STUCK IN A RUT?
Sleep. Eat. Work. Repeat. Sound familiar? It’s easy to feel stuck in a rut when we follow the same routines day in, day out. You may not realise, but the majority of your time is taken up by tasks you’ve done heaps of times before. Whilst we’re all experts at being creatures of habit, at Primal we believe in going against the grain, so we’re here to shake things up a bit and show you the benefits of trying something new.
STRETCH YOUR MIND
A daily dose of insta-inspiration hit the nail on the head when it delivered the quote, “if it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you” to our newsfeed. Your brain is a muscle, and it’s common knowledge that muscles benefit from exercise; exposing yourself to new situations and skills is the equivalent of a gruelling gym-sesh for the mind. Yes, there’s no doubt that being top dog in a specific area is a great feeling, but if you’ve mastered a skill then it probably isn’t challenging you anymore.
Take the example of learning to drive: at first we process all the steps individually, and the act of driving is a mindful, carefully thought out one. Once we have passed our test and become practiced at driving, it often becomes second-nature. There’s comfort in knowing something like the back of your hand, but try setting yourself the task to learn a new skill and step out of auto-pilot at least once a month. Being a novice might not be great for your ego, but it’ll certainly help diversify your days.
SWITCH UP YOUR SPORT
Whether you’re committed to cross-fit, always say yes to yoga, or reap the benefits from your morning run, try switching-up your sport to strengthen your body and mind. Just as the brain masters new skills, the muscles are pros at adapting to exercise. This is great news for ease of effort, as the more you train certain muscles, the more efficient your body gets at performing those specific movements, however it’s not so great for consistent growth.
The key to continuous progression? Keep raising the bar so that your body and mind are constantly playing catch-up. Whatever your workout of choice is, introducing new exercise will challenge your body and make it work harder, leading to more calories burned and better overall health. An added bonus to varying your fitness routine is preventing overuse injuries. Believe it or not, you can have too much of a good thing even when it comes to exercise — repetitive strain injuries occur when the same muscles are consistently subjected to the same types of strain. Trying a new activity will allow you to engage your muscles in different ways which may help avoid muscular imbalance in the body.
Regardless of if you look forward to lifting weights, or dread the dumb bells, trying something new can liven up your training session. Plus you’ll be so focused on the new activity you won’t have time to watch the clock!
SEEK OUT NEW EXPERIENCES
Say ‘yes’ to something new each month. You may be surprised at what you enjoy, and worse case scenario, you hate it and end up learning something new about yourself in the process! Still need motivation to step outside your bubble? Try out one of the below ideas to kickstart you:
1) Get creative with cooking: if you’re used to fast-food, challenge yourself to make a home-cooked meal at least twice a week. Already top chef in your house? Set yourself the goal of trying a new recipe every week; it will challenge you to think about what you’re eating, try new foods and keep a varied diet.
2) Sample a seasonal summer sport: head down to the coast and make the most of the heatwave with a sport like surfing or outdoor rock climbing. Both are brilliant full body workouts and are guaranteed to give you more of an adrenaline rush than watching the timer on your treadmill.
3) Solo travel: cue the travel cliche of ‘finding yourself’. All jokes aside though, taking the time to physically change location can help you to step outside your comfort zone and see the sights without compromising for someone else. Plus there’s the added bonus of being free to form some pretty awesome friendships too.
We may be Primal by name, but we’re all about evolution. After all, if nothing new was ever tried, we’d still be stuck in the caveman days. Yes, there’s comfort in the predictable, but there’s tonnes of benefits to trying something new. Instead of keeping your head down in your daily routine, set a goal to try something new every month. On the topic of trying new things… haven’t sampled our entire range? There’s no time like the present to get stuck into one of our mixed boxes — who knows, you might discover a new favourite flavour!
Photo by Scott Goodwill on Unsplash