Creating a Health and Wellness Plan for YOU

Hi friends! In the past, I've been pretty straightforward about my health and fitness situation. Last year, I tried doing the whole BeachBody coaching thing, which I stuck with for about six months before coming to terms with the harsh realities of MLMs. While that's another post for another time, this one is about creating a health and wellness plan that works for you, and that you can stick to. Disclaimer: I am not a healthcare professional. You should consult your doctor before taking on any new fitness or health regiment, especially if you have life-threatening or underlying health conditions.

The more I thought about this, the more it reminded me of Phoebe Lapine's Wellness Project, which stemmed from Gretchen Rubin's Happiness Project. While I'm not planning on breaking it down month-by-month like they did, it did require me to spend a lot of time thinking about what matters to me health and wellness wise. I spent a good six or so hours broken down over a few days planning this all out. The good news? You can start your plan whenever! I'm already implementing some of these aspects now, and will slowly introduce all the aspects over the course of next year.

So, below, I've provided a template based on mine that I compiled from a lot of research and Google searches that you can use to create your own. Obviously, the finished product should be hyper-personal, and I would encourage you to really spend time thinking about what matters to you.

Mission Statement: Include your goals for the upcoming year and any reminders for yourself when you read this. Nonprofit mission statements are encouraged to be less than 150 words and narrowed down to a couple of sentences. Mine is much longer, and I encourage you to make it as long as it needs to be - within a reasonable paragraph. A good start would be something like this to build off of:

I will do my best to promote my own health. I acknowledge that the following areas are beneficial to my well-being and happiness.

Movement and Exercise

State your goals and intentions for this section. You will then break them down into goals, followed by objectives. Example:

I will do some form of vigorous movement or exercise at least four or five days a week for at least 15 minutes in each session. I will aim to increase time per session only after consistently meeting the minimum requirements. I will check in with my accountability partner(s) once a week.

Goal ME.1: Begin running outside three to four days a week.

Objective: Limit workout to a minimum of 15 minutes and a maximum of 30 minutes, not including warm-up and cool down. Practice through intervals: walk, then jog, then run. Repeat. Track distance in a fitness journal at the end of every workout.

Weekly planning required:
Choose what days will be running days – preferably not back-to-back.
Mentally prepare by reminding myself that:
I am doing this because I want to be a runner.
I am doing this because I want to be healthy for life.
Lay out clothes ahead of time so they are ready when I wake up.

You can then continue making your plan including as many goals and objectives as you need per category. Other categories I included involved diet and nutrition, rest, weight, relationships and lifestyle, stress management and mental health, spirituality and connection with nature, finances, and maintaining balance.

I typed mine up in a word document (which was six pages total), made a nice cover page, and then printed it and put it in a binder that I could reference. This way, it feels professional, and like an agreement between myself and someone else. It also acts as a better way to report to my accountability partner - I can target specific aspects that I'm doing well in and others that I might need to improve on for the upcoming week. I can also say: "I haven't even started incorporating X from this category yet, but my goal is to do that in May. So, I'll report to you on that then."

And that's it! Feel free to message me with any questions you might have, and have fun planning. Make goals that are exciting to YOU, mixed with a few that push you outside of your comfort zone.

Here is to better selves moving into 2020, and the new decade!!