How to SPRING FORWARD in 5 easy steps!
I love this time of year for 2 reasons:
1. I prefer warmer weather and longer days. Who doesn’t right?
2. I freak out and realise that most of the year has zipped by, I ask myself what have I achieved and literally spring into action!
If you’re like me and feel like you’ve achieved nothing all year, here’s some things I’ve decided to commit to. The best part is you can achieve these points over the next week and feel like you’ve smashed it! BOOM! Instant WIN!
Prioritize good sleep
So simple and yet it’s made a huge change to my overall wellness. In my previous house, we had thin curtains and streetlights just outside so I believe I was sleep deprived for the whole 5 years I lived there!
The darker the room, the better and make sure you get enough hours in too!
Lack of sleep can also affect weight loss, so see if you can smash it this week. I think it’s important too to really work to your body’s natural rhythm.
If you’re more of a night person like me, see if you can make adjustments to your schedule to ensure you work at your maximum and most potent ‘brain time’. I try not to schedule meetings before 11 a.m., but am quite happy to work till 11 p.m. as that’s my natural rhythm and when I’m most productive.
Find excuses to move — outside of the gym
Last weekend my partner Pete and his daughter Leah joined me for our usual weekend ‘Explore Auckland’ adventure walk. Basically it’s a walk of around 5 km’s with a stop off for an iceblock for Leah to make the trip easier. It’s fun and I forget that I’m exercising at the same time.
SO: borrow a friends Dog or become a ‘Fairy Dog Mother’ and go for walkies! Offer to spring clean an elderly relatives house – or even dance with the kids! Exercise doesn’t have to be expensive, too time consuming and you don’t have to deck yourself out in fancy active wear to make it happen. JUST MOVE. That’s good enough for me. However, if you like my pants, let me know…….
Set a “good alarm”
“A ‘good alarm’ can be used to remind you to establish and develop healthier habits. For example, I set a good alarm to remind myself to do my daily affirmations around self worth, so I continue to programme myself to LOVE ME. You can also set a good alarm as a nudge to drink more water, stand up (for those who have a sedentary job) or to remind you to eat a healthy meal, if you often work through your lunch hour. I set mine on my phone as it’s pretty much always with me.
Develop better sunscreen habits
Not only is this important for our health, it’s also vital to use sunscreen to protect us from the UVA rays that age us and the UVB rays that burn. Even if you work indoors, the UVA rays can permeate glass so if you’re sitting by a window in the office all day, you’re still affected. You can smash this goal right now, so DO IT!! A good sunscreen can also work as a base underneath your makeup. I use the Caithy Organics SPF 50 sunblock as it’s natural with no nasties and one of the few that doesn’t leave my skin greasy, which for me always led to pimples!! A little goes a long way so it lasts for ages. If you order it, use my name MONIQUE as a coupon code in their online store and you’ll get a discount, plus a free sample to try and free shipping NZ wide. www.caithyorganics.com
Greet the day
Mindset is everything to me. Waking up and finding at least one joyous thing that has just happened in your life, or is about to happen can make a huge difference to how your day unfolds.
I used to be a magician (I’m not even kidding….!) and would use a technique called ‘Misdirection’ to ensure children were tricked into believing magic is real.
If you’ve ever seen a crying child comforted by a parent (and you may have even done this yourself), you’ve probably seen them changing the child’s focus to something positive. You may have heard me talk about this before, but it’s true! The crying stops and in that moment, so does the child’s pain. That misdirection truly is MAGIC!
The reason WHY this happens is that the brain can only process a certain amount of data at any one time, so greet the day with a conscious positive mindset, set a ‘good alarm’ to remind yourself to continue your positive habits throughout the day, move and get those feel good endorphins cranking and get some quality sleep and you’re hardwiring yourself for success in a super easy and achievable way.
I’m doing it so why not join me??
Hi I'm Monique Bradley.