’t like it.

Not one bit.

I also then realised that I’d been telling myself all these excuses as to why I couldn’t achieve my goals and I believed all of them.

So, what would happen if I told myself that I could achieve all my goals and actually believed I would?

I started to do the things that I needed to do to achieve those goals.

That’s what happened.

Rinse and repeat

Every single morning, I would journal.

And in my journal, I’d write down all my goals — every single one of them be it fitness, financial, personal, professional, etc. — and I’d read them out loud when I write them down.

What I’m basically doing is reaffirming in my mind that these are the things that I really want to achieve in life.

These are my deepest desires.

And when I read them out load, I also say them in present tense.

I said that I’m the healthiest that I’ve ever been.

I’m successful in everything that I do.

I see myself as the person I want to be.

I see myself being the fittest that I’ve ever been, having the amount of money in my account that I could only ever imagined, and doing the things that I want to do for the rest of my life.

All these things, I’m imagining them as myself now.

And I do it every single day — sometimes a few times a day like in the morning when I journal and at night before I sleep when I do some visualisation exercises.

The repetition influences my sub-conscious mind and it now drives me to do what I need to do in order to achieve my goals.

I don’t struggle to put in a workout anymore because my mind tells my body that it’s something I really want to do.

I eat a healthier diet because my mind tells my body that is what my body loves to have as fuel.

In my mind, I truly believe that I’m the healthiest that I’ve ever been and my body is reacting to that.

And just like that, I’m on my way to proving myself right.

As I mentioned, the biggest factor in achieving anything you want to achieve is in your mind.

It’s the reason why you’ve heard of sayings like if you put your mind to it, you can achieve anything.

Or what the mind can conceive, it can achieve.

The first step to achieving fitness goals this year is by believing that you can.

And the way to do that is by telling yourself over and over again that you can, that you will, that you already have.

It’s already done.

Once your mind believes it, watch your body catch up to it and do the things that you need it to do.

This year is the year where you will achieve all your health goals. And not just achieve them, but you’ll also master the art of maintaining them.

You got this!