Ignoring Your Body Goals
In between family gatherings and Detty December concerts, your body goals could get lost. The weight you’ve been watching all year long would conveniently slip your mind at the sight of smoky jollof, and the gym will become a strange place.
That social media post kind of reminds you of your “3-week shred challenge,” but you swipe up like it’s not your business. As the year comes to an end, your brain is processing a lot, but your conclusion is to jettison the body goals you set and pick them up next year. Meanwhile, your aunt is warming up her yearly review: “You’ve added, oh,” or “You are losing too much weight, oh.”
Realistically, December comes with pressure that will try to break you, but don’t panic.
Self-preservation
In addition to the end-of-year stress, African women deal with extra workload. You’re planning food, buying gifts, going to owambes, maybe traveling, and sending money home. Yet you’re also supposed to magically transform into a “banging body,” when even stress can make one lose weight drastically.
Truthfully, you’re tired. And it’s telling on your body. You can actually maintain your body goals without overthinking or procrastinating. This month is about preserving your energy, stabilizing your habits, and caring for your body the way it is now.
How to Achieve Your Body Goals
- Do an honest audit of your body. Pause to check your lifestyle, and let your plan revolve around what is currently going on with you, not what you wish your body looked like. Check your sleep pattern, your diet, your mobility, what stresses you, and other things that feel off. The answers you have are what you should work with.
- Small, Consistent Movement—Honestly, between traffic, endless events, and church programs, you hardly have time to breathe. So, instead of setting unachievable workout goals, choose simple movement that keeps your body awake. You can choose to do a 5-minute stretch, a dance exercise while you do your chores, or a 20-minute walk.
- Set Food Boundaries—December food slaps hard. And because food is deeply cultural and social for us, it can be a little difficult to maintain a strict diet. So, instead of starving yourself, try portion control, eat before leaving home to a party, add fruits or vegetables to your daily intake, and drink water like your life depends on it, especially between alcoholic and sugary drinks.
- Rest & Peace—To achieve your body goals, you need rest too. We treat sleep and mental peace like luxury items, but they’re part of health. Sadly, December can threaten both. Aim for at least 6 hours of sleep at night, pick a “no outing” day, practice dropping your phone at night, create a simple bedtime routine, and let your brain reset. Your mind needs tranquillity as well. Avoid triggers like loneliness, comparison, or family drama this December.
What We Are Not Doing This December
For clarity and peace of mind, we are not:
- For clarity and peace of mind, we are not:
- Overfeeding at parties or abusing our diets.
- Tying waist trainers like a life jacket.
- Engaging in do-or-die workouts.
- Body-shaming ourselves in front of a mirror.
- Letting other people tell us how to feel in our own body.
Build A “December Maintenance Plan”
Here are a few practical suggestions:
- Take a 15-minute walk four times a week or stretch for 5 minutes before bed.
- Try 1–2 food goals. Eat one fruit a day or one plate at events and drink water in between.
- A rest goal that involves no screen time 30 minutes before bed.
- Create 1 mental health boundary. Mute triggering words or accounts online. You can also set boundaries with insensitive friends and relatives.
Write them somewhere visible, like your ‘notes’ app, mirror, or journal. The aim is not perfection. The aim is to not abandon yourself.
A Love Letter to Your December Body Goals
Your body has carried you through 11 months of alarms, deadlines, heartbreaks, Lagos traffic, family group chats, data issues, hormonal drama, and that one situationship you’re still pretending to be over with.
It doesn’t deserve chaos in December.
It deserves care, pampering, and enjoyment that doesn’t leave you empty.
So, this month, our body goals are simple…maintenance!
