How To Start The New Year Fresh
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Starting from this day, moving forward is an opportunity to start the New Year fresh. We have a fresh availability to conquer this year, but it really is up to us. It is up to the choices that we decide to make. And I want to make sure that we are all starting this year with a healthy relationship, not only with ourselves, but with our body and also with health and fitness. And so in today's episode, I just kind of want to help you give some guidance as to how to start the new year with a strong relationship with yourself and really building a healthy, sustainable lifestyle when it comes to your health and fitness goals.
What I discussed:
Stop punishing yourself for past choices
Only commit to 1 to 3 habits this year and start implementing them into your day to day routine.
Make a plan and stick to your new habits.
Continue to remind yourself that real change takes time. Do not rush the process.
Link mentioned in this episode:
Episode 297: 5 Key Habits You Need to Implement in 2023
If you want more from me, be sure to check out:
Instagram: @embraceyourreal | @movementwithjulie
Transcript:
Hey there, beautiful human. You're listening to Embrace Your Real with me, Julie Ledbetter. A podcast where I empower you to just be you. With each episode, I issue a dose of real talk and actionable advice for building your confidence, honoring your body, and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned if you're ready to embrace your real. Let's get it, let's go!
Hello and welcome to the Embrace Your Real podcast. It is 2023. I can't believe that it is already a new year. Like, how crazy is that? I don't know about you, but I know that I've been in my direct messages the last few days and people have just been frustrated. They've gotten off track during the holiday season. And you know what I've been telling ladies? That's okay. That's normal. You're human. Maybe you stuck with your routine up until Christmas, but fell off, you know, between Christmas and New Year's. Or maybe you've been struggling to stay on track since Halloween. Whatever it is, I want you to know that that is okay.
Now, right now, starting from this day, moving forward is an opportunity to start the New Year fresh. We have a fresh availability to conquer this year, but it really is up to us. It is up to the choices that we decide to make. And I want to make sure that we are all starting this year with a healthy relationship, not only with ourselves, but with our body and also with health and fitness. You guys know I'm a firm believer in honoring your body, both with movement and also the foods that you eat, how you fuel your body. And so in today's episode, I just kind of want to help you give some guidance as to how to start the new year with a strong relationship with yourself and really building a healthy, sustainable lifestyle when it comes to your health and fitness goals.
Before we dive in now I wanted to share this review comes from Indi Gaffney. She gave a five star review and said, "My favorite podcast. I found out about Movement with Julie from Pinterest and I'm so glad that I did. Her Pinterest clips are so fun. Now, I listen to the podcast and just join the movement with Julie app. All three have really helped to motivate me on my fitness journey and her kind words are so motivational. This is a Must Listen podcast."
Well, Indi, first of all, I'm so grateful that you found me through Pinterest. That is so fun. I told you guys beginning or kind of in the middle of last year, I was like, "Hey, I'm on Pinterest. I love Pinterest" and been on there ever since. I absolutely love my Pinterest community. You guys are amazing. All of your comments like on a daily. I just enjoy going through your comments over on Pinterest. So if you're not already following me on Pinterest, it's just pinterest.com forward slash Julie A Ledbetter and I post podcast clips, I post workouts, I post some recipes on there and so definitely give it a follow. It is so, so fun and I'm so grateful that you're a part of the movement, with Julie community. Cannot wait to work out alongside of you in 2023.
Okay, so let's dive in to the five steps to help you ensure that you are starting off your new year fresh and in a healthy and sustainable way.
Step number one, you've got to stop punishing yourself for past choices. I know that it's common to indulge in unhealthy habits over the holidays, whether it's eating, you know, foods that you don't normally eat, skipping workouts or both. But really, it's important to remember that one week or heck, even a few weeks or a month of unhealthy habits, they do not and will not define your overall health and fitness journey so long as you don't allow them to. This is why you have to stop punishing yourself. Guilt and shame are not productive emotions. It's natural to feel guilty or ashamed after indulging in things that you don't typically eat or actions that you don't typically do. But you have to remember that these emotions are really not productive and can honestly lead to an even further unhealthy relationship with yourself or with food and and really an unhealthy behavior. So instead of punishing yourself, I need you to focus on forgiveness and self-compassion.
Yes. You enjoyed the holidays. You ate your favorite treats, your soul felt nourished. You were spending time with friends and family that you love. You created amazing memories. And all these things are things that you should never regret or feel guilty about. So instead of punishing yourself for the past actions that you maybe did over the last week or over the last few weeks or month, you have to let go of any shame and instead focus on moving forward.
Remember this one week or even one month of unhealthy habits do not define your overall health journey because it is a journey you are going to have ups and you're going to have downs. It's easy to feel like one week of unhealthy habits has really undone all of your hard work. But it's important to remember that your health and wellness journey is not defined by that. Right? Whether it's one week of positive, healthy habits or one week of unhealthy habits, it's important to remember that it is a journey and you have the opportunity to get back on track. It is never too late to get back on track with whatever your goals are. Right? And I want to encourage you that now more than ever is the best time to start moving forward.
Step number two. Only commit to 1 to 3 new habits this year.
Now, I know you're thinking there is no way that I can only commit to 1 to 3 new habits. Like I need to have a total habit overhaul. But I'm here to remind you that we're here to set ourselves up for success.
Yes, you could start the year by doing 20 new habits. But is that realistic? In a month, in two months, in three months, in six months, by the end of the year. It is so much easier to build a couple of habits at a time rather than trying to implement, you know, 100 new habits or even 30 new habits all at once. That can be super overwhelming and very unrealistic. And this is why I suggest that you focus on building a couple habits at a time. I call it habit stacking. I've done a few podcast episodes on this, but this will really allow you the opportunity to focus on a couple specific behaviors and make them a consistent part of your routine. Right. It's so much easier to integrate three habits into your life rather than implementing 17 habits and then realizing, you know, that ten of those habits are not realistic or 12 of those habits are not realistic.
And so instead, I want you to focus on 1 to 3 habits and really start implementing them into your day to day routine. And when you are doing that, you're also allowing yourself to easily see more progress. And it will help you have more of a sense of accomplishment and this sense of accomplishment that you feel from really dominating and conquering those habits that you want to implement, that's actually what's going to fuel you to motivate you to keep going. Right. It's that sense of accomplishment that's going to help you stay on track and keep you excited towards your journey. It's these small wins that will lead you towards reaching big goals. And lastly, you're more likely, like I mentioned earlier, to stick with these habits. When you try to do too much at once, it's really easy to get overwhelmed and thus lose motivation or just get overwhelmed to the point where you give up. Whereas if you're focusing on a couple habits at a time, you're more likely to stick with them and see them through to completion. This is also because it's easier to make adjustments when you have just a few habits to commit to.
So when you're trying to build a bunch of new habits all at once, it can be difficult to identify which ones are working and which ones aren't. But if you're focusing on just a couple of habits at a time, it's a lot easier for you to really fine tune your approach. And you're able to, again, identify, "okay, this habit that I initially created or that I initially wanted to reach or start implementing into my day. That's actually not what I thought it would be." And you're able to really fine tune a lot quicker. Right. You have to remember that overall building new habits is a process that takes time. It takes effort. And by focusing on a couple habits at a time, you can more easily track your progress, stick with your habits, and make adjustments as needed, which in the long run will actually bring you so much more success. And success and results is ultimately what we're looking for, right?
Step number three is to make a plan and stick to your new habits. Many people struggle to maintain new habits in the long term. Right? In fact, one study that I was researching in doing this podcast found that 80%, eight-zero. % of people who make New Year's resolutions fail to follow through on any of them.
Another study found that 50% of people who make resolutions to change a specific behavior, such as starting an exercise routine are unsuccessful in achieving their goal after year one. So my question to you is, are you going to be a part of the 20% of people who follow through on your New Year's resolutions or your habits or your goals? And are you going to be a part of the 50% that achieve their goal after one year?
That's really all does depend on your plan. And here's what you need to do. You need to set specific, achievable goals when setting goals for your habit. You have to make sure that they're specific and you have to make sure that they're achievable.
For example, setting a goal of, I just want to move my body more, I want to exercise more, I want to work out more. For example, instead of setting a very generic goal, which many of us have, we want to move our bodies more. We want to exercise more, implement more workouts into our, you know, weekly routine. I want you to get very, very specific and say, okay, I'm going to move my body and I'm going to do this specific workout plan for 30 minutes, three times a week. And I'm going to do it on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
When you're very, very specific, it's so much easier to track your progress and hold yourself accountable and stay motivated. Once you have your goals in mind, I need you to make a plan on how you're going to achieve them. Now, this should definitely involve some scheduling specific times for your habits, identifying any potential obstacles and finding ways to overcome them. I actually dove deeper into episode 297 -Five Key Habits You Need to Implement in 2023. So be sure to tune into that. I will link it in the show notes it just released last week, but that's going to give you a lot of really tangible information.
And lastly, you have to track your progress. Tracking your progress can really help you to stay motivated and also help you to stay accountable, keeping a record of your habits and celebrating the small wins along the way. If you have a setback, it's going to allow you to get through that setback without getting so discouraged to the point where you quit. Right. You have to learn to figure out how to avoid or jump over that obstacle in the future and focus on getting back on track and continuing towards working towards your goals and the habits that you want to implement.
Step number four You have to continue to remind yourself that real, sustainable change takes time, so don't rush the process. Lasting change. Sustainable change will require consistent effort. Achieving long term results often requires consistent effort over a long period of time. Right? Quick fixes, on the other hand, they often provide very temporary results that are not sustainable long term. You guys know, like we intuitively know, that quick fixes often involve very unhealthy, unrealistic strategies that are just not sustainable long term. And research has actually shown that it can take anywhere from 18 to 254 days. Yes, you heard that right. 254 days for a person to form a new habit, depending on whatever specific habit it is and the individual.
You have to remember that this process requires consistent effort and a willingness to persevere through setbacks. So, please, when you are setting and developing your new habits, please remember these things and push forward.
Okay, so let me recap those four things that I just mentioned. Step number one. Stop punishing yourself for past choices. Guilt is not going to take you anywhere productive. Remember that. Number two, only commit to 1 to 3 habits this year. Start with that, master that. And if you begin to master those habits and feel like you can add in another habit, I call it habit stacking. I again, I talk about this in a few other episodes. I will link them in the show notes below, but habit stacking is key for you to actually follow through. Step number three Make a plan for sticking to your new habits. And step number four, continue to remind yourself that real change takes time. Do not rush the process.
Okay. So now that you have the tools and the steps on how and what to do in terms of really starting off the New Year fresh, how do you choose which three habits to implement? If your goal is to build, the body that you want is to honor your body, is to nourish your body, is to feel your best in your body. Well, I'm going to kind of break it down with you on what I personally talk about and what I set in terms of just my I don't like to call them New Year's resolutions. I like to call them goals. They're they're really things that I follow through into my lifestyle. And they're three key pillars into my lifestyle when it comes to my health and fitness journey.
Number one, honor your body with movement 3 to 5 days a week for at least 30 to 45 minutes. You don't need to follow these crazy workout plans that are unrealistic and really, quite frankly, hard to stick with. Long term, they're not enjoyable. All you genuinely need to honor your body and start to see massive results is at least three days a week of 30 minutes of of intentional movement. Seriously, I have seen so many women reach their goals by just setting that bare minimum goal of I'm going to be very intentional three days a week for at least 30 minutes. It's amazing what can happen when you are being effective and efficient and also setting realistic goals that you can stick with you. I would much rather you stick with three days a week for 30 minutes for the entire year versus you saying, okay, I'm going to try to do five or six days a week for at least an hour, and you stick with that maybe 20% of the time.
Long term, what is actually going to lead to bigger and larger results? It's going to be you staying consistent with three days a week for 30 minutes of movement, right? I actually have an app. If you do not already follow my app or do not already know about my demo workouts, it's called The Movement with Julie app.
I give you five brain workouts every single week. If your goal is three workouts a week for, you know, 30 minutes. I tell you, pick three workouts, lower body, upper body and full body. That's a great start for you. And I do offer 30 minute express workouts in every single workout that I release every week. So that way you have the option to do that. No thinking. You literally just open up the app, you check out the video demos, and then you roll with it. I give you the sets. I give you the reps. All of those things, very minimal equipment. All you need is a pair of dumbbells, a pair, two of dumbbells, a small space. And truly, that's all that you need if you have a bench. Amazing. But it's optional. I always give no bench alternates. You can learn more by going to sale. That's S-A-L-E Dot Movement with Julie dot com.
Whether you do my program or somebody else's program, I honestly don't care. What I care about is that you stick with it. What I care about is that you're having fun, that you're consistent, and they are honoring your body on a regular basis with movement.
Number two, nourish your body with what it needs by really fine tuning your nutrition. You don't need to get on any of these quick fix diets that cut entire food groups out or deprive your body of your favorite foods that really makes you feel like you're starving all day. Instead, all you need to do is nourish your body with what it actually needs.
If you give your body the amount of protein, carbs and fats that it needs daily, you will see results without feeling deprived. If you can eat what you want every day and still see results, why in the heck would you get on a quick fix? You wouldn't. You wouldn't. And I'm telling you, you don't need to get on a quick fix. You don't need to cut out entire food groups. You don't need to go low carb. You don't need to intermittent fast. All you need to do is properly fuel your body. And I love doing that through utilizing the tool of macro accounting.
If that interests you, if that's something that you want to look more into. I do have an online academy. It's called the Macro Counting Made Simple Online Academy. You can get your custom macro calculation, meaning you will fill out a questionnaire form and we will give you your customized protein, carbs and fats, your fiber as well as your water intake. And then you get to take those numbers and eat whatever you want. This is not a meal plan we are not giving you. You need to eat X, Y and Z food. We're telling you this is the proper amount of nutrition of how much your body needs based on where you're at and what your goals are. And then you get to take that and really make it a lifestyle.
So again, if you want to learn more, you can go to macro counting made simple dot com that is macro counting made simple dot com. And you can learn all about the academy in there. We have worked with thousands of ladies and it is just it is macro counting. The tool of macro accounting itself has genuinely changed my life, and I firmly believe that it can help you properly feel your body without depriving yourself of your favorite foods. So again, go to macro counting made simple dot com if you want to learn more about that.
And lastly, number three, visualize how you want to show up to your life on a daily basis. This is truly one of the best ways to remain consistent is to visualize how you want to show up on a daily basis. This will keep you moving forward, right? It will help you make decisions that really align with what you want to accomplish, and it will remind you daily of what you're working toward.
So if you visualize in the morning how you want to show up to the various tasks and duties that you have that day, it's it's really going to allow you to go through those because your brain has already seen it. Right. I want you to visualize what you want your life to look like. How do you want to feel? How happy are you? Where are you? Who are you spending time with? What are the activities that you're doing? Get as detailed as possible and you can do this every single morning. When you wake up first thing in the morning, you can do it, you know, for a few minutes in your bed before you get out of bed, before you look at your phone, before the day get started. You can do it on your drive to work. You can do it while you're brushing your teeth. You can do it while you're working out. It really doesn't matter where you do it. But I want you to find time to start to visualize how you want to show up.
I promise when you adopt this habit, you will see better results because your brain cannot differentiate between what it has vividly imagined and what is actually real. And so as a result, your brain, your neural pathways actually start to create new ones to align with what it's visualize. It is incredible. I've talked about it in many other podcast episodes, so definitely go back and check out, you know, various podcast episodes. I talk about it one in particular I will link in the show notes below that specifically talks about the habit of visualization so you can get very, very detailed and and go kind of nitty gritty into that. But visualization is key. Okay.
So let me recap the three habits that I want to encourage you to implement this year. If your goal is to build the body that you want and feel your best, number one, honor your body with the movement three or five days a week for a minimum of 30 minutes. Number two, nourish your body with what it needs by properly fueling it. And number three, visualize how you want to show up on a daily basis.
I will link all of the episodes that I talked about in the show notes below so that you can easily go listen to them. I also talked about my movement with Julie app. If you want to learn more about my dumbbell only workouts at home, you can also do them at the gym if you prefer a gym setting, but they are dumbbell only, so very minimal equipment required five brandnew workouts every single week. You can learn more by going to sale. That's at. S-A-L-E dot movement with julie dot com. And that if you want to learn more about utilizing the tool of macro counting to properly nourish your body, you can check out my macro counting made simple online academy by going to macro counting made simple dot com. Again, remember all those things are linked in the show notes below. If you are tuning into Apple Podcasts so you can easily go check out all of those things.
That is all that I have for today's episode. I hope this help to you. I hope that this gave some clarity to you so that you can really start off the new year fresh and implementing habits that will serve you for a lifetime, that are sustainable, that are realistic, and that really set you up to honor your body in 2023. I love you so much. I mean it. And I'll talk to you in the next one.
All right, sister. That's all I got for you today. But I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you are not already following me on the gram, be sure to do so, Julie A Ledbetter. Yes. It's with an a in the middle for that daily post-workout real talk, healthy tips and tricks and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check. The second thing. Be sure to subscribe to Apple Podcasts to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me. It means the absolute world and I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember, that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface. So go out there and embrace your real because you're worth it.