It is the start of a New Year…12 days into it, but still early enough for people to be well on their way with the New Year’s Resolution pollution. I say pollution because usually these Resolutions do not work very well for most people. Fitness centers and gyms survive on the concept because they know that most people will be done with putting wear and tear on their equipment and facilities by February or mid-March. But people have already committed to a one-year membership at the gym they signed up with at the top of the year. It’s a win-win for gyms and it’s a lose-lose for the members. Partly because New Year’s resolutions don’t work is that people try to do too much too fast. The New Year’s Resolution put in the people’s minds that over the course of 7 days, 358 days worth of bad habits are going to disappear, virtually overnight. Unfortunately that is not how the human computer brain is reprogrammed. These things take time and gradual changes that will then become part of the computer’s hardware.
One of the best ways to start making positive and healthy changes is to figure out your Why. That is to say, why do you want to make these changes? I like to have my clients ponder the question what is it that you want to do when you are in your 70s, 80s and 90s? This is a lifetime goal which then requires a very slow and steady progression of changes and new habits that will build towards that goal. Anything less than a compelling reason Why and any small trivial/superficial goal will just certainly not work for the long term. Humans are built on habits that have been created over years and decades starting at a very young age so therefore if we are going to get on the path of making real and true changes for the betterment of ourselves and those around us with our health and fitness then we need to be looking at our very old age and then work backwards to the age we are now. This is a form of backwards planning which means that you can’t put together a proper plan unless you know where you want to be! It seems really simple and actually really is and the complexity comes in with creating and implementing a plan that fits your individuality, your individual reality.
But for those of you that are not ready to make this lifelong commitment and practice the “slow and steady wins the race” philosophy then I would simply recommend that you shoot for getting more exercise or eating a cleaner diet in 2013 then you did in 2012 by about a 10 to 20% increase, and that’s it, for now. If you shoot for the average 250 to 300% more exercise or dietary changes as most New Year’s Resolutions require then you are setting yourself up for failure. This failure comes from mental fatigue, emotional stress, physical stress and all of the other processes such as hormones that are trying to catch up with the new demands that you have put upon them. This is not something simply about motivation and mind-over-matter forcibility. It’s about taking small and committed steps forward that are obtainable, realistic and healing (versus forced and destructive). At the end of the day less is always more and during the course of a year that little bit more will add up exponentially. Make part of this New Year’s Resolution be Pollution-free by changing your approach to “getting fit and healthy”.