Once again it is the time of year when so many of us wake up with grand notions of self-improvement, resolute that this will be the year we stick with it and become leaner, fitter and healthier, only to find ourselves exactly where we started within weeks.

So, let’s talk about why this happens and, more importantly, how to make this year be the time you succeed!

1. Start Small and simple.

A large part of why people fail in their goals is they take on too much at once and get overwhelmed. If you don’t currently have any kind of exercise or diet routine, then signing up to a gym, several workout classes, a p45 plan and a fad diet may feel like the way to get results. But realistically, walking more and eating slightly less and keeping track of both will have far greater success. That is where you should start.

2. Short term goals and long-term habits.

Another problem with new year’s resolutions is they are all about a quick fix mindset when there are no quick fix solutions.

Rome wasn’t built in a day!

To become and remain healthier is about building sustainable long-term habits. By gradually changing your relationship with food and exercise it will become part of your day-to-day life, as opposed to something on the side of it.

The key to building habits is by working on smaller, short-term goals. Again, if you don’t have any kind of health routine start by challenging yourself to reach a set number of steps and eating a piece of fruit every day for 2 weeks. Give yourself a target of how much water you drink a day. These are the foundations of everyday fitness through to professional athleticism. Increase the challenges as you complete them. You won’t feel like you are making progress in the short term, but this time next year you will be amazed.

3. Keep Track and stay on target.

A vital part of the fitness journey is recording what you have done. Keep a journal or use an app to monitor your progress. Recording your calorie intake, on a daily basis, will give you insight into how to improve your diet. Nutrition can be a complicated topic but the simplest rule to follow is calories in vs calories out. How many steps you have walked, how much weight you lifted; these are all things that you need to check to appreciate your progress.

4. Keep it real and relatable.

It is important to be realistic about your fitness journey. I re-iterate that there are no short term fixes or solutions. Your goals need to be relevant to you, as does where you find your information when learning how to achieve them. It is all to easy to head onto social media and be given 500 solutions to problems you never knew you had or flooded with misinformation that promises you quick fixes from people that have trained for years to look the way they do. I hate to break it to you, but the only way you will have a ‘summer body’ is if your winter one was already in good shape. Don’t buy into the lies!

Look for trainers online that relate to you in some way. Age is a good start. If you are 35+ then a trainer in their early 20’s can tell you how to exercise but isn’t going to understand how many unexplained sources of pain you have, or how your time management impacts your fitness.

If you have a severe weight issue, then someone like myself can tell you how to work on it, but I will never truly understand how it feels to just move around with that weight, which affects your ability to exercise, so a trainer with their own weight loss experience would be better suited.

5. Be kind but accountable.

This is where people will often struggle. First of all, breaking bad habits and taking life changing action is hard. You probably won’t be 100 percent successful right away, but that’s okay. Too often when people first slip up they will just call that failure and give up entirely. You are allowed to make mistakes, so long as you learn from them. Which swiftly brings me to the next point; accountability.

Now, this is going to be the least popular point I make. The only person responsible for your health and fitness is you. You have to own it, good and bad. Making mistakes is fine so long as you are honest about them. The more you are honest with yourself the more it will facilitate growth. Did you skip meeting your steps because you couldn’t make the time or you just wanted to watch some tv instead? There is nothing wrong with the latter if you don’t claim it was the former. But equally, don’t expect the results if your don’t put in the work.

Now, this isn’t to say no-one can help you. In fact, you are more likely to succeed if someone is there to ask some uncomfortable questions.

To summarise, the best thing you can do to start working on your fitness is find something simple and sustainable that you enjoy. And that is a huge part of it! If you do not enjoy what you are doing there is no way you will continue to do it. The ‘no pain, no gain’ philosophy is nonsense. A little discomfort is good for growth. Stay motivated, not miserable to achieve it! Make a healthy hobby into a habit.

I hope everyone has a fantastic, fit and healthy 2024!!