How To Make Your New Year’s Resolutions A Reality In 2013

Its that time again, the new year is just around the corner. As we all know “getting in shape” is the number one new years resolution every single year, gyms love it they get more memberships, regular gym goers hate it, the gym packed wall to wall. Waiting in line to use a machine or bench but believe me you wont have to wait in lines long…..

After about one month you will see about half of those “new members” quit, after another month more than 70 % will be gone back to their sedentary lives. But if you are one of the minority who is actually going to stay true to the journey keep reading.

Follow these principles to make your new year’s resolution a reality :

The biggest reason why people do not stick to their New Year’s resolution is because they don’t see results as fast as they thought they would. That being said, one must remember that their body has been in it’s current mold for the last 20,30, 40 years, maybe their entire life. When the body gets into a certain mold for a prolonged period of time, it practically locks into that mold. Imagine your body is like cold clay and you have it on a spinning wheel and you are trying to mold it into a pot. When the clay is cold as it has been sitting there for a while, it is reluctant to move to take a new shape. Only after heat is applied to the clay for some time does it warm up and become ‘moldable.’ It is impossible to mold cold clay, but extremely easy to mold once it become warm. Your body is the same way. You are ‘cold clay’ as you make your New Year’s decision to get in shape and you go to the gym over and over again for a week or two and get upset that all that effort hasn’t changed your appearance in the mirror. The reason why, is that it take an average of 3 weeks of training until your body starts to ‘heat up’ and begin to take form and change where you can see your efforts. Far too often, people don’t understand that and figure a week in the gym will change their body mass that has been that way for over 20 + years. It doesn’t work that way, go into the gym this January knowing your results will most likely not show until a month from your start date….think of it is the price of admission to your new healthier stronger you.

Find someone you know or that you meet at the gym who is at the same fitness level and determined to transform their body as well.  Your workouts will be safer but also enhanced, as you will be able to perform exercises that you wouldn’t be able to without a partner such as negative reps. In addition to that, a partner will keep you coming back to the gym, as more is on the line if you don’t go to the gym then just yourself. A partner makes you accountable. Will there be days when you don’t want to go the gym ?  Hell yes there will be, but the chances that both you and your partner will not want to go to the gym is significantly reduced. Once you and your partner get over the 3 week hump, the two of you will push each other further than you can push yourselves individually.

Set Tangible Goals

A huge element to any program you start in your life, is your confidence in your journey. If you want to play golf and play against a Pro Golfer your first time, it might be such an ass kicking experience that you decide to give the game up. Going to the gym can be the same ordeal. If you go into the gym and try to go too hard too fast, you will leave the gym feeling like you got your ass kicked and embarrassed. We all have to start out ‘out of shape’ in order to get ‘into shape,’ so know that everyone in the gym has been in your shoes at one time or another and pushed past it and now they stand in front of you as an example of what you want your body to look like. Go into the gym with a daily modest goal, a goal that pushes you but doesn’t kill you. Pick a workout that leaves you excited and thrilled with pride for achieving what you set out to do and excited to come back to the gym next time to step it up a little bit more. Winning those little battles builds your confidence and makes it easier to win the war against your body. Remember, the most important muscle you will ever grow is your mind. If you are strong minded and tell yourself you are going to give the gym at least 6 months before you judge it, it’s not a matter of ‘IF’ but ‘WHEN’.

Too Much Too Fast

To get your ideal body, it’s an equation of four factors: (1) Lifting program, (2) Cardio program, (3) Diet and Nutrition and (4) Sleep. Each one of these factors are as important as the other carrying 25% of the equation, but when you are starting a new program to ‘GET IN SHAPE,’ you will fail if you try to do all of them at once. You must start slow with realistic goals or you will burn out. I have seen it so many times that people decide to get in shape and they shock their system on every front….they change their diet drastically, lift more then they have their entire life, elevate their heart rate higher then it’s ever been through cardio and so on. That program, that balls to the wall style, will burn out as fast as it was started. You must start with one of the four factors first, and slowly build into it. No one will have the body they want by the end of January, it’s not like a school test you can cram for, it takes time dedication and sacrifice. Start with getting your body used to going to the gym first….if you can conquer that first step you will find the others are so much easier.

Document Your Progress

Everyone has heard the expression: “You cannot see the trees from the forest!” Another example is if you have a puppy, a puppy you see everyday and never notice how fast it’s growing until a friend comes over that hasn’t seen the puppy for a few weeks and make a comment on how big the puppy is getting. Same goes with training and transforming your body. One will hate to take a picture and take measurements, Body Fat %, BMI, etc when they are just starting as they might be embarrassed, but those are the numbers I urge you to record as they will be your most proud numbers recorded. There is nothing sweeter then having a before and after shot to compare to visually when you are feeling worn out from working out. When you record your progress, you are creating a tangible record of where you were and where you are currently. Sometimes some of the greatest results cannot be seen in the mirror, but rather on paper as what you used to lift to what you lift now, or how many more reps you are doing now, or how much faster you are running, etc. The more you record the easier you can track you success and also take notice on what works and doesn’t work for you body. There are a million different workouts out there, but only a few that makes you feel like a million bucks. If you record those workouts and results, you can easier find what workouts work best.

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