If you were at school in the 80’s you have probably read this book. For those of you who have not experienced this literary masterpiece I will give you a quick summary.

A classic

Bernard finds a monster at that bottom of his garden. He goes into the house to tell his Mum; she doesn’t turn away from what she is doing and just said “Not now Bernard”.
His Dad is too busy and also tells Bernard “Not now Bernard”.

This happens every time Bernard tries to alert them to a danger, but they just don’t listen. Eventually Bernard gets eaten by the monster, who takes over Bernard’s place in the home and the parents don’t even notice. Nice!

The moral of the story is that parents should pay more attention to their children and take time to listen …….in case they get eaten by monsters (just joking).

You may be thinking “What’s this got to do with health and fitness?”. Let me explain. Bernard’s story is a good analogy to how we regard our bodies. We ignore the signs of ill health; we are too busy to listen to our inner “Bernard” that tells us there is danger. We don’t make time for selfcare.

Before we know it, unhealthy habits have logged themselves in our routines and environment, and a bit like the monster in the story we just let them take over.

If you have got in the habit of saying “Not now” to improving your activity levels and nutrition, it’s not too late, unlike poor Bernard.

Here’s what you can do-

1. Recognise there is a problem. Don’t ignore the fact that you are out of breath after a few steps up the stairs, or you are struggling to get to sleep at night or stay awake come 10am. If you know what your monster is, it’s much easier to find solutions.
2. Build a support network around you. Seek out people that want to listen and help. If you have people around you who are not helping, move on. That might sound harsh, but lifestyle changes are hugely impacted by the environment and people around you. Pick an environment and people that promote the desired result.
3. Realise you may have to live with your monster a while. Positive changes to your health (that last in the long term) take time. The weight that you gain over a period of two years isn’t going to disappear in two weeks. You are going to have to be consistence with the positive health changes you make day in day out. These changes don’t need to be extreme, small things make a difference when done regularly.

Here’s my favourite small things that make big health differences

1. Walk more
2. Eat at a palm sized amount of quality protein at every meal.
3. Go to bed and leave your phone out the room.
4. Drink water
5. Take 5-10mins a day where you just do nothing. Busy doesn’t always mean productive.

Bernard may not have been able to get the help with his monster, but you can start confronting yours by following the above advice. If you need a bit more help, check out my website for coaching information, you won’t be told “Not now”.

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It’s normal to be nervous or even fearful of making changes to your health. Be that starting exercise or making changes to your diet. The mere thought of healthy change may conjure images of being at the gym 24/7, having no social life and living off kale smoothies (that is enough to make anyone reach for a donut!). Lifestyle changes can feel overwhelming, it’s no surprise that your natural response is “I’ll do it tomorrow”.

If that sounds familiar you are not alone it’s most people default setting. Regardless of what stage of fitness you are, some point the phrase “I’ll do it tomorrow” will come into your head or out of your mouth. I’ve done it myself when faced with a change to my training program. My old training plan had become comfy and the new one looked tough, so I really wanted to put off the change, but I didn’t.

Here’s my pro tips and avoiding the “I’ll do it tomorrow” progress killer.

Don’t think too far ahead

Focus on what you have to do today and no further, this feels less overwhelming than looking at the whole week or month. If that still feels like too much, break it down even more, focus on just a single healthy habit no matter how small.

Give yourself permission to stop tomorrow opposed to start tomorrow

Instead of saying “I’ll start tomorrow” tell yourself you can finish tomorrow.
If you think you will never have to do something again it takes away the pressure and feels less overwhelming, you just crack on with the task at hand. The important thing with this tip is that it gets you started. If you do stop the next day you at least you have proved, you can execute the behavior once!

I bet that won’t be the case though, when you finish something you view as hard the sense of accomplishment will make you feel so good you will want to repeat it.

Put the above tips into action and those mornings when you wake up and tell yourself “I’ll do it tomorrow” will be few and far between.

For more tips on how to perform better in the gym and life head to www.laurawoodley.com and sign up to my weekly newsletter.