2026 may be coming in to view, but there’s plenty of time to kickstart some healthy habits
As we hit this point in the autumn – 75 days until 2026 – it’s a good moment to take stock. Summer is firmly in the rearview mirror but there’s still plenty of time ahead, nearly a quarter of the year in fact, to kickstart some healthy habits if we want to.
The all-or-nothing mindset
In a way, it’s a line in the sand. It’s tempting to slide into winter and put off any thoughts of health and fitness till January and that’s fine. Trouble is, we all know how much harder that will make it when it does come around.
The other option is to go all-out. You’ve probably heard of ‘75 Hard’, a programme which includes several unshakeable rules including two 45-minute workouts a day, no alcohol and no cheat meals. If you break any of the rules? You start again, no excuses.
For some this will be just what they’re after. It is after all designed to be tough, uncompromising and effective – if you can see it through.
Why consistency beats perfection
Equally though, setting the bar too high, whether it’s an overly rigid diet, or unsustainable exercise programme, can often have the opposite effect we intended. If we can’t keep it up, we can quickly become self-critical, demotivated and burnt out.
Often, it’s the middle way, where a few tweaks, consistent habits and quick wins can set us in the right direction.
The outdoor factor
Outdoor exercise is often the first thing to go at this time of year because we tell ourselves it’s too dark or cold.
“In fact, it’s now that it can have the biggest benefits. As all of us know, physical activity has a dramatic impact on mood, particularly if we take that outside. And at a time when we can feel sluggish and spend a lot of time indoors, it will have knock-on effects for our sleep, focus and energy levels,” says performance coach, Professor Greg Whyte.
The 5 minute rule
If we’re starting again after some time off, starting small has been shown to increase motivation and help habits stick.
Even elite marathon runner Anya Culling sometimes has to motivate herself for those early workouts.
“I just tell myself, put your trainers on, run for five minutes and if you still want to turn around? Fair enough. But you never want to,” she says.
Anya also advocates starting slow and building up to avoid the trap of going off like a train and wondering why we can’t keep it up.
Making it stick
Another factor in building exercise habits we can stick to is finding ways to keep it interesting.
“Rotating the type of activity that we do each week – strength, yoga, running, sport – drives motivation so you will keep doing it for longer, harder and more often,” says Greg Whyte.
“Mixing things up in this way also allows different aspects of our physiology to recover whilst we are stressing others.”
Recovery is a workout
One habit we can all try to prioritise at this time of year is sleep.
“Quantity is a hard thing to affect given everything we have on our plates, but we can choose to focus on quality instead, enhancing our nighttime routine and our environment so we fall asleep quicker, wake up less often and spend more time in restorative states of sleep,” says Greg Whyte.
When we start putting positive habits in play, more of the time, things can quickly snowball as we start to notice the benefits. One thing we can count on: we’ll be thanking ourselves for embarking on a little autumn reset once January 1 rolls around.
