‘Life begins at the end of your comfort zone’ - Neale Donald Walsch.
In order to promote change, our body and mind need to adapt as a response to a stimulus. Growth happens when we challenge ourselves, and this process is engrained within us through evolution – survival of the fittest.
When we put stressors on our body through training, dieting, or lifestyle adjustments, it adapts by building muscle, burning fat, or increasing mobility. However, over time, our bodies ‘get comfortable’ with these stressors. To continue progressing, we must keep the body guessing – lift heavier, move faster, change calorie intake, or hold poses longer. The same applies to other areas of life.
Here are 10 ways you could push your body out of its comfort zone:
- Ditch the snooze button
- Try one new fruit or vegetable per month
- Change your workout time
- Embrace cold showers
- Try intermittent fasting
- Challenge your mind with books
- Refresh your meals
- Delay your first coffee
- Try a new training program
- Try a new recipe each month
1. Ditch the snooze button
Most sleep researchers suggest that snoozing the morning alarm won’t make you feel more rested but will, in fact, make it harder to get up and get going. Even though those nine minutes of sleep can often feel magical and endless, you are in the beginning of your sleep cycle again, which is the worst time to be woken up as it can leave you feeling as if you slept poorly in the first place.
Try this: Set your alarm for when you need to get up and train your brain to respond immediately. Waking up consistently at the same time helps you feel fresher in the morning and naturally sleepy at night.
2. Try one new fruit or vegetable per month
Not only do our bodies change in order to adapt, but so do our taste buds. Our palate likes to experience new tastes to keep healthy eating fresh and exciting. If we eat the same three vegetables each week our palate may become stagnant and bored, leading to us indulging in less ideal food options.
Another reason it is important to consume a range of fruits and vegetables is that they all provide us with different micronutrients. By consuming different colour foods we are ensuring we get a vast array of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and phytonutrients. Aiming to eat the rainbow each day is a way to add a little insurance on our health.
How to do it: Rotate your produce each month. If you don’t like the new option, no harm done. If you do, you’ve found a new staple to add to your meals.
3. Change your workout time
Training at a different time can feel like a new experience and challenge your body in unexpected ways. You may experience new social interactions or coaching styles in group classes. It can also add a bit of variety to your routine which could be getting mundane.
Tip: Remember to adjust your nutrient timing – consume protein and carbs around your session, avoiding fats within two hours before or after training.
4. Embrace cold showers 
Cold showers aren’t just for the brave – they’re scientifically proven to boost alertness, energy, and fat loss while aiding recovery.
Starting the day with a cold shower is a sure-fire way to increase your alertness and provides the body with a natural dose of energy by increasing oxygen production to keep warm. Cold showers also assist with fat loss, speeding up recovery and reducing muscle soreness.
How to start: Alternate hot and cold water:
- Warm shower → 30 seconds cold → back to warm
- Gradually build up to longer cold intervals
5. Try intermittent fasting
Fasting helps you learn to distinguish real hunger from boredom or habit.
We often give in to the first grumble in our stomach and respond by eating. The initial ‘hunger’ sensation may be dehydration, boredom or a response to an environmental trigger. Real hunger can lead to a lack of concentration and physical weakness. Finding a happy medium between the two points is a skill that can be used when looking to improve body composition and to curb overeating.
Intermittent fasting is a process of having a greater fasting window than the window of consumption. Benefits of intermittent fasting include:
- Reduction in insulin levels
- Increase in growth hormone
- Cellular repair
- Metabolism boost
- Lower blood sugar levels
- Reduce inflammation
- Boost brain health
Start slow: Increase your fasting window by an hour each fortnight until you find a balance that works. A common method is 14 hours fasting, 10 hours eating.
6. Challenge your mind with books
We all need downtime after a busy few days of working, training or studying. However, quite often we can waste hours scrolling through social media or watching TV. Aim to put some of that downtime to something more mindful such as reading a book. Apart from being mentally stimulating, reading can reduce stress, increase knowledge, expand vocabulary, and improve memory and concentration.
Set a goal: Read one book per month. Alternate genres to keep it interesting.
7. Refresh your meals
As per tip number two, changing your meals up adds variety to your weekly menu whilst keeping your taste buds interested.
Ideas:
- Swap protein sources (e.g., chicken for fish or tofu)
- Change up carbs (e.g., rice, sweet potato, quinoa)
- Add different spices or fibrous vegetables
8. Delay your first coffee
Give your body a chance to naturally produce the energy it needs to conquer the day. Coffee is an amazing tool with a range of health benefits, however, if we become dependent on it, we lose those benefits.
Delay your first coffee to allow your body to produce its own natural energy. Overreliance on caffeine reduces its benefits and can lead to fatigue.
Try this: Replace coffee with a glass of lemon water or green tea for the first hour of your day. When you do have your coffee, it’ll feel like a treat again.
9. Try a new training program
When following the same training program week in, week out there can often be a plateau in physiological gains or improvement. Not only that, but motivation can fade. A way to keep your health and fitness journey fresh and exciting is to try a new program.
Ideas:
- If you lift weights, try gymnastics or yoga.
- If you do a lot of cardio, explore resistance training.
10. Try a new recipe each month
This can be used in conjunction with tips two and seven. Research new recipes and find one you can implement in a way that is aligned with your health and fitness goals. Find healthy alternatives to some of your favourite dishes. Cook them for yourself, for friends or family. If it works well, add it to your weekly meal prep recipes. You’ve got nothing to lose!
Tip: Check out the True recipe page for hundreds of healthy recipes.
These are just 10 ways you can push yourself out of your comfort zone. Don’t feel pressured to tackle all of them at once. Start with the one that excites or scares you the most, and commit to it. Growth happens when you step outside what feels comfortable – and small changes can lead to big results.
Push yourself, get uncomfortable, and see what you’re truly capable of.
