How to make your dream body a reality

Many people use this time of year to make New Years resolutions and dream about changing their bodies for the better.  Is this one of your resolutions this new year?

Picturing in your mind what you would like to acheive is fantastic but here are a few ways that can help you actually get there.

How committed are you to change? 

Your dream body will not be made overnight so understanding that you will need to commit to make exercise a part of your daily life and improving your diet so you consistently eat well are key to success. This is ultimately what we must strive for.

What do you need to focus on to get there?

Choosing an exercise programme designed for your individual body and personal goals in conjunction with a healthy diet will definitely improve your fitness, body shape and confidence not to mention enhance your mood and stamina. This is where a personal trainer can be invaluable and help you take away the guess work of what to do and when and motivate you to achieve your best.   

If you’re truly serious about your fitness goals make a commitment to yourself to do what it takes to make that happen. Keeping a diary of your exercise, increasing your daily vegetable intake and water consumption can have a big impact.

Remind yourself why you want to make the change

Do you want to be able to keep up with your small children in the park without getting out of breath, wear that size 10 bikini, be confident to stand up and present your work to a room full of people, sleep better? 

These are all achievable with the help of regular exercise and a healthy diet. Get excited about your goals and the final results, but make no mistake, if you don’t consistently exercise and support your training with a healthy diet, those results will never exist outside of your imagination and you’ll never find out how amazing it feels to have achieved them.

Always remind yourself of your goals and just go for it!

Knowing your personal limits

With every step the path in front of us narrowed and the sheer drop to the right of us became more evident.  Looking up ahead we were presented with three path options.  An experienced climber route (not even an option really!!) a difficult rocky boulder path leading into the clouds (lots of pulling up onto boulders involved with no clear way up) or a very narrow path with no room for error.  With the wind whipping up and striking us from behind and the clouds drawing in ahead of us I knew this was the point that we had no option but to turn back and not reach that final part of the hike and touch the summit of Pillar (mountain in the Lake District).  

Journey up Pillar Mountain with beautiful waterfall to cross (fun!)

Having successfully hiked many of the Lake Districts highest mountains, Snowdon and others in Scotland and very used to covering 6 or 7 hours of good hiking a day we had to admit defeat on this occasion as we understood the possible dangers and knew our limits (2 children and a dog in tow to consider).  Respect the mountains!! We will however be back to tackle the mountain from a different  route next time and hope to tick it off our list!

Clouds starting to build up as we pressed on.

This one journey made me think, how many of us know our true personal limits or have ever been close to them? Do we really know when its safe to go beyond them and know when to stop in your tracks? In terms of exercise, many are afraid to take themselves to the unknown and never really set goals or achieve them and others take it too far and overdo it sometimes to the point of injury.  

Try stepping back from the present and see how far you have come and where you want to be and never view an underachievement as failure, just learn how to tackle the goal with a different approach next time!

So much is possible when you put your mind to it and believe in yourself!

Final push towards the summit of Scafell Pike (Englands highest mountain)  (Husband and daughter steaming on ahead in the distance and my youngest keeping a good pace!)

Summit of Great Gable Mountain

Summit of Scafell Pike Mountain