A new year symbolizes a new chapter in your life. A chance for a fresh start. There are millions of people right now who are excited about starting the year on the right track and they have ambitious dreams of health, wealth, and success… However, the harsh reality is that less than 10% of them will actually achieve their New Year’s resolution goals. Over 90% of them will quit and fail in frustration.
By far the most popular New Year’s Resolution Goal is losing weight. So that’s what we’re going to focus on in this blog post. You’ll find out EXACTLY why over 90% of people fail to reach their weight loss and fitness goals every year.
You’re going to learn how to avoid the common mistakes and pitfalls so that you can join the successful few who actually make their goals a reality!
Even through we’re gearing this towards fitness goals – these same tips, techniques, and strategies can be applied to just about any goal that you are working towards. You just have to make them work for your specific situation.
The New Year’s Fitness Trap!
Walk into any gym in January and it will be packed full of people who are all committed to whipping their lazy butts into shape in a hurry. Now while I appreciate their enthusiasm and desire to get in shape, it’s generally short lived. And you can see the same pattern every new year…
–>> In January the gym will be packed full.
–>> By February at least half of the new members will start to drop off.
–>> When you get into March & April the gym will be back to the same old regulars.
Do you know the biggest reason why most people quit their New Year’s fitness program so soon?
Yep, you are reading this right. The number one cause of failure in the gym among novices is trying too hard. Most people start off the New Year with the mentality of “I want it ALL and I want it NOW”. So they start off doing too much, too soon, and burning themselves out in frustration.
The fitness industry knows this and capitalizes on it every year. That’s why you’ll see all kinds of crazy fad diets and programs making ridiculous claims like “lose 30 pounds in 30 days”. Even though it probably took 10+ years to gain that extra 30 pounds, we convince ourselves that we have to lose it all in a month or less… It’s really a messed up way of thinking…
but it has a much better success rate long term.
While it’s true that you can see some fast initial results with a “get ripped quick” program, the problem is that the results are not maintainable long term. Before you know it you’ll be physically and mentally exhausted, suffering from uncontrollable food cravings, and reverting back to your old unhealthy habits.
Losing weight and getting in shape is a lot like running a marathon, but most people are treating it like a sprint. If you start a 26 mile marathon running as fast as you physically can, how long do you think you’ll last? …Not Long… Even though running flat out might look impressive in the moment, before you know it you’ll be collapsed over on the ground, gasping for air, and unable to go any further.
While the slow and steady folks easily pass you by and pace themselves all the way to the finish line!
If you want to make it to the finish line and succeed in reaching your ideal weight. Stop with the crash diets and extreme workout programs. Instead of overhauling your entire diet and lifestyle overnight with some super restrictive plan that ultimately leads to burnout and failure. Let’s start off with just a few simple habits that you actually follow through with and build some positive momentum.
I recommend starting your New Year’s fat loss program with 3 simple habits.
- – an exercise habit
- – a nutrition habit
- – and a personal accountability habit
These 3 habits are going to seem so ridiculously easy, especially compared to the crazy diet and exercise programs that you’ve probably tried (and failed) in the past. But if you just follow through and actually do these 3 habits on a daily basis you’ll be surprised by the results!
Your New Year’s Exercise Habit
If you are not currently exercising right now, then don’t try and follow some advanced 2 hour per day strength and conditioning program right from the get go. Just get outside and go for a 20 minute walk. Make it a simple & easy daily habit that you actually stick with. You could get up extra early and go for a walk before work, you could take your sneakers with you and go for a walk on your lunch break, go for a walk after work, or whenever best suits your schedule. Just start now and go for a walk everyday.
If the weather isn’t suitable for walking outside, then you can go to the gym and use the cardio machines. Or maybe you have some sort of cardio machine at home that you can use. It really doesn’t matter how you do it, just as long as you get moving and do it for at least 20 minutes per day.
NOTE:
If you are already following a regular weight training routine at the gym, you can still increase your overall activity level and burn extra bodyfat by walking on a daily basis. Back when I was preparing for bodybuilding competitions I would walk on a daily basis as my #1 form of fat loss cardio and it worked really well. It allowed me to increase my overall calorie expenditure without burning out my central nervous system and overtraining. Walking is great for active recovery, stress relief, and fat loss.
Your New Year’s Nutrition Habit
If you are currently eating a poor diet, then don’t jump right into following some crazy low carb restrictive diet. Just focus on making some simple improvements to your current way of eating. You could start with eating a serving of vegetables and / or fruit with each meal along with drinking a glass of water.
As simple as this is, it works really for improving the quality of your current diet. You won’t go hungry, you won’t feel deprived, you won’t suffer from headaches or mood swings. But the high quality nutrients, fiber, and water will naturally help to control your appetite and lower your overall caloric intake without causing any stress or discomfort on your part.
This could be as easy as eating a grapefruit with breakfast, having an apple with lunch, starting dinner off with a fresh garden salad, and having a bowl of mixed berries topped with yogurt for dessert.
And for those times when it’s not convenient to have a serving of vegetables and / or fruit with your meals, you can make up for it by having a greens powder drink instead. Greens powder is concentrated vegetable extracts that have the nutritional and antioxidant value of a half dozen servings of vegetables.
Just like how you supplement your protein intake with a protein powder, you can supplement your veggie intake with athletic greens powder.
Your New Year’s Personal Accountability Habit
It’s one thing to know what you should do, but it’s something totally different to actually follow through and do it. Let’s face it, everyone knows “what to do” to lose weight and get in shape. We know that it requires eating healthy, avoiding processed junk food, exercising more, drinking more water, etc. But how many people actually do it on a consistent basis – day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year? …Not many!
There are several things that you can do to help hold yourself accountable and actually follow through with your New Year’s fitness habits. One is to plan and schedule a time each day when you will exercise and go for your walk. Write it down in your daily planner just the same as you would write down any important appointment. By scheduling a specific time you are much more likely to actually follow through and do it. Rather than saying to yourself “I’ll go for a walk later on when I have time and I’m not busy.” That approach rarely ever works because you’ll always find something else to occupy your time and keep you “busy”.
Another thing that you can do to help hold yourself accountable to follow through with your daily habits is to keep a journal. Each night before you go to bed take 2 minutes to jot down in a notebook the highlights of your day. Write down the positive things that you did to move yourself closer towards reaching your personal fitness goals.
Your journal might look like this…
- got up early and went for a 20 minute walk around the block.
- made a green smoothie for breakfast.
- took the stairs instead of the elevator at work.
- passed on the donuts during coffee break.
- ate a chicken and veggie salad for lunch.
- had a beef & veggie stir-fry for dinner with a fruit salad for dessert.
You can also write down any other positive moments that you had throughout the day, such as a job well done at work, or spending quality time with your family and children.
By just taking a couple minutes to reflect on your day like this you will re-enforce the positive habits that you are making in your life and help build momentum. This helps hold you accountable because no body wants to get to the end of the day without having anything positive to record in their journal. You always want to end your day with some positive reflection, even if it’s only a small victory, because every step in the right direction is moving your closer towards your goals.
If you are really serious about getting in shape and holding yourself accountable, you can sign up for a Customized Nutrition and Training Program along with One-On-One Coaching. I’ll personally follow along with your progress and ensure you’re on the right track to fat loss success. I’ve coached both men and women from all walks of life – from beginners who are just getting started, to seasoned gym goers who have been working out for years, to competitive bodybuilders and physique athletes – for more information just click here.
www.LeeHayward.com/blog/customized-programs
How Fast Can I Lose Weight With Simple Daily Habits?
The thing you need to realize when it comes to weight loss is that:
“Losing Weight Is Easy, Keeping It Off Is Hard.”
For the most part everyone who follows a fat loss diet is going to be successful to some degree in losing weight initially. But problems arise when they get impatient and push themselves to do too much, too soon, burning themselves out and quitting in frustration.
Real world weight loss is a slow process. And the slower you lose the weight, the more likely it is that you’ll actually be able to keep it off for the long term. There are no quick fix solutions that provide long term results. Regardless of how badly you want to lose weight and get lean, you can’t short-cut the process.
Most people can realistically expect to lose 1 pound of bodyweight per week, and keep that weight off over the long term when following a sensible diet and exercise routine. Now I know this doesn’t sound like much. Especially if you have a lot of weight to lose, and you are constantly bombarded with hyped up advertisements claiming that you can “Lose 30 Pounds In 30 Days with a Get Ripped Quick Program.” But trust me, if these types of programs really worked like the advertisements claim, we wouldn’t be facing an obesity epidemic in the world today.
If you are reading this now, you may have already followed some type of restrictive low calorie diet in the past, and you probably even lost weight from it. But the problem is that an overly restrictive diet is not maintainable long term. It’s like trying to sprint your way through a marathon. While you can cover a lot of ground initially, it’s only short lived because you’re moving at a pace that you can’t maintain. Before you know it you’ll be exhausted, burnt out, and end up quitting in frustration.
That’s why over 90% of the people who try to follow a “Get Ripped Quick Diet Plan” end up quitting before they reach their fat loss goals. And for those hardcore few who actually stick with it long enough to reach their ideal weight. Sooner or later they’re also going to run out of will power, give into the cravings, scrap the diet, and the worst part – re-gain all the weight they worked so hard to lose!
Your diet and exercise routine has to be “easy enough” so that it can become a regular part of your lifestyle, something that you enjoy doing and can maintain for the rest of your life. If you don’t enjoy what you’re doing, it’s not going to work, you are not going to be able to keep it up for the long term and reach your weight loss goals.
Just look at the chart below to see the differences between following an aggressive “Get Ripped Quick” program that includes a restrictive low calorie diet and rigorous workout routine VS. following a “Slow & Steady” program that focuses on doing a few simple daily exercise and nutrition habits over the long term.
Right from the start the “Get Ripped Quick” group will leave the “Slow & Steady” folks in the dust. Losing 12+ pounds in the first month alone. As long as they can stick with the restrictive diet and exercise program they can continue losing weight quickly, dropping another 8+ pounds during the second month.
However, by the third month their progress usually slows down as the body starts to adapt to the low calorie diet. When this happens some of the metabolic processes in the body actually become suppressed. During the third month they only lose a “measly 5 pounds”.
Into the forth month they will continue to experience even more metabolic slow down due to the restricted dietary intake. This is also accompanied by extreme hunger pains, food cravings, mood swings, low energy levels, and all the other pit falls of low calorie diets. During the forth month they may lose another pound or two, but that’s about it.
At this stage they can’t take it anymore… The “Get Ripped Quick” group is getting burnt out from feeling hungry all the time. They are becoming more irritable, moody, and find it hard to concentrate at work. And they are frustrated by their lack of weight loss progress over the past month. At this point they usually give into their cravings and blow the diet. In doing so they actually re-gain 5+ pounds.
This downward spiral continues until they are eventually right back to their starting weight, and very often even a few pounds heavier than when they began.
However, the “Slow & Steady” folks have been pacing themselves with a conservative program of healthy eating and moderate exercise. By most people’s standards their progress is not very impressive. Some people would consider it a waste of time to follow a program where you lose less than a pound per week.
But here’s the kicker…
The people who take it “Slow & Steady” are not stressing themselves out, they don’t feel hungry during the day, there are no uncontrollable cravings or mood swings. In fact, they feel better now than they did before. So they stick with it because it’s “easy to do” and they actually enjoy the process – day after day, week after week, and month after month.
So even though the “Get Ripped Quick” approach produces fast initial results. The real lasting changes can only happen when you zoom out, look at the bigger picture, and take a “Slow & Steady” approach.
Most people “overestimate” how hard losing fat is,
but they “underestimate” how low it will take…
Taking Your Fat Loss To The Next Level…
The body can only burn bodyfat at a certain rate. You can’t force it to burn fat any faster without causing metabolic problems. So the key to successful fat loss is to diet longer, NOT harder.
Slow and steady is the only way to win the fat loss race. And the tips that we covered here will certainly help get you moving in the right direction. But regardless of what diet and exercise approach you take, eventually you’re going to hit a weight loss plateau. A simple program of walking and eating cleaner does work, but it will only take you so far.
In order to develop a lean athletic physique you will eventually need to incorporate a more advanced program to build lean muscle, while burning burning bodyfat at the same time, and still keeping it an enjoyable and maintainable part of your lifestyle. This is where following a well structured Total Fitness Bodybuilding exercise program along with a strategic calorie cycle diet plan comes into play.
If you would like help in setting up an advanced fat loss program that fits your personal needs and lifestyle, than I encourage you to sign up for my Customized Nutrition, Training, and VIP Coaching Program. As your coach I’ll personally follow along with your diet and fitness program, and help you along the way to ensure that you’re on the right track to long term fat loss success.
“Bill lost 116 pounds in 2 years!”
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“Mother of 3 Lost 77 Pounds In 1 Year!”
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For more information about Lee Hayward’s Fitness & Nutrition Coaching, just visit the link below…
www.LeeHayward.com/blog/customized-programs
7 Comments
leehayward
If you would like some help in reaching your personal fitness and fat loss goals, than I encourage you to check out the Total Fitness Bodybuilding “Inner Circle” Coaching Club. As a member I’ll personally follow along with your diet and fitness program, and help you along the way to ensure that you’re on the right track to long term fat loss success. To try it out for yourself risk-free, just visit http://www.totalfitnessbodybuilding.com
Robert Vincelette
All three are right on. However I would like to re-interpret the accountability issue by holding others around me accountable for daring to ask me to compromise on my decision never miss a workout. This includes my supervisor at work who knows that he cannot stop me from taking my workouts in the morning even if he fires me for working out and putting him second. I also hold the commercial food industry accountable for the junk food they offer and the deceptions they use to get people to accept along with the belly fat they threaten to put into our bodies. If they are on what I use the same way one uses a sex offender registry, if they are such scum as Nestle, Nabisco, Kellogg, McDonald’s, etc. they are accountable for how they chose to behave and they forfeit the privilege of being tolerated in my diet.
Edgar
Ha ha! A super post Lee 🙂 I liked the first image very much. Some people take new year resolution and hit the gym on the first day of the year and then the gym will become empty as days go on.
Luke Cafferty
Hey Lee,
I love this article! It needs to be seen by more eyeballs, So I will share it on my social media. Every year I see the gyms get packed and people go from horrible diets and a sedentary lifestyle to kale and HIT cardio.. it never lasts.
Julia Kruz
It is funny to see people in the gym on 2nd of January and then it is less and less people start showing up. It is cracking me up. Now it is May and my gym is empty for some reason 🙂
william carr
It is the same as the drug prevention slogan ‘Just say No to Junk food’ and especially sugar.
Geraldine
I think instead of setting New Year’s goals. You just have to set short-term goals for yourself. Instead of saying I will eat healthy this year, try saying I will eat veggies at least three times a week. And keep building up from those goals.