Emma and Amy's week 1 round-up

FLASH SALE now on
Save 60% with annual membership*

Save today

Hi all New Year, New Goals challengers! Here's a little update on how we got on in the first week of the challenge with our chosen tasks.

Emma's week one

This week I tasked myself with the following!

• Food – give a new veggie recipe a try
• Exercise – include a new style of exercise in my routine
• Habit – aim to break from whatever I'm doing and get up and move at least every hour
• App feature – use the Reminders feature to nudge me to fill in my diary

I've found that this challenge has helped get me back on track after the Christmas festivities. This week was the right time for me, as I needed the first week of January to just ease back into work and normal life again – which I'm sure other people did too!

Highlights

On the whole, my first week of the challenge has gone great! I tried from the get-go to be more mindful of moving more often for my chosen habit. If I'm honest, I don't think I managed to move every hour during the working week, as it's amazing how quickly an hour passes when you're tapping away at the computer! But I certainly got up from my desk more frequently than usual.

I started the week well with my Tabata style workout Monday evening – and I was rewarded with super achy muscles for the next 3 days! Definitely feeling it more after the December break, but I know it will get easier.

I tucked into a delicious veggie meal on Tuesday evening – which was a Gousto Moroccan-Style Lentil & Olive Spaghetti. Very tasty! So by Tuesday evening I'd ticked off my food and exercise tasks, and was keeping my habit going.

I also set myself reminders via the Nutracheck app to log my meals, because I am prone to forgetting from time to time. This was really helpful and has certainly helped me keep a more complete diary – especially over the weekend.

Things to work on

I really want to keep up the habit of moving more often, so this is something I'll continue next week. I just need to ensure it's at least once an hour, even if I just stand up and do a few stretches at my desk – I am determined!

Amy's week one

Here's a rundown of my tasks for week 1:

• Food – give a new recipe a try
• Exercise – attend a small group personal training session
• Habit – wake up 10 minutes earlier than usual and do some light stretching
• App feature – use the Reminders feature to encourage me to drink more water

I've really enjoyed this first week! I seized the motivation for week 1 and updated my diary consistently all week – yay! I have far fewer social plans in January, so that's probably also helped me over the weekend.

Highlights

I'm so pleased to have found a gym class that suits me. As I said at the start of the week, I've never been super keen on going to the gym. But the format of a small group session works for me – the environment is so uplifting and encouraging, everyone is really friendly, and their ethos is all about feeling great and getting stronger as opposed to your appearance, which I'm all for. It's helped me feel more confident to step outside of my comfort zone in future.

I cooked up a storm on Friday with my beetroot pesto recipe. I like beetroot but never cook with it, so I thought it was time to try it. I served it up with some wholewheat pasta, and it went down really well with both myself and my partner. Definitely one to add to the meal rotation in future.

I'm going to be honest with you – I found getting up early quite challenging. Doesn't your bed just feel so much warmer and cosier in the cold, dark winter months? However, I powered through, stuck to my word, and managed to get up at my earlier alarm and get some stretching in (which always felt really good after a long sleep!). I think if I'd aimed high and pledged to get up an hour earlier, I wouldn't have stuck with it. It really shows the power of setting small, manageable goals and working up to larger goals over time. I now feel way more empowered to aim for 15 minutes earlier in the next few weeks.

Things to work on

I'm not confident I'd be able to remember to keep my hydration levels up without the Reminders feature just yet, so I think I'm going to keep that turned on for the rest of the challenge to help form a habit.