Why New Years Fitness Resolutions Fail

The New Year is this weekend, and as always, you have to make a resolution to stick to your goals for the future; this year, it’s the resolution of exercising regularly and eating a healthy diet.

The Natural response to making a healthy dietary and exercise change is to feel some drop in energy. We use up the energy and feel lethargic.

We often use the euphoria of New Year’s resolutions to justify the failure of our efforts.

I’ll use myself as an example to illustrate. I struck my first ‘Balance’ one New Year’s Day a few weeks ago. I started with a push upset, on my knees and I reached to grab the bar, I couldn’t quite get hold of the bar as I believed certain equipment was required!

So I resolved to not let that happen again; I was determined to make sure that New Years’ Resolution ‘ collapses’ like this or that.

After two weeks, I developed a resistance to the exercises, and two weeks later, I added a second resistance band to my routine.

At the start of April, I was making good progress, happy with the increase in strength, and was feeling the positive effects of a beginning of a fitness lifestyle.

I had jogged for 5 miles that week and started doing some leg lifts to develop ‘core’ strength. I progressed each week slowly, adding a few more exercises to my routine.

I was getting so much stronger at the point I thought ‘enough is enough; I decided to place more and more weight on the bar at my disposal.

With all the physical work coming in, I didn’t need to push myself to the max on the bench press, and despite the fact that I was struggling somewhat with consistency and my motivation was starting to fade, I decided it was time to make a change.

I had been burning calories literally non-stop for years. There was no way for me to step foot in the gym and reach failure. I was determined to make this last year for me.

I had been sitting on the couch, watching TV, loading rack the mound; whenever I sat down for the ‘craze’ or the ‘hurry up and die’, I lost 5 pounds. This was my signature look: big stomach, bad posture, and muscle cut.

Those were winning looks; dispose of them.

I was tired of those old thoughts:

“Why can’t I get drastic results?”; “I did terrible this year!”; “ema, I look fat!”; “I’m such anaerobic necrosis!”; “that last body fat test you came out with, it’s so stupid!”

suffice it to say, while on some subconscious level, I was stating the obvious; those thoughts had to be Surveilled and practiced because they eventually ended up where they belong: on the floor

I was about to stop working out and was tired of having to think about it every day. So I took a shower and stripped down to get my mindset that I was never coming to the gym ever again. I decided to finally give in and reached for the deodorant I had stored away on my desk.

I was tired of all the other silly setbacks I’d conveniently forgotten about. I was tired of training for 10-15 minutes because the trainer was standing there saying things that made absolutely no sense at all to me. I was tired of wasting my money on the latest machine that was supposed to make me ‘special’. I was tired of not knowing where to find the weight I needed and always putting water in my veins to flush them!

I was married to a cheating husband- I was dying inside and wanted a change. I wanted a new life. So I headed to my first morning of ‘I can’t wait to get back to my old life’ workout with a wife and mother in tow.

What I witnessed that morning changed my life forever. I learned the most valuable lesson: you can either surrender or live your absolute best.

I stripped my personal name in the gym that morning. I was tired of people treating me like a ‘wheelchair,’ judging me, and always giving me advice. I was tired of all the lies I was being told. I was tired of people asking me what I did outside of work. I was tired of being asked for money many times at work. I was tired when people looked at me like I was weird. I was tired of sweating and not wanting to leave the gym.

I decided to sweat in peace and bring the sense of Danger and Danger back into my life. I vowed to shed the fear of ailment; of giving up the sense of independence that I enjoyed (and had to go to work to earn); of embarrassment; of giving up the hopes of my family; and I was tired of not knowing what the next day would bring.