“I’m gonna lose all this weight!”
“I’m gonna read 1000 pages a day!”
“I’m gonna meditate every day!”
“I’m gonna make all this money!”
“I’m gonna stop eating sugar!”
“I’m gonna work out every day for 2 hours a day!”
It’s that time of year again, right?
The time for goal setting, resolutions, a fresh start… all that.
It’s awesome!
But it’s also not 🙂
Evidently, only 8% of New Year’s Resolutions are successful… what gives?!
Well, when you plan on going cold turkey on 18 habits at a time, you set up yourself up to fail…
Big time.
So don’t plan for perfection. Don’t beat yourself up when you miss a workout or order dessert or whatever the goal is.
I used to say this all the time in the gym: “There’s a new bus coming toward your goals every 10 minutes… So if you catch yourself off course, great! Get on the next bus!”
The fact of the matter is, a very low percentage of us will have the willpower to say “I’m only eating protein and veggies for the rest of my life” and stick to it 100% of the time from the moment they make that decision.
The problem is, when we set goals like this, whatever they may be, we hold ourselves to this cold turkey standard and, as soon as we fall off, we say “screw it, I can’t do this, where’s the ice cream?!?”
So here’s what to do instead:
Reframe the way you think about your goals this year.
Instead of saying “I want to lose 30 pounds,” think about what habits you think you’d have to adopt to be able to get there.
“What would I have to do, on a consistent basis, based on my situation (my menopausal women need some love here ;), to be someone who loses a significant amount of fat this year?”
Would you have to work out consistently? How often?
Would you need to add strength training so you can add that lean muscle and up that stubborn-as-heck metabolism of yours?
Would you need to adjust your eating habits? What’s that look like?
Cut back on your drinking? How much?
Then I’d build a plan that slowly works us through those habits…
—-> Need help sticking to a workout that you actually look forward to (and that gets you where you want to go?) YAY! That’s what WE do, and we can take care of that habit for you (just click the blue button at the top of the page, we’ll help you out!)
—-> If you’re already working out consistently because you hang out with us at DSC (high five!) but you need nutrition help, just start with a simple habit like eating slowly or eating to 80% full (i.e. never stuffing yourself) instead of saying “AAAAAARRRG KETO PALEO NO CARB NO FAT NO THIS NO THAT”
The biggest switch is thinking about your whole health and fitness thing as a set of habits, vs. just a short-term thing you do and then fall off of.
If we can make these little things habits, and then stick to them over time, those goals and resolutions will all take care of themselves.
***If you want some help with this shiz on the nutrition side, we have a crazy awesome habit-based coaching program that takes you step by step, habit by habit, from “ARGGG I EAT LIKE A CRAZY PERSON” to “I just kind of easily eat healthy and still get to enjoy my favorite foods and I don’t freak out about any of it,” you can click here as we’ve got another run of registrations opening up for the New Year: https://dungeonstrength.lpages.co/procoach/ ***
Either way, do yourself a favor: don’t plan for perfection. It’s just too dang discouraging (even your favorite heroes slipped every once in awhile).
This life thing is a marathon, not a sprint. You having a bad couple of days doesn’t throw your fat loss out of whack forever (or even close to that). Stay the course, and get back on that next bus, there’s another one on the way 10 minutes from now 😉
Love, hugs, and awesomeness,
-Team DSC
PS: want to make the fitness habit super easy and fun? Just click the blue button at the top of the page!
PSS: want to be coached through the whole nutrition thing by wicked smaht PHD in the world’s leading habit-based nutrition coaching program? Just click here for more deets: https://dungeonstrength.lpages.co/procoach/
PSSS: what’d ya think of the new Star Wars movie? 4 out of 5 porgs?