Most trainers and gyms will tell you how the mid to late summer months can be pretty slow. For whatever reason it seems that the average American feels an urgent need to “get in shape” for certain seasons, then let themselves go for others.

Wouldn’t it be great if you were always fit, always, healthy, and always looked great?

Forget New Year’s resolutions, why not start now? It really is much easier than you might think to improve your health. For example, just choose an area you would like to see change, then pick one small thing that you can perform on a regular basis to achieve your goal.

Make sure that whatever step you take, that it is doable. If fat loss is a goal, then choose something small like exchanging half your starchy carbohydrates for veggies at dinner. If your goal is to increase your punching speed, then commit to throwing ten or twenty extra high speed punches per day. Just make sure that the feeling you get when choosing your new habit is “Yeah, I can do that,” instead of “Ugh.  I really don’t wan to do that.”

One of my recent goals, for example, is to develop the ability to perform a full side split. I’m fairly flexible, but I have not been able to complete a side split since I was 10 years old and it’s a crowd pleaser that I have been wanting to develop for a few years now. In any case, my new habit will be to spend ten minutes every day performing strength and flexibility exercises for side splits.

So, once you get started with your new habit make sure to keep it up religiously for at least a month; by then the habit should be pretty well set and you can add another.

If you think about it, you can have 12 new healthy habits every year. At that rate, you will be at your best in no time!

As an added measure of accountability, let people know what you are doing. In fact, feel free to post your goal and new habit here or better yet, start your own blog and document your journey to better health.

Let me know how it goes!

In Health,

–
Nhan-Esteban Khuong, L.Ac.
www.SGVJeetKuneDo.com