Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with
many advisers they succeed. Proverbs 15:22[i]
The first step in avoiding the fate of the resolutioner is to have a plan. All of the enthusiasm in the world will not carry the healthy resolution out of January and through the rest of the year if it lacks a solid plan. A plan bridges the gap between identifying what you want and getting there. Most importantly, a plan puts purpose into the passion and directs the course of the action into a verifiable outcome.
If success is to become reality, there are several steps to creating a fitness plan that need to occur before embarking upon the journey to a healthier life. Take the first step by completely abandoning the notion of the New Year’s Resolution. Resolutions fail, plain and simple, resolutions are a stupid waste of time. Click here if you want to know why. Do yourself a favor and truly commit, until you do life-changing progress will never happen.
Changing your life takes time so get real about the time commitment involved: how many hours and days per week can you really commit to exercise? An honest answer will directly influence the expectation of how long it will take to hit the big goal. Are you trying to lose weight? It is healthy and possible to lose up to 2 lbs per week. If you want to lose 20 lbs it is possible to do that in about ten weeks. However, for most people, that requires exercising or other physical activity for at least one hour per day every day of the week. Do time constraints prevent you from committing to that? If so,then adjust your expectations and accept slower progress with a more delayed completion date. Slower progress is still progress. It is also more permanent.
Permanent change requires prioritizing nutrition over exercise. It is proper and healthy nutrition that changes the body. Exercise helps speed the process along. If forced to choose between the two, choose to focus on eating healthier. Healthy food is found on the farm, not in a factory.
Get the most of exercise by training with a purpose. What I mean by that is simple: pick activities outside of the gym that require a certain level of fitness and are enjoyable. Build an exercise program around the idea of making that activity a better experience. One of the easiest ways to ensure that you will stick with an exercise program is see the improved fitness translate into improved performance in other areas of life. Do not make the mistake of exercising based upon what the popular trends are or what friends may be doing. That is buying into marketing, not making a personal choice. One of the most misunderstood, but most important points, of exercise is that you become a better you. Not a better version of a model, celebrity, or your fit neighbor. A better you. Exercise for that purpose and success will come.
When success does come enjoy a little reward, a program without incentives and recognition of accomplishments is doomed to failure. I would caution against using food as that reward, especially if fat loss is the primary goal. It is too easy to have a “cheat” meal and then feel guilty and scrap the program for days, weeks, or the rest of the year. Was body fat lost? Go buy a new outfit. Or go do that adventure that may have been impossible before. Be deliberate about the reward process but do not go crazy. Leave the reward slightly unsatisfying so that the desire for further progress and greater reward remains. Those who continue to pursue improvements are those who learn to make peace with never being fully satisfied. The moment a person decides that satisfaction is completely met is the moment that person quits trying and progress ends.
Continual progress requires a plan that gradually becomes more challenging. A comprehensive plan will address the obstacles of a positive reward system, training with a purpose, prioritizing nutrition, and understanding time commitment. Create this plan and the resolution will become reality.
Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan.-Tom Landry
[i] Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©
1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.®
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