Halloween has come and gone and we are officially into the holiday season. Two months of spending and gorging yourself silly which eventually leads to resolution season, where you worry about whatever damage was done. Yet, given the success rate of New Year’s resolutions (80% fail by February), maybe we should short-circuit this annual cycle.

You can start by taking a more balanced approach to your holiday indulgences. Feel free to go crazy on Thanksgiving and Christmas—it is all that in-between time that tends to get us. If you can’t temper back the holiday consumption a bit in the first place, it seems unlikely that your extreme fitness plan and starvation diet will stick, anyway.

Which brings me to the larger point. Don’t pick an extreme fitness plan or a starvation diet. Your goal shouldn’t be to oscillate between extremes—bathing in gumdrops and cinnamon rolls and then punishing yourself with kale and dubstep infused spin sessions. I happen to like both kale and spin, but the point is that health and physique are about the long game.

The worst thing you could do is shut your metabolism down by hardly eating and then return to your old habits. Most people flock to this route in hopes of quick results, but it causes weight to increase in the long run. Whatever changes you make should be sustainable for, like, ever.

Successful plans meet you where you are and inch in the right direction. You could be very happy eating only whole foods for 90+% of your meals, but not if you were pounding fast food and daily dessert a month prior.

These things take time. It is the same with exercise. Maybe you’ll love CrossFit someday, but if you haven’t been on an exercise routine for years, I’m guessing you’re about a Fran away from deciding to take a few more years off.

We are in an impatient, results-now culture, but that just doesn’t work with fitness. What does work is consistency, patience, and a commitment to learning more as you go. For sustainable change, health can’t be a seasonal fad, it will need to be a value that you continue to cultivate.

Sustainability is the challenge and to produce sustainable action what you do before you start is even more important than the actions you decide to make habits. Before you decide to do anything, you’ll want to ace the pre-game.

Ace the Pre-Game

Give me six hours to cut down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”

– Abe Lincoln

The best program in the world will fail if you haven’t created the conditions that ensure you show up and do it. The doing it part is what gets people.

To help with this problem Justin Lind and I recently came together and identified the Five Principles to Start and Maintain Any New Change. These are steps you can begin taking right now, regardless of the holiday parties and hectic travel, to help ensure longterm success in your health goals. They are:

1. Leverage your positive social pressure. You have to reconcile the fact that you are a social creature living in a world that doesn’t naturally promote health and activity. Working against norms is hard. Yet, with a little thought, you can intentionally use your relationships to pull you to your desired actions. There are a billion ways to do this.
2. Carve out a specific, consistent time to do the new habit every day. This is probably the most important and most overlooked point. It boils down to the science of habit formation.
3. Start small (really small). Make the barrier to entry so low that success is inevitable. Doing more will naturally follow, but don’t force it.
4. Reduce friction to your desired actions and increase friction to possible saboteurs. Your surroundings can either nudge you towards success or pull you away. This is environmental design in a nutshell.
5. Trust the Process. You won’t feel like you are being transformed every day. Some days you just have to show up and trust your plan. The power doesn’t come from one herculean effort, but from all those micro-steps added together over time.

For a deeper dive into each of these five principles, Justin and I have created a free lesson that comes with a quick exercise block and finishes with gratitude and meditation. We package all of this in 30 minutes for a powerful mind, body, and spirit training dose to kickstart your day and, if you apply the lesson, prime whatever goals you want to conquer. It is all in the format of our 30×30 Challenge.

Again, training is always about the long game. You will want to test yourself and push your limits, but not early-on and not all the time. If at any point along the way you fall off your habits, just return to these five principles. They are easy to incorporate and will open the door to the actions that empower fuller living.

The post Prime Your New Year’s Resolution Now For a Change That Actually Sticks appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

I have a question for you. If I could guarantee that by the end of next year, you would be the healthiest you have ever been, that you would have energy throughout the entirety of the day, that your sleep, mood, and overall feeling of well-being would be at an all-time best, and, most importantly, you would look better than you ever have (naked) – what would that be worth to you? If money was no object and I could deliver on all of those promises, what would you pay? Think about it.

If you’re like most people, you would pay any price to have your body completely dialed in. The cascade of positivity that comes from getting into your ideal shape would be measurable in every aspect of your being. Your relationships (particularly the one you have in the bedroom), work life, and even spiritual life would feel the aftershocks of your physical body getting tuned. It can’t be stopped. It’s one of those landmark achievements that spreads positivity throughout your entire system.

Be real with yourself and you will find a level of discipline you have never known.

First, Establish the Rules

If you are reading this, you already place priority on your body. Excellent. You are who this article is for. Together, you and I are going to look at some cornerstone elements that will set you up for success this year. But first, there are a few rules we have to establish:

First, you will keep this entire endeavor coming from a place of positivity. You no longer have room for negative in your space. Anytime you feel dark clouds of any kind rolling in, you must stop them in their tracks, and that includes people.

Second, you will agree to think without limits. I want you to take all of the conditions others have put on you throughout your life and completely disregard them. You are starting with a clean slate, and your understanding of yourself will take on a completely different look out the gate.

Lastly, I need you to get excited. I need a flow of energy moving through you that will drive you where you want to go. Deal? Let’s begin.

The 5 Cornerstone Questions for Goal-Setting Success #1: Where Are You Today?

Where are you now? Not some assumed place, but a measured starting point. The truth will set you free. You aren’t in the business of candy coating anything, especially to yourself, so let’s get an idea of what you are working with. Assess your current shape. You want to see veins in your abs this summer. What is your current body fat? You want to run a sub-4.5 40-yard dash before the season starts in the fall. What’s your 40 time right now?

To understand where you are going, you must know where you are today. Do this without judgment. It’s not a time to get down and start kicking yourself. You just want to know what you are working with. Remember, the further you are from your goal today, the sweeter it will be when you get there.

The 5 Cornerstone Questions for Goal-Setting Success #2: Where Are You Going?

Where do you want to go? Remember, we are thinking without limits. Can you visualize your ideal self? Having a clear understanding of where you are headed makes the task of getting there considerably easier.

“The moment you understand you are limitless and you have everything you need to get to your destination, the goal is yours.”

Most people have vague goals. A slight bump in the road is enough to derail the entire endeavor. Get crystal clear on where you are headed. You want to run a sub five-minute mile by the summer time. Great, that gives you a sharp understanding where you want to go and how much time you have to get there. You want to bench over 500lb by this time next year. Again, a clear place to begin your planning. Write everything down. Define every variable possible so you have a target with teeth.

The 5 Cornerstone Questions for Goal-Setting Success #3: What’s the Plan?

What might seem like the most daunting part of your goal setting is, in reality, one of the easiest. You have all you need to game plan simply by sitting in front of your computer or smart phone. Breaking Muscle alone is overflowing with quality information. I was chatting with the CEO, Omid Rahmat, about how many pieces are on the site. His answer: over 30,000 articles on everything strength, fitness, and health. 30,000. Start reading. Find an author you feel comfortable with and read everything you can.

I am a bigtime nerd, admittedly. When I was in college, I spent my first year reading every issue of the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. Every night in the library, from the first Volume 1, February 1987 issue, all the way to the current issue at the time, somewhere in the Volume 12, 1998 space. Yes, I had little to no social life, but my research game was tight. You have access to the most powerful resource in the world for these topics right here. It’s like taking candy from a baby.

If you don’t want to rely on articles alone and want interaction with a live person, hire someone at the gym you are training at. If you don’t know what to look for when hiring someone, there’s even an article on this site written by me called 7 Steps to Find the Best Coach for You.

The 5 Cornerstone Questions for Goal-Setting Success #4: Who Told You and Why Did You Listen?

This isn’t a fitness question, it’s a life question. We spend a lot of time empowering people who have no expertise in what they are talking about. We have anointed each and every person with presumed mastery the second we take their words as truth. But remember: “Opinions are like assholes.” Question everything, from the annoying intern in the cubicle next to you, to the gurus.

The most liberating thing in this world is the moment you realize everything you have been taught (or more importantly, accepted as truth) has been instructed by imperfect people with incomplete information. This information has been sifted through their filters, and you don’t have the same filters they do. There isn’t a person out there who has lived your exact path. It’s individual to you. With that, consider yourself free from the burden of anyone’s opinion about you or your destination.

The 5 Cornerstone Questions for Goal-Setting Success #5: What’s Worked in the Past?

All the achievements you’ve made in your life had a pattern. What was it? I’m not going to waste your time giving you guidelines on how I think you should structure your motivation. That’s exclusive to you. This is a perfect example of why following someone else’s way is limited. Does having everyone stop what they are doing in the gym to watch you squat get your blood pumping? Are you training because you want to get more girls? Is this year the year you make it to the Games? What motivates you? Figure it out, and then apply it to every set, every cardio session, every WOD you do this day forward. Visualize that one thing that turns you into a machine, and run with it.

Consider yourself free from the burden of anyone’s opinion.

The Red Wedding Factor

All of my Game of Thrones junkies, this is a shout out to you. It’s time to start getting the negative people out of our life. No, no, I’m not talking about reenacting the events of that episode. But we all have people in our space who bring us down. The naysayers who are willing to give us their uninvited thoughts on the matter. They have to walk. I don’t care who they are. Close friends, family members – anyone. They are poison, a super massive black hole, and you no longer have the bandwidth to entertain their banter.

“If you stumble, get back up and right on the ship.”

This is about you and more importantly, about your goals. Take charge of your interactions with negative people. Give them a good shooshing once they begin to spew their “wisdom.” They are either with you, or they have to go. Anyone can stay, but they only get admission to the show if they support what you are doing.

Get Selfish

You have my blessing to become totally selfish in this aspect of your life. We do things for others all day long. I know in my own world, every move I make is for someone else. I have 500 student-athletes. I’m a husband, a father, a doctor, and a friend. Most of my waking hours are dedicated to helping someone else. With that, I allow my own wants and needs to take a back seat, and this includes my own fitness.

But I’ve come to realize when I put my fitness near the top and my body is thriving, all of those aforementioned relationships improve. I want to be a rock star in everything I do, but I can’t kick ass for everyone else if I’m not doing it for myself. So, you and I both have permission to prioritize this part of the coming year.

You can’t kick ass for everyone else if you’re not doing it for yourself.

No One Is Perfect All of the Time

You are going to have hiccups and moments of weakness. You are going to jump into the car, drive to the grocery store, buy a pint of Ben and Jerry’s and a six pack of Coke, and blow your diet from time to time (a likely window into my own struggles). Great! It happens, and you probably deserve it. If you slip, it’s not a deal breaker.

Most people fumble on resolutions because they become dogmatic about their approach. Then if there’s one oops, it becomes an avalanche. If you stumble, get back up and right on the ship. You might need to skip a training session here and there. You might have a shitty lift one day. That does not mean all is lost. This is a marathon, not a sprint.

Mindset is everything when it comes to smashing through your goals. The moment you understand you are limitless and you have everything you need to get to your destination, the goal is yours. Manage your surroundings. Be real with yourself and you will find a level of discipline you have never known.

More Like This:

• The 5 Key Mindset Qualities of Successful Athletes
• Why Do We Train? Finding Purpose in Movement
• Is Your Training Taking You Closer to Your Goals?
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

Photos courtesy of Chris Holder.

The post Set Goals and Go: How to Become Unstoppable appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

However, during this time of excess, it’s easy to get carried away and set larger-than-life goals that fail (at best) or leave you burned out and injured a few months down the line (at worst).

This article takes five typical strength training resolutions and explains why more is not always more. This year, it’s your mission to create resolutions that genuinely stick in the long term.

Typical: I’m going to enter loads of competitions.

I see this all the time. You need something to focus yourself. What better than a competition, right? The chance to test yourself, pit yourself against others, and showcase your strength. It makes a lot of sense. But just like anything, you can have too much of a good thing.

This Year: I’m going to focus on long-term athlete development.

The danger is that competitions take over and your training becomes recovery from one competition immediately followed by preparation for the next one. This is no way to become better at what you do on a long-term basis, and will have more of an effect on your body than you realize.

SICK OF GOAL SETTING? Screw Goals: It’s All About Your System

By all means compete, but allow yourself time in between to let your body recover and to hit a good period of training so you can make a marked improvement when it comes to testing time again. And please stop telling me it’s only six lifts, nine lifts, or a few minutes of work. The ups and downs of competition have a crazy effect on your nervous system. Be mindful of this.

Typical: I’m going to train loads more.

This comes in many shapes and forms, but generally includes a leap from once or twice a week, to four or five times a week. Or sometimes, from zero times a week to training every day.

This Year: I’m going to train once more each week.

There were reasons you didn’t train all those times a week this year. So first, determine what those reasons were (and probably still are) and fix them. Otherwise the reasons will keep stopping you.

“Imagine if you went from training two times a week to three times a week. That’s a 50% increase. Would you take a 50% increase in wages?”

Then take a step forward, but not 27 steps forward. Commit to one extra training session per week. But really commit to it. Imagine if you went from training two times a week to three times a week. That’s a 50% increase. Would you take a 50% increase in wages? Pretty sure the thought of asking for 150% increase (two days a week to five days a week) wouldn’t even enter your head.

RELATED: 4 Keys for Making and Keeping Your New Year’s Resolution

Typical: I’m going to add loads of stuff into my training.

This is an understandable line of thought. And the vast expanse of information on the Internet doesn’t help (aside from this article, of course). Every day, you are bombarded with things you “should” be adding to your training. Sooner or later, you end up with an unmanageable training plan that either leaves you over-trained or missing sessions – or both.

This Year: I’m going to take loads of stuff out of my training.

Here’s a challenge for you: how much stuff can you take out of your training and still get all of the benefits? Think of the 80/20 principle. Which 20% of your training is giving you 80% of the benefits? Obviously this is not an exact science, but you get the idea.

PRACTICE 80/20 WITH FOOD: How to Create Nutritional Plans That Stick

Determine what your base movements are, what exercises keep you ticking over, and which parts of your training have a wide and deep impact on your strength. Keep this stuff in and cut the rest out.

“How much stuff can you take out of your training and still get all of the benefits? Think of the 80/20 principle. Which 20% of your training is giving you 80% of the benefits?”

Then build it up again slowly, adding or changing one thing at a time to see what makes a difference. This way you can build a modular program that is individual to you. This gives you a framework to add in anything new you want to try, and then continue to include it or dismiss it as appropriate. If something works for you, keep it in. If it doesn’t take it out.

Typical: I’m going to do loads more of all the stuff I don’t like.

We all know the drill – you don’t do these particular movements because you’re rubbish at them, and you’re rubbish at them because you don’t like them. So, said movements don’t get practiced.

This Year: I’m going to pick one thing I’m bad at and get better.

Immersing yourself in your weaknesses may seem like a good idea, but diving into a pool of stuff you’re not good at without due thought and structure is a recipe for burnout. And quite possibly boredom, too. I’m a firm believer in enjoying what you do.

WHAT’S YOUR MOTIVATION? The Difference Between Fear and Love in Fitness

But it’s not just about picking one thing instead of picking lots of things. It’s about figuring out how important a weakness actually is, and improving on it in a progressive and structured manner. Because if it’s not important, why spend valuable time and energy on it? Just because you’re bad at it doesn’t necessarily mean you need to work on it.

Typical: I’m going to lift loads of weight.

Ah yes, lifting loads of weight. That’s what we all want to do, right? And surely the best way to go about lifting loads of weight is, well, lifting loads of weight, a lot? Sure, if you want to risk messing yourself up and prevent yourself from getting stronger in a sustainable and scalable manner.

This Year: I’m going to get stronger.

Lifting heavier and getting stronger are not the same thing. Lifting heavier doesn’t necessarily make you stronger. But getting stronger will allow you to lift heavier. Which one do you want now? And you are already far stronger than you realize.

“[A]lmost all of the time, your heavy reps should leave something in the tank rather than pushing to your limit.”

The trick is getting your nervous system to allow you to push heavier and heavier weights. And that comes from learning how to use your body as a whole and convincing your brain what you are lifting is within your body’s capabilities. Which means that almost all of the time, your heavy reps should leave something in the tank rather than pushing to your limit.

MAKE BETTER RESOLUTIONS: Use Your Inner Coach to Set SMART Goals

What Resolution Are You Making?

This time of year is full of abundance and excess, so it’s no wonder these sentiments flow over into our New Year’s resolutions. But this year, think about creating focused, minimalist, measurable resolutions you won’t quit on. Remember – the best resolution is the one you can keep.

Post your resolutions to the comments below.

Photos courtesy of Strength Education.

The post A New Kind of Resolution for 2015 appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

So how are you doing with yours? For the few of us who are on track to meeting our goals, power to you! Great job and keep up the good work. Then there are those of us who somehow forgot about our resolutions between the beginning of January and now. For us, perhaps now is a chance to reconsider and take a slightly different approach to goal setting this time around.

The Problem With “SMART” Goals

I’m all for setting goals, without them we wouldn’t achieve much. Especially SMART ones, that is, goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-Bound – for example, the resolution of losing 5kgs by the first of May. You probably read a lot about SMART goals last month, so I’m not going to get into the specifics (read here if you want more details), but basically this goal is a great goal. So, ready, set, go! Right?

The question is, go do what? The big thing missing in all of this is the action plan of how you’re going to get there. If your current nutrition and exercise are progressing well and you’re on track to achieve your 5kg weight loss by May, fantastic! But if not, which is usually the case for most New Year’s resolutions, (otherwise why are we making them?), then something needs to change. As they say “doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is the definition of madness.” So what are you going to change? Eat a “healthy” breakfast every day? Eat 80/20 paleo? Count calories? Do thirty minutes of cardio five days a week? And what is your crisis plan when you’re at risk of falling off the wagon?

Why You Need to Have a Plan

If you want to achieve the goal, you need a plan. Having a goal without a plan is just a wish, and will probably result in you making the same resolution in eleven months’ time, accompanied with a little bit of regret, guilt, and frustration that you didn’t achieve it last time.

Breaking your goal down into a plan means you break it down into daily chunks. Instead of thinking you’re going to “eat 80/20 paleo for ten weeks,” you’re going to think, “I’m eating 80/20 paleo today.” You can make a plan for each day that involves all the aspects of your goal, be it sleep, nutrition, or exercise. This way you have something you can go to bed each night feeling successful in having achieved. Instead of focusing on the fact you haven’t reached your goal weight yet, you can focus on the fact that you followed your plan today, and are therefore one step closer to your goal. It makes the journey not only a lot less intimidating. Approaching your goal in small bits is also more rewarding because you can pat yourself on the back along the way.

Of course the end goal is the driving inspiration behind the whole plan, but live in the present and celebrate your successes along the way. Each day you execute your plan, you’re one step closer to that end goal. The other great thing about focusing on the plan is that you’re not limiting yourself to your goal. A funny thing happens when I focus on the daily plan rather than the goal and that’s that I find myself making leaps and bounds towards my goal, and getting there much quicker than I’d estimated. So, go ahead and make your SMART goal, but then do some planning – and go get it!

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post Resolution Check-In: How to Get Back on Track appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

But those lists are often missing the most miniscule habits of your life that are actually hindering us from being that better version of our 2012 self. And, you may have even ditched those resolutions already. So here are four habits that you could still change right now – in fact, you’re probably doing three out of four of them as you read this.

Unhealthy Habit #1: Sitting

If you’re one of the lucky ones with a cozy cubicle and a great view, you probably spend most of your time on your caboose. Of course when you think of a new year’s resolution, seldom do you consider “sitting less,” but you should. Making a point to become more mobile and active throughout your day could change the shape of your body. It won’t be drastic and it won’t be buns of steel, but it will certainly provide you some midday circulation that gets lost in that chair.

According to a recently published study, people who spent significant time sitting were at higher risk for diabetes, heart disease, or even death. There are zombies and terrorists taking over the world and now we have to worry about death by sitting.

With evolution came complacency and laziness. Everything is given to us and we hardly have to physically work for anything. While our ancestors battled for a moment’s peace, we barely have time to spare for a thirty minute cardio session. I don’t recommend quitting your job and becoming a park ranger but it would be beneficial to get moving. Any excuse you can find to walk, stand up, stretch, or avoid sitting will serve as a great benefit to you and your rear.

Unhealthy Habit #2: Technology

According to the American Optometric Association, forty percent of U.S. residents spend at least three hours a day on a computer or handheld device. We officially can no longer function without the advancement of technology or more specifically computers and smartphones. With the amount of hours we spend going between reading from our computers and then refocusing on real world dimensions, our eyes are working overtime to keep up with our habits.

Because of this constant refocusing and strain, Americans are visiting their optometrists complaining of blurred vision, fatigue, and neck strain. No, these aren’t signs of a hangover that ninety percent of people are found to experience. According to an article published in the Wall Street Journal, it’s a syndrome known as computer vision syndrome, or CVS. Add that to ass flattening syndrome as referenced above and you’ve got quite the problem. In other words, if the world reverted to fighting for shelter, safety, and food, you’d be chum and you probably wouldn’t see it coming.

Like sitting, it’s not realistic to say you’re giving up technology. We live in a society where it’s no longer an option to live naturally and survive. What you can do is put the device down. I’ll admit I’m the first to reach for my Samsung Galaxy during a Real Housewives reunion and tweet my judging opinions of them. Eventually, though, there must be a time of day when you are disconnected from being overly connected. If you know the due date of Kim K’s baby, you need to E-tox.

Silencing your phone an hour before bed and grabbing a book will give your eyes a break from a screen and give your brain a chance to wind down. Instead of killing time on your phone, take it old school and remember what you did when you didn’t have an app for that. You waited. You people-watched. You cleaned your purse. You sat and enjoyed the silence. We may not be able to revert to our prehistoric habits but we can certainly take a break from our futuristic ones.

Unhealthy Habit #3: Touching

Our anatomy gave us these two wonderful things that aid us from the moment we wipe the sleep from our eyes to the moment we readjust our pillows at night: our hands. Animals have features like feelers or even their mouths that allow them to investigate what the hell they have discovered. I’m pretty excited we don’t have to taste everything we see, but we do use our hands much in the same way. With that we touch our food, our cell phones, our computers, our friends, our animals, and ourselves. Not like that.

I’m no germaphobe but I am aware of the germs around me and how little we pay attention to spreading them. Think about something as simple as your debit card. When is the last time you took a Lysol wipe and cleansed that thing? Exactly. Who the hell has time to clean their germ-laden debit card in times of economic downturn and red carpet season? It’s the little things we touch and share that are overlooked in the cleansing process.

It’s not necessarily you that’s the cesspit of disease – it’s everything and everyone else around you. During your day your body becomes a carrier for all the germs around you. Over time you build immunity to some that have little effect on your immune system, while others hit you like the bubonic plague. Unless you experience a horrific accident and lose the use of both of your hands, they’re not going anywhere. With that, take care of them and make sure you think twice before you touch an object of unknown origins.

Unhealthy Habit #4: Unorganized Meals

We can thank Edward Bernays for the invention of a full, protein-packed breakfast. The public relations genius helped change the way Americans consumed their first meal of the day from a piece of bread to eggs, bacon, and a cup of Joe. Somewhere throughout the years, we turned breakfast into a sugary meal to sometimes non-existent. In that same time, dinner remained the focal meal of the day, but the unhealthier we made our meals, the bigger and greasier dinner became.

Experts argue that to lead a healthy diet, you should eat six meals a day. Three of those meals should be larger and two of them should be smaller or more of a snack. This concept is to help your metabolism boost itself in anticipation it will be getting more fuel very soon. The problem is a lot of people still skip breakfast, they binge at lunch, and binge again for dinner. With this type of diet, many people are only eating two, oversized meals in a twenty-four hour time span. What’s worse is that the two meals they are eating are very seldom nutrient packed and what your body is looking for in terms of fuel.

Whenever someone interested in changing their diet asks me how often I eat, they look at me like I’m sabotaging their attempt at weight loss. After the awkward stare they tend to comment, “I’m not hungry in the morning or even for any extra snacks.” The body is a magical thing that tends to adjust itself to what it’s used to. If your body hasn’t had a meal since 8:00pm yesterday and knows it won’t get another until 12:00pm today, it’s probably not going to waste its time sending you hunger pangs. Without a breakfast, it doesn’t even have the energy to send you those messages.

Teaching yourself how to eat or even how to be hungry for those meals won’t take long. The Internet is your friend and offers a bounty of websites that answer every question you could have about your diet. Just like you trained your body to wake up for work at 7:00am, you can train your body to be ready for a banana at 11:00am.

For some it’s a scary thing but you are in total control of your body. If you don’t know how to make the right decisions, you could be steering it down a path of destruction and diabetes. Instead of those giant resolutions and goals that seem impossible, and that maybe you’ve already given up on, start with adjusting a few small ones and get some momentum going. Putting down the cell phone, getting up from your desk and making smarter food choices just might be the little kick start you need in your 2013 health and fitness goals.

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post 4 Simple Fitness Resolutions You Overlooked appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

For better or worse here is what I would like our Iron Family resolve to do in 2013:

Elite Lifters– To start their new cycles this post-Olympic year when there are the least number of other big meets to peak for. Work on technique that had to be neglected in the rush to qualify last year. Try a new routine. You have some time.

Lesser Lifters– To move up the ranks or strength classes or however your country classifies lifters by skill. Also to try to find their ideal bodyweight categories in order the get the best return on investment.

Those Who Don’t Even Know They Are Lifters Yet– To learn more about the fast lifts and what they can do for you in regard to strength, power, and coordination for your sport. Go to the seminars, coaching clinics, or just visit a gym and ask a few questions.

Retired Lifters– To realize weightlifting doesn’t end at 25, 30, or 40. Dig out that old belt and your boots and join the Masters movement. Compare an old lifter to an old couch potato. Who still looks ten or fifteen years younger? Who still feels it? Resolve to get involved in the activity that once meant so much to you, that once was your whole existence. Give back a little. Start coaching and/or officiating. Go back to your old club and volunteer with coaching, running meets, raising funds. They would love to see you back.

Masters Lifters– To also realize that Masters lifting, as fun as it is, is not the whole thing. Get out and help the younger lifters. Remember how much you would have wanted an old pro to take an interest in you. Go visit you old coach or mentor in his retirement and talk about what he meant to you.

Women– To forget about “toning up” and start thinking about getting in real shape. That shape can include some muscle too, you know. Forget those old myths about women and lifting. They are not so much myths anymore. They are now just lame excuses.

Juniors– You can hang out in malls all your life. Resolve to get in shape and hit a gym. That will take some time out of your day, but be more concerned about what it will put into your life.

National Presidents– To see the broader picture, not just your own backyard. Also to work with the universities in establishing national student championships if they don’t exist already.

Boards of Directors– To realize the function of boards is to formulate broad policy, not to act as coaching committees. They also should strive to get a broader focus.

Olympic Lifting Coaches– To realize they now have competition and must work to maintain their quick lift expertise. If not, research-oriented CrossFitters and academic and professional sport trainers and researchers will eat their lunch in time.

University Athletic Directors– To finally recognize Olympic weightlifting as a sport, not just a training method (fine as that is). The World University Games now has weightlifting as one of its sports. That means that every school should have a quality lifting facility and quality athletes so that they may send someone to the Games. Those medals can go to your country and school if you want.

Alumnae– That gives me an idea. Alumnae should resolve to donate equipment and even coaching expertise to help this along. It’s only more glory for Alma Mater.

Bodybuilders– To get back to the original idea of health, through training, diet, and a healthy lifestyle.

Powerlifting Federations– To get back to weight training basics, to burn the shirts and suits and to merge.

Fitness Center Members– To complete workouts by returning weights to racks and other gym etiquette. Is anything more irritating than these Kings (and Queens) of Sheba who think that is re-racking is someone else’s job?

Football Players– To realize bodybuilding exercises for the upper body are not football exercises. They call it football for a reason. Get those legs up to par. Its going to hurt a bit, but you guys are used to that, right?

All Coaches, Athletes and Officials, Whether Olympic, Power, Strongman, CrossFit, Rehab or Sport Training– Forget your differences and concentrate on what we have in common. Cooperate in research, help stamp out old myths and prejudices, help weight training and weightlifting get ever more accepted as a legitimate field of study in the universities.

Everyone– To quit making excuses and get to the gym. And I don’t care what kind of gym as long as we are all healthy and strong in 2013. Heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, and all degenerative diseases just hate it when a body is exercising. They panic and want to vacate. Let’s all resolve to make their day as miserable as possible. Every rep, every lap, and every minute in a gym will be one nail in their coffins.

Make this year your Lucky Year, 2013 or no!

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I love New Year’s. It’s the perfect time to reflect on all the wonderful blessings I’ve had over the past twelve months. It’s also a great time to regroup and think about what I’d like to learn, see or do in the next year.

I know some people scoff at resolutions, but I think it’s a powerful idea to declare what you want even if you’re not perfect at the execution. No one is perfect. Hell, even GREAT people don’t succeed 50% of the time. Think of some of the best baseball players of all time. What is their average? Like they hit the ball 3 or 4 times out of ten to make it into the hall of fame? So, I think it’s important to let go of the idea of “I’ve got to be perfect or I’m a failure” – especially when it comes to health and fitness.

This is the first year I haven’t had a strength, endurance, or body fat percentage goal in mind. This year, I’m all about having a healthy baby and making sure my labor is as easy as possible. (And I’d like to minimize stretch marks, is that too vain?)

However, most people I know would like to whittle down their body fat so I’ve put together a basic list of what needs to be in the house on New Year’s Eve so people can hit the ground running (literally) on New Year’s Day.

1. Exercise Shoes. I love the look and smell of new workout shoes. For me, Saucony or Brooks fit my foot well and I can find them on sale at places like Big 5. No need to spend $100 on shoes. I find plenty around the $39.99 mark or lower. If you’re not running a marathon in the next three or four months, then just grab a good fitting lace-up shoe with arch support if you need it. (And please don’t do those unstable walking “rocker” shoes that are supposed to help tone your butt muscles or whatever they claim. I’ve seen lots of injuries from those and no proof they are the least bit effective.) Just make sure you have decent workout shoes.
2. Water Bottle. Please move away from plastics as much as possible (unless you want man-boobs or other hormone-related problems) and instead grab either a stainless steel bottle or a glass bottle surrounded in bamboo. A good workout bottle really helps you with your water intake and you know you should be drinking more water. My favorite is Under Armour’s 24-oz Vacuum-Insulated Stainless Steel Sports Bottle. I can clean it easily, the beverage stays super cold for twelve hours and the mouth is small enough to drink water without it sloshing over my face. It’s pricey at $29.99, but it’s my favorite.
3. Vegetables. Yes, I know it’s generic, but fresh or frozen veggies are key to flattening out the belly. They say that abs are made in the kitchen and it’s completely true. Pick one of these veggies to eat at every meal: spinach, broccoli, carrots, celery, Brussels sprouts, bell pepper, cauliflower, cucumber. Anything you can put on a sandwich you can put on a salad instead. Spinach and broccoli can be put in eggs in the morning. You can eat celery and carrots with hummus for a snack. Bell peppers are delicious and have more vitamin C than an orange. Eat them raw or sauté them with a lean protein for dinner.
4. Lean Proteins. This is when a Costco membership is effective. I can get a huge bag of frozen organic chicken breasts for $18. They also have 5-pound bags of powdered protein available, grab-and-go protein shakes, lean buffalo meat, fresh seafood, frozen white fish, canned white tuna, and mounds of legumes for vegetarians. Make sure you’ve got some in the house before January 1st. Eating protein first when you’re hungry will help you lose body fat and keep you from craving the crap.
5. Green Powder. I’ve talked about the wonders of green powders before (which typically includes wheat grass, seaweed, algae and probiotics) and I swear it’s making my pregnancy much easier, too. ALL my clients take a green powder and see a difference in their weight loss efforts, energy levels, and boosts in their immune systems. I think it’s a cheap and easy way to avoid the flu everyone else is going to get. Just drink it down in the morning with your breakfast and you’ll avoid nutrient-based cravings later in the day and you’ll feel energized without coffee.
6. Workout Clothes. Do you need new exercise clothes? Of course not. But it’s fun to reward yourself with a new outfit and take advantage of some of the latest advances in gear like compression clothing. (Butt-lifting capri pants, anyone?) My favorites right now are Champion’s Women’s Shape Knee Tight. I got them off Amazon for $42 and they are amazing!
7. Exercise Classes, Gym Memberships, Workout Buddies, or a Personal Trainer. Just pick something and make a plan. It might just be to meet your friend for a power walk before work, or make a weight loss bet with a coworker and meet at lunch time for a quick workout after supporting each other with a healthy lunch choice. Maybe you want to take the plunge and get a personal trainer? The American Council on Exercise website can help you find a certified coach near you. Groupon and LivingSocial have discounted fitness classes all the time so you can try something new without a big financial commitment.

Even if you haven’t picked up a weight or taken a power walk in the last year, this list can help you start off the New Year with a bang. A little prep work and a little planning are key to making those weight-loss goals a reality.

Happy New Year!

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But even if you do maintain the path of the righteous during holiday season, the first of the year is a good time to be proactive, to develop New Year’s resolutions that help you either reboot or build on the good work you’ve accomplished so far. Perhaps your goal is a double bodyweight deadlift or to eliminate caffeine from your diet. The possibilities are endless, and different people have different suggestions for how to accomplish such goals effectively. Read on for the four guidelines that have worked for me:

#1. Set intentions in a meaningful way.

I recently wrote about how powerful the effective use of intention has been in my own life. Even saying, “I intend to achieve my goal” is more purposeful and demonstrates a clearer assumption that success is a given than saying, “I want to achieve my goal.” To support my intentions, I devise a game plan. I’ll figure out the steps I need to take (frequently with the help of a coach) to achieve the goal and when I need to take them. I record these steps in a calendar, keeping in mind they can be modified over time as necessary.

#2. Prepare for unexpected reactions from family and friends.

I’ve also written about how sometimes our family and friends can respond in surprising ways when we share with them our goals for self-improvement. This is rarely malicious, but rather driven by anxiety about the unknown. After all, if you are making changes in your life, they might affect your loved ones. Or your loved ones might perceive you to be sitting in judgment on them for their choices, when that might be the farthest thing from your mind. In this article, I give several suggestions for enlisting the support of your inner circle. The key is to be prepared that this is a possibility so you can proceed accordingly.

#3. Make yourself accountable.

I teach an undergraduate capstone course on health and fitness. In the course, each student identifies a fitness issue (sleep, weight loss, quitting smoking) s/he wants to work on and develops a plan of action to follow throughout the term. During the last session, a large number of students commented that they had tried to lose weight/quit smoking/get more sleep in the past, but had been unsuccessful. What contributed to their success this time around was the accountability they felt to the learning community of our class and the documentation (baseline measures, journal entries, and the like) they were required to complete along the way. Finding a support system and keeping your own documentation will help you create your own sense of accountability. It will also give you warm fuzzies and help you track your progress, both of which can be incredibly motivating.

#4. Love yourself unconditionally.

Ideally, this one would go without saying, but it seems to be the one many of us have the most difficulty with, present company included. The fact is, however, all of us are imperfect. All of us will falter. And when we do, we have choices: We can beat ourselves up or we can chalk it up to experience and resolve to do better. I trust it’s obvious which one I hope you choose. I promise to do it if you do.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year: the time when we take stock of where we are and where we’d like to be. What would you like to work on in the new year? And how do you plan to get there? Post ideas and suggestions to comments.

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The post 4 Keys for Making and Keeping Your New Year’s Resolution appeared first on Breaking Muscle.