The Key to Keeping Your Healthy New Year Resolutions
By a steep margin, the number 1 New Years Resolution is to lose weight and get healthy. Unfortunately, statistics show that most people have stopped or given up on these resolutions by mid February. Six weeks! For such a well meaning goal, what happens in those 6 weeks that makes people completely abandon their good intentions for better health?
I think a large part of this is their movement. By movement, I mean exercise. We should all be "moving" our bodies daily. Yes, you read that right: DAILY.
The CDC recommends the following minimum requirements of physical activity just to reach the health benefits of exercise:
walking 2 hours and 30 minutes (150 minutes) of moderate-intensity aerobic activity (i.e., brisk walking) every week
AND
weight training muscle-strengthening activities on 2 or more days a week that work all major muscle groups (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders, and arms).
Now, if you are trying to lose body fat or make noticeable changes to your physique, you will need more exercise and modifications to your diet. Sounds overwhelming! Herein lies the problem and why I feel so many "resolutioners" fail.
January 1st starts a complete overhaul of their lifestyle. What I typically hear from these new, highly motivated gym go-ers is some rendition of the following:
Intense Workout EVERYDAY (Strength training or classes)
Cardio for 1 hour (Running, usually)
"Dry January" (no alcohol for the whole month)
Cut out Carbs (no bread, pasta, rice, fruit, sweet potatoes, starchy vegetables, sweets)
While these all sound like well intentioned goals, it’s a recipe for disaster. Creating habits and routines that are too strict or too far removed from your current lifestyle will not lead to long term success. Quick fixes are desirable, but they aren’t maintainable and results are never long lasting. The key to creating healthy routines that last is to create goals that will set you up for success. I always start small with my clients and get more aggressive as time goes on and we are making good progress.
In response to the above goals, the issues I find with them and some healthier alternatives are as follows:
Working out moderately everyday is recommended by the CDC as we read above, but intense exercise like gym classes or HIIT gives your body no time for rest and recovery. This is so important, especially for someone who may just be starting a regular exercise routine. Rest makes time for your body to repair broken down tissue from your workouts and allow time to remove metabolic byproducts in muscle cells.
Cardio is important for fat loss, but doing too much can slow down your metabolism. When considering how much cardio to do when starting out, you want to do the least amount possible while still seeing fat loss. This way, when your fat loss plateaus, you can add in more cardio. If you start with an hour a day, how much more can you really add into your schedule? Would you even want to? And when it comes to running, unconditioned individuals need to ease into a running routine in order to prevent injuries. Every time your foot hits the ground when running you are applying 4 times your bodyweight on your knees. Thats a lot of pressure!
Cutting out alcohol can do wonders for your health and fat loss, but often times I see people eliminate all social activities just to stay sober. Making time to be social and spend time with friends and family are important for keeping stress levels down, serotonin levels up, and can actually help us improve our response to stress and anxiety. Instead of stepping out of all social activities in an effort to improve your health, try inviting friends to join in on a group workout, find non-drinking activities to do with friends, and ask for support in your social circle to keep you accountable in your health goals.
Cutting out carbohydrates has been a fat loss trend for the past decade or so, but eliminating food groups doesn’t equate to long term health and fat loss. Carbohydrates have gotten a bad rap because when eliminated, people experience rapid weight loss. The problem isn’t carbohydrates, its the type and amount that people are eating. When low fat diets were all the rage in the 90’s and early 2000’s, companies started producing “low fat” treats like cookies, candies, and granola bars that were deemed healthy because of their low fat content, but the end result was foods that were higher in carbohydrates, and not the good kind. Filling up on processed carbohydrates will no doubt cause fat gain. But eating things like grains, beans, starchy vegetables, potatoes and fruit will give your brain and body the energy it needs to sustain workouts, improve brain function, balance hormones, and increase metabolic function.
When it comes to movement or exercise, many people feel like they should just be able to go all in without spending time warming up to a routine. Most group fitness classes are designed to make you feel like you can’t complete it in order to bait you into coming back again and again until you feel like you’ve accomplished the class. Others set an aggressive goal to complete a half marathon in a couple months time when they currently aren’t running at all. This puts immense pressure on your body and increases your chances for injury.
Sometimes getting into a healthy movement routine is a practice of creating the discipline to do it, while other times it’s about easing into the practice of getting your body used to more movement after being mostly sedentary. These are both incredibly difficult habits to get used to. If discipline is the issue, start putting opportunities for movement into your calendar and hold yourself accountable to them. Even if you don’t get in a full workout or you’re only able to go for a walk, setting the time aside and sticking to it will create the discipline of following through with your new movement plan. If you haven’t exercised in a long time and you just need to get your body used to movement, don’t be ashamed to start slow. Find a friend to join you, or if you have the budget for it, hire a personal trainer to teach you proper form and help you get into a routine that’s appropriate for your current fitness level.
Starting small and setting realistic and achievable goals will take you a long way in your health and fitness goals. Making your goals known to your friends and family so that they can support you (and you can encourage them!) will make this new lifestyle more attractive to you because it will fuel your social life rather than diminish it. Pick 3 goals you can start with today and once you have mastered those, move on to 3 more. This is how I coach my clients and see success time and time again. Don’t be baited into short term quick fixes that will only halt your progress in the long term.