HEALTH OPINION: Moving into the second half of 2023 is a good time to reassess those new year health goals.
Driving for long periods of time involves a lot of sitting. Research has linked prolonged periods of sitting with a number of health conditions, including overweight, increased blood pressure, high blood glucose and high cholesterol levels. Too much sitting can also impact your mental health.
The good news is that there are many ways to make small sustainable changes to maximise your health and wellbeing. A good way to approach this is by setting short- and long-term goals.
With 2023 well underway, it is a great time to reassess your new year health goals. Whether your goal was to quit smoking, improve your eating habits, lose weight or become more physically active, it doesn’t always go to plan. Sometimes we get distracted and lose focus – and this impacts on our commitment to sticking to our goals.
Interestingly, a study by Oscarsson and colleagues (2020) found that people with approach-oriented goals were significantly more successful than those with avoidance-oriented goals (58.9 per cent vs. 47.1 per cent). That is, the people striving to reach or maintain a desired outcome were more likely to reach their goals than those who were focused on avoiding or eliminating an undesired outcome. For example, “I will exercise to stay strong and fit” (approach-oriented) versus “I will exercise to avoid heart disease” (avoidance-oriented).
What did you set as your new year goal? Perhaps now is a good opportunity to reassess and think about what you really want to achieve.
It’s also important to plan for relapses, so what can you do when the energy and excitement of reaching your goals wears off?
Set smart goals
Is your goal specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time framed? If your goal is vague, you won’t know if you have reached it. For example, if your goal is “to lose weight”, try redefining your goal to something like “I want to lose 5kg in the next six months”, then work out some strategies to help you achieve this.
Make sure you write your goal down and keep it where you see it regularly, perhaps somewhere in your truck.
Think ahead
What obstacles or barriers might pop up over the coming weeks and months? Perhaps you anticipate that your sleep routine will be disrupted and that you will have limited access to healthy food choices while on the road. There might be fewer opportunities to move your body, and increased stress associated with driving for long periods.
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Be thoughtful about what you want to achieve but realistic about potential hurdles. Preparation is key to success so it’s always helpful to plan ahead and make changes as appropriate. Just like you would with planning your road trips around weather events and road closures.
Ask for support
Recruit your friends, family, and colleagues to help support you towards reaching your goal. This might include someone at home assisting you with meal preparation or joining you as your workout or walking buddy. Maybe you could even check in with someone at your truck stops. This helps with accountability and can increase motivation for making and sustaining lifestyle changes.
You never know, your drive to make positive changes to your own health might spark the motivation in one of your colleagues to do the same.
Try documenting your progress
Write it down! If you’re striving to lose weight, write down what you ate, document how much exercise you do, and weigh in each month to track your progress. It’s a great visual to see all the hard work that you’ve done! Not only that, but it will provide some insight into what’s working and what isn’t.
Think of it as your health logbook, just like your driving logbook.
Focus on one goal at a time
You might be working towards achieving several health goals but perhaps you need to focus on the most important goal first. This could be the goal that will have the greatest impact on your health and wellbeing and likely have a positive impact on other areas of your life. This could be simply breaking up long periods of driving with some gentle stretches or range of movement exercises. Or you might pack your own meals and snacks for the drive ahead, to avoid eating convenience-type foods.
Embrace the process
Making lifestyle changes is not easy, because it’s different and it’s a change to your routine. Embracing change means you want to try new things, be adventurous, or improve yourself. If you miss a day of walking or eat something you were trying to avoid, don’t beat yourself up, just start again tomorrow.
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HAYLEY NICOLSON is an exercise physiologist and credentialled diabetes educator at Diabetes Australia. For more information on diabetes or to talk to a dietitian, call the Diabetes Australia Helpline on 1300 342 238