It’s hard to find people who don’t make a new years resolution. It usually starts in December when you tell yourself that next year you are going to do X, Y or Z. Most people give up fairly quick but you can stick to yours with these 5 simple tips/strategies.
1. Set Attainable Resolutions
Make sure that your resolution is realistic. We all enjoy a bit of sugar every now and then but often peoples resolutions are to avoid sugar completely and they are “giving up” sweet things. There is not many people who can stick to something like this over the medium to long term and a far better option would be to say you will, cut down, have it in moderation or keep it for your cheat meals.
Take home point – Don’t set goals that are unrealistic
2. Set Goals – Short, Medium and Long Term
Setting goals is of prime importance at this time of year. We are beginning a new ladies beginner programme and I was calling the ladies to talk them through the programme and my first bit of advice to them was – don’t just think of this as a 12 week quick fix but see it as a stepping stone to a new you over the long term.
Often women especially get dis heartened by the weighing scales if its not constantly dropping. But a much better method of measuring results is by measuring your actual body fat not just body weight. There are so many reasons why women store water in their body that this often leads to the scales staying the same or even putting on a lb or two. put if you are tracking your body fat and it’s coming down by about 0.5% per week then you are doing great and this is a much better short term goal.
So a sample of this could be :
Short Term – Lose 0.5% BODYFAT per week
Medium Term – 12 Weeks BODYFAT LOST – 6%
Long Term – 24 Weeks BODYFAT LOST – 12%
I cannot tell you how good losing 12% bodyfat will make you feel. For that reason I am offering the first 5 people to apply a free Biosignature body fat assessment.
Take home point – If you are not assessing you are guessing. Take out the guess work and set fat loss goals.
3. Tell People Your Resolution
Talking to people, posting on your facebook page and letting people know you are serious can help tremendously. Often people post on facebook but never had the intention of sticking to it and were just attention seeking but if you are really serious about your resolution let people know about it. The best case scenario is to find a friend who is trying to achieve a similar goal to you or even better a group of people who all want the same thing like our small group training clients.
Take home point – Let people know you are serious about your resolution
4. Don’t Beat Yourself Up If You Slip Up
You may already “know this” but don’t actually follow it. You might be one of those who feels like you have to give up after a bad day or two or more. This is the total wrong approach to ever achieving long term results. You may end up giving up totally just because you “thought” you were back at square one because of a bad day or two.
Just look at the worlds best sports teams, they don’t win every single game but over the long term they win the league. Thats the same with fitness related goals, you might have 4-5 great weeks then slip up but the slip up won’t be greater than the previous 4-5 weeks progress IF you get straight back on the horse and continue on your journey to achieve the weekly short term goal, medium term goal and long term goal. BUT unless you track your progress you will never know.
Take home point – a minor slip up is not as bad as you think.
5. Reward Yourself
I believe this is something you should all do. I recommend you regularly reward yourself as a mark of your progress. If you are a size 16 and trim down to a size 14 then buy new clothes. Bring your old size 16 down to a charity shop as a signal that you are NEVER going back to that size 16.
Your reward could be as simple as having something sweet at the end of a hard week in the gym where you hit your targets. Again its not an invitation to make a slob of yourself but if you use this as a cheat meal and can control it it can work wonders for mood, fat loss and compliance to a food plan.
Holidays – if a holiday is in your budget then why not book one now for the summer and set that as a goal/reward for your hard work.
Take home point – Rewarding your progress is essential
I hope I helped you with todays blog and that you start to implement these instantly. If I can say I helped one person by writing this blog then I will be a happy man. Please share if you think it might help your friends.
Adrian
