The New Year is here and let me guess, you have a shit load of new “resolutions” you have written down to conquer this year, am I right?
You have that new 100 pound weight loss goal, you have the I’m going to eat clean for the rest of my life goal, you have the ditching sugar and alcohol goal and the “I’m going to read a new motivational book every week so I become my best self” goal. Do any of these sound like the goals you have set for 2020?
If you are someone that just said yes, I need you to take that cute little paper you just wrote on with all these amazing resolutions and rip it to pieces. Yep, cut it up, put in in the shredder or better yet, let your dog eat it! You want to know why? Those “goals” will only lead to failure, guilt and anger. You can fight me on that all you want, but I have seen it happen with one client after another. They set these goals that are just beyond their wildest dreams, goals that just writing them down seem already way out of reach and by February 1st, are already crossing them off as not getting done.
STOP THE CHAOS OF SETTING UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS!
STOP SETTING RESOLUTIONS THAT ARE BEYOND YOUR CAPABILITIES!
Please for the love of my mother, take a moment to really think about how you want to start this new year, this new decade for goodness sakes! Think about how you want to make your life better, about how you want to make your relationships better, about how you want to get out of debt or start a new business.
Think of these yearly resolutions now as goals for yourself. Set REALISTIC goals that you can actually finish! Set small goals, accomplish small victories throughout the month that will lead you to getting big results! Sometimes we easily look passed the small things because we see them for what they are, small checkmarks that mean nothing compared to that BIG VICTORY! But I am here to change your mind on that thought process, so let’s chat.
For example: You set yourself a goal of losing 20lbs next year. First and foremost, please don’t just set the goal of losing the weight. The number one issue I already have with this is what happens post weight loss? Are you going to keep it off or have a party to celebrate and gain it all back in one night? Think about it and get back to me, until then, lets continue with our goal setting.
Step 1: Lose 20 pounds next year and keep it off!
Step 2: How will we do that? Changing activity level and nutrition!
Step 2.1: Increase activity:
Month 1: gym 2x per week.
Month 2: Gym 2x per week and a hike outdoors each week.
Month 3: gym 3x per week.
Month 4: gym 3 x per week and nightly walks around the block.
Step 2.2: Nutrition
Month 1: Limit eating out to 2x per week/Increase water to 100oz per day
Month 2: Limit eating out to 1x per week/increase water to 120 oz per day.
Month 3: Same as M2, get 4 servings of protein in every day.
Month 4: Same as M3, get 4 servings of green veggies in every day.
Do you see how in Step 2, I made small changes every single month? I didn’t just jump off the deep end month 1, change my whole life in the snap of the fingers and expect everything to be ok. Make small, sustainable changes that you know you will be able to make so that your life doesn’t explode and your family doesn’t leave you on the corner!
Step 3: Track Progress. Don’t just go through the motions and expect to weigh yourself Dec. 31, 2020 and boom, life is good, goals were met now time to go to the next year. You need to have a plan in place that you can track your weekly progress whether that is weighing yourself, taking pics, tracking your food and water, you need to have a system that you can do every week to see how well you are doing. AND CELEBRATE THE VICTORIES! Be proud when you have done a full week of 100oz of water because dammit that it hard! Celebrate when you have eaten a home cooked meal every day for 1 week even when soccer practice ran late! Get excited when the scale says down ANY amount of weight because THAT is the true goal!!
Step 4: Make changes as you see necessary and be ok with mistakes! Life isn’t perfect, WE are not perfect! YOU WILL FAIL! And guess what? It is okay, take a deep breath, you will be fine. Tomorrow we start fresh and continue on our path to losing the weight, even if we don’t hit the 20 pounds you have set for, any weight loss is the goal.
This is just the “typical” resolution example of losing weight every year that I hear from clients and potential clients. Now don’t get the wrong idea, I believe everyone should put their health first, but I think it gets made into such an ordeal that people fail before they even start.
Start BIG but celebrate the SMALL.
Enjoy the process of getting to that point.
Learn from the failures and keep growing through the wins.
Stop making resolutions and start setting reasonable goals to conquer.
Make a vision board, write them on your mirror, see them every single day.
When your goals and dreams become reality, you will be thankful for the journey.
