In brief…they don’t work! Big generalisation, I know! But in my professional and personal experience, 99% of people who make new year’s resolutions don’t see them through. They get excited about their goals, but pretty soon it all loses its shine and it all becomes a thing of the past.
Fitness and weight loss goals are not short-term goals, they are long term goals that require lifestyle changes. The reason most people don’t succeed in NYR’s with either fitness or weight loss is because they go too hard too quick and make their behaviours unsustainable. I also liken weight loss and fitness goals to quitting smoking. Controversial maybe, but as an ex-smoker I feel qualified to make this comparison. And that is that you can’t quit smoking until you are mentally and emotionally ready to. Same goes for fitness and diet. If you want to make lasting changes, you need to be mentally and emotionally ready to make the changes needed.
I’m a big advocate for slow, manageable, sustainable changes. So, let’s use some examples for comparison:
Person A, sets a NYR to lose 5 kilos. They go from eating mostly processed foods high in trans fats and high in calories, to eating a completely clean and healthy diet and restricting their calorie intake, and they do this in one foul swoop. After a week, they miss their ‘normal’ food, realise they can’t maintain the healthy eating and go back to their old habits. Because they deprived themselves for a week, they actually binge and end up putting on weight.
Person B, decides to lose 5 kilos. They start by tidying up their snacks, when that becomes habit, they move onto their dinners, their breakfasts, and their lunches. This takes them about 2 months to achieve, but over that time they see slow weight loss, their energy levels increase and they feel really good. The slow changes have now become habit, they still eat the things they love, but in moderation, and their new lifestyle habits see them lose the 5 kilos over time. But this person has made lasting changes, so the weight stays off.
The same goes for fitness and strength goals. A person who goes from doing no exercise to busting their ass at the gym 5 days a week is likely to either burn out or get injured from going too hard too quick, not allowing the body recovery time. After 2 or 3 weeks (if they last that long) they stop to deal with the fallout and never go back.
But another person starts by going twice a week, then increase to 3 times a week and then 4. They do this over a couple of months and it then becomes part of their lifestyle. They haven’t gone as hard as fast but they are still going when person A has long stopped. Who has the most success?
I have seen these examples time and time again. And I always can tell who will reach their goals and who won’t, because of the way they behave when we have the conversation about their goals. I’m not saying that it’s not possible to succeed by going hard and fast, for some people that’s what they need to do, but in the majority of cases, this approach doesn’t work.
If you enjoy reading and looking for some inspiration, grab Atomic Habits by James Clear. He talks a lot about creating lifelong habits. He says to be successful, you only need to be 1% better each day. While it feels like nothing at the time, over time it adds up. And because it’s not a lot, it’s easier to achieve and easier to maintain.
I’m not saying don’t set a New Year’s Resolution, but do it because you’re ready to make the changes, not because it’s a fad and you feel like you should.
