Sticking to your fitness goals - The Derbyshire Benevolent Trust

Hello 2021! A new year is always seen as a fresh start, the term ‘New Year, New Me’ gets thrown around a lot and we all start making resolutions and goals for the next year. After the festive period we commit to ‘Dry January’, ‘De-chox’, ‘Veganuary’, starting a new ‘diet’, sometimes with an air of positivity and sometimes in a bid to feel healthier or hit a weight loss goal. How many resolutions or goals have you set over the last decade? And how many have been realistic enough for you to stick to the whole year? That’s the thing with setting ourselves such high expectations, we always want to be improving something about ourselves and not taking it slow, we all dive head first into the deep end and start feeling overwhelmed and unhappy.

January is the month that drags on longer than it should, we’re all clock watching waiting for the days to get lighter and the month to end so we can move on. If you set yourself the goal of not having something for the month, then as soon as we hit midnight and welcome in February, releasing the chains, we then run straight to the fridge or cupboard and inhale all the chocolate stashed away and are sat with a bottle of wine in each hand.

It doesn’t have to be this way…

Through behaviour science, we see how humans want everything to be easy for ourselves, and setting these new year resolutions are not that! Instead of setting BIG goals at the beginning of the year, why not break them down into smaller goals throughout the year. Make it easy for yourself! If you want to reduce your alcohol consumption, then set goals like ‘I’ll only have 2 drinks on a Friday and Saturday evening’. If you want to control your chocolate, sweet or treat consumption, portion out your food before you eat it and take some time away from screens and distractions so you can really take the time to enjoy and take in the taste and flavour of the food.

For things like wanting to eat healthier or reduce consumption of animal products, think of small changes to suit your lifestyle; switch milk to an alternative, try to have 1 meat-free day a week, try to replace animal products with beans, pulses or alternatives, aim for 3 of your 5-a-day at least 4 times a week. Then, slowly you can start to build these over the coming weeks and months.

This way of making changes is far more realistic and sustainable for the long term. You’re more likely to stick to these changes as you made it easier for yourself! And, you will be able to enjoy the changes you make, seeing how far you have come over the year and have that sense of achievement.

When it comes to exercise, January is always the time we are wanting to lose weight, feel fitter and sign up to all these challenges online. Fitness is not everyone’s cup of tea and can feel like a chore that you try to avoid for as long as possible through the day. Again, it’s important to make a goal that is realistic and finding something you enjoy. Take some time to think about what you like to do and how you can fit it in with your lifestyle. Getting 30 minutes of exercise every day is recommended, this could be anything from walking to running, yoga to weight lifting, Zumba to boxercise. Start off slow, do it a few times a week, and slowly build up to get that 5 days a week of exercise in – mix it up so you don’t get bored! Find what makes you feel good and you look forward to doing!

There is no such thing as the perfect way of doing things. But, when we make changes for a positive reason, we want to make sure we can stick to it in a sustainable way so we don’t feel restricted, overwhelmed, or put off wanting to ever try to be ‘healthy’ again. Goals can be made any time in the year.

Taking some time to think about what you are wanting to do is always important, by breaking it down by how you can start and the small changes or steps that will work for you, making it feel easy. Jot it down, make a chart for your wall, scribble on your whiteboard, make a spreadsheet; whatever works for you.

Just remember to be kind to yourself, as you want to be achieving these goals for a positive reason and have a positive outcome. In the current circumstances, we should all be being kinder to ourselves, which means it’s okay to have the little things (like that choccy biscuit with your cuppa) that helps you get through the day.

Remember:

Make small changes
Make it easy for yourself
Make it sustainable for the long term

You got this!

Article by Stephanie Hayes ANutr. For more motivation and nutritional advice, visit Steph’s webpage https://www.instagram.com/steph.nutrition/

I’ve not received a password reset email?

Be sure to check spam folders, Some email providers may consider the email to be a spam email and automatically file it into your spam folder.

The email is not in my Spam folder?

Some email providers may have very strict spam blocking in place. If this is happening you can add our email address to your ‘white list’

To do this please follow the instructions in the below links, by choosing your mail provider and adding the email: “admin@derbyshirebenevolenttrust.com” to your whitelist.

AOL

Add the “admin@derbyshirebenevolenttrust.com” to your AOL address book:

Click the “Mail Options” menu and select “Address Book”.
Inside the “Address Book” window, click the “Add” button.
Inside the “Address Card for New Contact” window cut and paste “admin@derbyshirebenevolenttrust.com” into the “Other E-Mail” field.
Make our From address the “Primary E-Mail” address by checking the associated check box to the right of it.
Click the “Save” button.

If the mailing is in your SPAM Folder, you can open the email and click the “This Is Not Spam” button.

Gmail

Add the From address you want to receive mailings from to your Gmail Contacts List:

Click “Contacts” along the left side of any Gmail page.
Click “Create Contact”.
Copy and paste “admin@derbyshirebenevolenttrust.com” into the primary email address dialog box.
Click “Save”.

If the mailing is in your SPAM folder, check the box next to the mailing and click the “Not Spam” button along the top.

Hotmail/Outlook/Live

Add the From address you want to receive mailings from to your Hotmail Safe List:

Open your mailbox and click “Options” (upper right hand corner).
Click the “Junk E-Mail Protection” link.
Select the “Safe List” link.
Copy and paste “admin@derbyshirebenevolenttrust.com” into the dialog box titled “Type an address or domain”.
Click the “Add” button next to the dialog box.

If the mailing is in your “Junk E-Mail Folder”, open the email and click the “Not Junk” button.

You should also check that the mailing’s email address is not in your Blocked Senders list. You can find your Blocked Senders list by following the directions above and going to “Blocked Senders List” instead of “Safe List”. If you see the mailing’s from address on this list, select it and click the Remove button.

Mozilla Thunderbird

Add the From address you want to receive mailings from to your Thunderbird Address Book and configure your Junk Mail Controls to white list your address book.

Add an address into your Personal Address Book:

Click the “Address Book” button.
Make sure the Personal Address Book is highlighted.
Click the “New Card” button.
Under the “Contact” tab, copy and paste “admin@derbyshirebenevolenttrust.com” into the Email dialog box.
Click “OK”.

White list your Personal Address Book:

From the main drop down menu, select “Tools –< Junk Mail Controls..."
This will launch the Junk Mail Controls window that has two tabs: Settings and Adaptive Filter
Under the Settings tab, update the “White Lists” module by selecting Personal Address Book from the pull down menu and then check mark the box next to “Do not mark messages as junk mail”.
Click “OK”.

If the mailing is in your junk folder, right-click the mailing and choose “Mark –< As Not Junk".[/vc_column_text][/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title="Netscape Mail" tab_id="1498728551530-a54d18f1-2c51"][vc_column_text]Set up a filter to redirect the mailing you want to receive into your inbox:

From the Edit drop down menu, select “Message Filters”.
Click “New”, and give the new filter a name (e.g. “Whitelist”).
Change the drop down on the left to “sender” and the one in the middle to “is”.
Copy and paste username@domain.com into the box on the right.
Make the bottom two drop downs “Move to folder” and “Inbox”.
Click “OK”.
Make sure that your new filter is located at the top of the Message Filter list so it is run before any spam filter.

Outlook 2003/2007

Add the address you want to receive mailings from to your Safe Senders list:

On the Tools menu, click “Options”.
On the Preferences tab, click “Junk E-mail”.
On the Safe Senders tab, click “Add”.
In the Add address box, copy and paste in username@domain.com and click OK.

If you are using a different version of Outlook you can add the mailers From address to your Address Book. This can be done by opening the email, right clicking the From address, and selecting “Add To Contacts”. You can also access your Address Book via the tools drop down menu.

Yahoo

Set up a filter to redirect the mailing you want to receive in your inbox:

Open your mailbox and click on “Mail Options” (upper right hand corner).
Select “Filters” under the Management column.
Click the “Add” button on the Filters page.
In the “From header:” row, make the drop down “contains” and put the mailer’s from address username@domain.com in the box.
At the bottom of the page Click the “Choose Folder” pull down menu and select “Inbox”.
Click the “Add Filter” button.

If the mailing is in your Yahoo Bulk Folder open the email and click the “Not Spam” button. You should also check that the mailing’s email address is not in your “Blocked Addresses” list. You can find your “Blocked Addresses” list by clicking “Mail Options” and then clicking the “Blocked Addresses” link under the Spam column. If you see the mailing’s from address on this list, select it and click the “Remove Block” button.

Others

The most common way to whitelist an address is to add it to your address book, white list, or safe list. There is no universal way to whitelist an address, so if this is not an option, you will have to consult the help section associated with your email application. They should have instructions on how to whitelist an address there.