Why You Need to Ditch the Detox this Year

Why You Need to Ditch the Detox this Year

Welcome to 2022!

I hope you all had a lovely break. I'm feeling pretty refreshed actually and ready for an awesome year ahead. I always have lots of really good ideas when I get to take the opportunity to step away for a bit. So I've got some pretty exciting things planned.

To set the scene for the year, I just wanted to give you some tips to help you actually achieve your health and fitness goals and stay on track. Instead of smashing it really hard at the start, going too hard, too fast and losing puff by February.

This is why you need to ditch the diet and detox mentality this year...

 1. Ditch the detoxes

• So many people think you need to detox the body to get rid of toxins, to lose weight, to kick start something
• There is no evidence to support detoxes
• Our body is well equipped with two kidneys, and a liver that know how to filter our blood and that gets rid of the toxins out of it
• If you can just simply eat well, and exercise regularly, it'll help you to get yourself back on track, get that balance back in your life and maintain that long term without needing to detox

2. Set SMART goals

• SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely
• Write them down and hold yourself accountable to them
• Tell your accountabilabuddy your goals - this can help keep each other on track too
• Set yourself up for success and not failure

 3. Make many small goals instead of one big one
 

• Map out your ultimate goal and then break this up into smaller bite-sized goals. It'll be much easier to achieve your goal if you can imagine the outcome occurring in the not-so-distant future with smaller little chunks to help you keep working more consistently and steadily on the way to your ultimate goal

4. Reward yourself (but not with food!)

• When you reach your little goals, the small ones, and the big ones, celebrate and reward yourself, but ideally, not with food
• Choose an activity that is something special to you, like going to a Gold Class movie, some time with your favourite people, an indulgent massage or beauty treatment or spa day, a new outfit or set of wheels or new Garmin or glasses

5. Slow and steady wins the race

• If something like weight loss is your goal, the steadier the loss, the more likely it is that that weight will stay off
• A healthy weight loss is around 0.5-1kg/week. It may sound small, but it can quickly add up to a considerable change
• Slow and steady while it's not particularly sexy, is more achievable and can be maintained, longer-term and that's obviously going to increase your overall chance of success too

6. Get back on the horse

• If you planned to go running every day and today, you sat on the couch and ate a block of chocolate instead à ick yourself up and get back out there tomorrow
• Don't wait for Monday to roll around
• Consistency is key

7. Make every day your New Year’s Resolution Day

• I want you to start to incorporate healthy behaviour into your everyday lifestyle
• Start to think like a Dietitian à It's those small, daily habits that we consistently repeat over time that will become entrenched
• Make the choice and then stick to it
• It takes 66 days to form a new habit 

I hope that sets the scene for you for this year and helps you stay on track and not go guns blazing at the start only to run out of puff in a couple of weeks. Whatever your intentions, or your resolutions or goals, write them down, make them SMART, and tell someone about them because they're more likely to happen if you have an accountabilabuddy.

If you're looking to get a sports dietitian in your corner. Our clinic opens next week. January is generally pretty heavily booked. So we may not be starting till February now anyway but jump on over to the website if you are looking to get some help with your nutrition this year. Go to dietitianapproved.com/services, to see all the ways that you can work with me.

To go deeper, listen to the Triathlon Nutrition Academy Podcast Episode 21:  Why You Need to Ditch the Detox this Year for more!

Listen in wherever you listen to your podcasts 🎧