The first step in the Year of Transformation is to get into some serious shape. Now I don’t mean reasonably active, not too shabby kind of shape. I mean, fantastic, super fit, in my dreams kind of shape. Something I have always believed was not achievable, impossible even. The thing is though, I thought it was impossible to ever give up sugar (109 days so far) and yet here I am. I could hardly call it a Year of Transformation if I was only going to get into good shape. Where would be the challenge in that?

So I have a plan. Of course I have a plan. Planning is what I do. Acting on my plan is always the challenging part. The super positive thing now is that having already achieved the impossible I have new insight into how to do really difficult things. So I’m going to take it in stages. I know this works because since I gave up sugar I have also given up snacking at night (huge) and have established a routine where I fast for at least 12-14 hours overnight.

What I’ve learned about habits in the last few months is going to be extremely useful over the next 3 weeks. I know it will be hard, I know I’ll probably want to slack off but the things I have learned will keep me on track.

1. 20 days before a new way of doing things stops feeling weird
2. 90 days to make new things normal
3. Tracking success keeps me honest

Using these learning points I am now embarking on what I’m calling the 21 Day Exercise Plan. It’s simple, I have to exercise each day for the next 21 days. I’m not trying to do anything spectacular in that time although I do have a weekly plan of what I’m going to do to guide me. I’m just trying to get myself past the 20 day point where doing something hard every day stops feeling so weird. I’m rewiring my brain if you like.

This is only Stage One of my plan to get in shape. It’s probably going to be the hardest part of the journey and I’m probably going to want to quit. I’m not going to quit though. Giving up sugar was bad. Giving up snacking in the evening was worse. How bad can this be? Especially since at the end of the 21 Days I’ll be a lot fitter than I am now….which isn’t hard frankly.

I can’t lose!

If you’re starting out or have already started with your exercise plan for this year let me know in the comments. I’m thinking of setting up a Facebook group to help keep me honest but I’ll need some keen people to join. The Quit Sugar group I belong to has really helped along the way.  I’ll also be posting here frequently so I’ll have to stick to my plan so you all can read about my success. Frankly, there’s too many posts on this site about my many failures so some posts about success will be a novelty.

Wish me luck…..no I won’t need luck. Just staying power.

Published by the lean minimalist

Donna Sherriff is a New Zealand based improvement and operations management specialist. Seeing a need for simple, no fuss, improvement advice she started The Lean Minimalist blog in 2017. Donna writes articles offering advice and tips for rapid and sustainable business improvement based on over 15 years in Senior Management roles. Passionate about sharing the lessons of over 20 years on the high performance track Donna offers coaching services to professionals. She also writes about her own personal improvement journey, minimalism, and her life long struggle against the tyranny of cookies and sugar which she overcame in 2020. These days, Donna is pursuing a journey to earn her black belt in Taekwondo after a long hiatus of 16 years away from training. On the side she is an amateur but passionate musician and poet. View all posts by the lean minimalist