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How to Avoid Failing at Your New Year’s Resolution

It’s the New Year, and you’re super excited about all the resolutions and goals you just set.

This is the year you’re finally going to lose those 20 extra pounds.

You’re sure of it!

But then a few weeks go by and you let momentum slip. Your diet was going so well, but then life happened, and you found it too difficult to sustain.

Back to square one.

If this sounds like you, you’re like 80 percent of the population that sets New Year’s Resolutions.

That’s right – 80 percent of New Year’s Resolutions fail by the second week in February, according to U.S. News & World Report.

Why’s that?

While many reasons exist – it comes down to the fact most people take actions that aren’t sustainable over a long period of time.

I just finished reading Atomic Habits, by James Clear. It’s the best book I’ve ever read on building good habits that stick and eliminating bad ones.

In it, the author shares a number of strategies on building sustainable habits to help you achieve your goals.

In the book, Clear says to build a good habit, you need follow the four “laws” of behavior change:

1. Make It Obvious

2. Make It Attractive

3. Make It Easy

4. Make It Satisfying

On the contrary, if you want to break a bad habit, you need to do the opposite:

1. Make It Invisible

2. Make It Unattractive

3. Make It Difficult

4. Make It Unsatisfying

Now, I want to talk about a couple of simple habits you can implement right now in your life so you can achieve your New Year’s Resolution of reaching your fitness goals once and for all!

Habit stacking is a smart way to “make it obvious.”

Have you ever told yourself you want to do something like meal prep or drink more water, but you never seem to do it?

That’s because you haven’t built it into your routine.

A good way to build a habit into your routine is to place a new habit you’re working on building right after another habit you do without thinking.

For example, if you want to drink more water, you can add it on top of another habit you have already.

“After standing up at my desk, I will take three gulps of water.”

Always make sure the habit is very clear. Don’t just say “Every time I go to the bathroom, I’ll drink some water.”

It’s too ambiguous. When do you drink the water? After you flush the toilet? As you’re walking toward the bathroom? When you get back to your desk? And how much water are you drinking? One sip? An entire bottle?

The more specific you are, the easier it will be to implement.

When you say you’re taking three gulps of water immediately after standing up at your desk, you’ve given yourself a very specific scenario, and you’re significantly more likely to follow through with your habit.

“After (CURRENT HABIT), I will (NEW HABIT).”

Instead of saying something like “I’m trying to eat healthy,” re-frame it and say “I’m the type of person who eats healthy.”

If you continue saying you’re “trying” to do something, you’re still identifying as a person who isn’t healthy. Otherwise, you wouldn’t say you’re “trying” to become one.

Most people focus their habits on what they want to achieve instead of who they want to become.

If your goal is to run a marathon, instead of saying “I’m trying to train for a marathon,” say “I’m a runner.”

Only when you change your beliefs about your identity are you truly going to make a lasting change. And it’s a process that’s not going to happen over night. You’re probably not going to take one action and automatically develop a new identity.

On the contrary, you’re very likely not going to take one action and lose your identity.

According to Clear, changing your identity is a two-step process:

1. Decide the type of person you want to be

2. Prove it to yourself with small wins

You can change the way you think about yourself. Focus on who you want to become.

If you want to eat healthy, decide you’re someone who eats healthy and prove it to yourself with the actions you take every day.

Eat a salad for lunch every day. Instead of stopping at a restaurant or fast-food joint for dinner, cook a healthy, nutrient-rich meal for yourself at home.

Sure, you may mess up along the way, but as long as the majority of your actions are votes for your new identity, you’ll eventually believe you are that type of person.

3. Prime your environment

Setting up your environment for optimal success is one way to “Make It Easy.”

If you want to weigh your food before each meal, but your food scale is behind several things in your kitchen, you’re probably not going to weigh your food very often because it takes effort to get it.

However, if you clean your kitchen and place your food scale on a clean space on the counter, you’re far more likely to use it.

It’s human nature to choose the “easy” route, and when it’s difficult for us to do something, we’re far less likely to do it.

If you want to eat healthier, prep your meals in advance so they’re ready to go during the week.

If you want to have a good breakfast, leave everything you need out in place sight the night before so you have no reason not to do it the next day.

If you want to break a bad habit, make it difficult to do.

If you don’t want to snack on sweets, throw all your sweets away or get them out of your house. If a bowl of cookies is in your kitchen, it will probably get eaten.

Don’t try to tap into your “willpower” to avoid the cookies. Willpower has a limit. The people who have the most willpower use it the least.

Avoid the temptations in the first place by removing them from your environment.

The Ownership Mentality: The Missing Link to Your Success

I was a victim.

I had everything going against me.

Or at least so I thought.

In high and school college, I wanted nothing more than to get bigger and stronger. I wanted to put on slabs of muscle and get “jacked.”

But it seemed like no matter what program I tried, I couldn’t put on muscle. So I blamed my “skinny” genetics.

A couple of years ago, I decided to start a fitness business. Even though I felt I was doing all the right things, I seemed to never have success or get any clients.

Was it because I had another job and couldn’t devote the time? Was it because I also had a lot going on outside my career? Maybe it was because I took a lot of time each week to train and prep my meals.

When I was in my early 20s, I had never had a girlfriend and had never even been on a date.

I thought it was because I was introverted, and I also told myself the story it wasn’t a good time to date because I was focused on my career.

In all three areas of my life (fitness, career and relationships), I failed to have success.

Lo and behold, in all three areas of my life I had a “victim” mindset.

In other words, I thought it wasn’t my fault for why I didn’t have the results I wanted.

I was a victim of circumstances.

But then a major shift happened for me – I accepted responsibility for my results.

Both good and bad.

And wouldn’t you know it, I began seeing results in each area of my life.

It’s called the “Ownership” mentality.

You can employ any strategy you want in an attempt to build your body, but until you accept 100 percent responsibility for your results, you’ll never see the results you truly want.

So what’s the “Ownership” mentality?

You accept you’re the cause of everything that’s happened to you (under which you can physically control) in your life both good and bad.

If you’re not losing weight, it’s not because your job is busy.

If you’re not getting to the gym consistently, it’s not because it’s the holidays.

The reason you didn’t lose weight or get to the gym consistently is because YOU didn’t prioritize.

When you accept you’re the cause of everything, you then realize the control you have to make a change in any area of your life.

And you open up a whole new world of possibility.

The reason you haven’t dropped belly fat IS because of you. But that’s great because you can make a decision right now to change that when you adopt an “Ownership” mentality.

You can choose whether you log your food today. You can choose whether you hit your macronutrients. You can choose whether you do your workout. You can choose whether you give 100 percent in your workout. 

When you realize the type of control you have over your life, you become an unstoppable force that can’t be de-railed.

So choose to become the type of person who operates from an “Ownership” mentality.

And when you do, you’ll begin seeing better results in not only your body and health, but also your relationships, career, finances and everything in between.

You can bet on it.

3 Traits of My Most Successful Clients

In more than six years as a strength and nutrition coach, I’ve worked with thousands (not exaggerating) of kids, competitive athletes and everyday folks

The other day, I did some thinking about what the most successful people with whom I’ve worked have in common.

If you’re reading this, you’re probably interested in finding out what others are doing to have success with their fitness and nutrition.

Now, you’ll find thousands of ideas and strategies out there. Some work. Some don’t. Some work for some individuals, but not for others.

Still, you’ll find commonalities among those who hit their goal weight, perform well in athletic competitions and always seem to be making good progress in whatever it is they do.

So what have my clients who are most successful done to become so successful? Check it out below.

This is by far the most common trait. They don’t blame other people or the fact they were “busy” for why they didn’t do something.

It doesn’t matter if they work more than 40 or 50 hours per day. It doesn’t matter if they have kids. It doesn’t matter if they had a tough day.

Sure, they’ll have their setbacks, but they always find a way to get the work done.

I recently listened to a podcast interviewing a 22-year-old motivational speaker who wrestled in high school and has competed in a bodybuilding show despite having one arm and no legs. He makes no excuses.

My most successful clients take personal responsibility for everything and understand they can control their results.

They prioritize what’s important and eliminate/minimize what’s not.

I do client check-ins on Fridays, and I noticed recently the people who check in the earliest and at consistent times tend to also be the most successful.

They don’t do things consistently for a week. They don’t do things consistently for a month. They do things consistently for months and even years.

If they have a bad day or week, they forget about it and move on. They’re creatures of habit and do things even when they don’t feel like doing them because they know what they’re doing serves a higher purpose.

How you do anything is how you do everything.

I recently heard two highly successful business owners admit when they interview a candidate for a job, they have someone from the company go out and look in that individual’s car.

If that person has trash all over the inside of the car, they know that person won’t be a good candidate for the job. Chances are if someone is disorganized in one area, he/she is probably disorganized in another area of life.

My most successful clients plan and prepare every day and every week. They don’t “hope” for a better week. They intentionally create success for themselves every week.

They “make” time for things like meal prep, grocery shopping and their workouts instead of “finding” time.

They understand whenever they say “Yes” to one thing, they’re always saying “No” to something else.

If they say “Yes” too many times to playing in sports leagues, drinks with friends and scrolling Facebook, they’re not giving themselves the time they need for things that matter for their goals.

Diets Suck – Here’s What to Do Instead

Do you feel like diets keep failing you over and over again?

Do you hate even the thought of the word “diet?”

Have you tried following macro plans, following meal plans, cutting out certain food groups and everything in between?

You’re not alone. I’ve been there.

I used to jump from diet plan to diet plan and workout to workout thinking the next one would help me.

I was wrong.

They all got me the same results – almost nothing.

I read blogs, I bought e-books and followed the advice of bodybuilders, coaches and transformation specialists.

Still, I got nothing.

It wasn’t until I implemented the following principles that things actually started to change.

And if you implement them, you can see change as well.

The No. 1 principle has nothing to do with food.

You are the product of the people and places with whom and where you spend the most time.

Are you hanging around people who are motivated with their health and fitness?

Think about the people with whom you’ve spent time the past two weeks. It could be friends, family or co-workers.

Are these people bringing you closer to your goals?

Be brutally honest with yourself. Don’t just say “Oh, my environment is fine and my family and friends are great.” If you’re not getting results with your nutrition, your environment isn’t perfect. Something needs to be improved.

I’m still working on improving my environment every day.

Environment extends to what you feed your brain.

Are you watching negative news or are you reading posts/blogs about people who are lazy and not successful?

Are you reading posts from people who are talking about how they’re broke, overweight, hate their jobs or are out drinking every Friday and Saturday evening?

Wait, what does this have to do with nutrition?!?

The people you spend time with, the content you consume and the places you hang out affect how you think.

How you think affects how you execute a plan.

If your environment includes lots of unmotivated individuals, you’re not going to feel like scheduling time for meal prep and grocery shopping and aren’t going to have the willpower to say “No” to peer pressure involving eating or drinking things that aren’t serving you.

Environment is everything.

Change your environment. Change your nutrition. Get the results you want. Change your life.

ACTION STEP – Write down the five people you spend the most time with and the five social media accounts/blogs you spend the most time following. Are these people or things serving your goals?

I used to wonder why the various diet plans I followed didn’t work.

I felt like I had a lot of stuff going on and couldn’t seem to fit in everything I needed to do like prepping the meals ahead of time, grocery shopping and planning my meals.

Then, I realized I was spending tons of time doing things that weren’t serving me.

I was spending far too much time cleaning my kitchen, watching sports, watching TV, scrolling the internet and everything in between.

How are you spending your time during the day?

What are you doing right now that isn’t moving you forward with your health and fitness?

Are you spending too much time cleaning, watching TV or Netflix, scrolling social media, planning and preparing instead of taking action or playing fantasy sports leagues?

Now, it’s not to say you can’t do any of these things, but if you’re doing too many of them, you’re not devoting enough time to your health.

Remember, every time you say “Yes” to one thing, you’re saying “No” to something else.

What are your biggest priorities in your life? If your own health is one of them, you need to remove things in your life that aren’t serving that goal.

I’ve gone as far as to doing the dishes every 2-3 days because I used to spend far too much time cleaning and tidying the kitchen. Sure, the kitchen gets a bit messy at times, but I’m saving myself so much more time I can dedicate to other things.

ACTION STEP – Track everything you do in a day on a piece of paper for the next 3 days. While a week is preferable – 3 days is an easier way to start. Now, you’ll know everything you do in a day. And be completely honest with yourself. If you spend 15 minutes scrolling Facebook without even realizing it, write it down. Then, evaluate everything you’ve done at the end of the 3 days and determine what you can eliminate/minimize.

I know what you’re thinking – when are you going to tell me what to actually eat?!?

Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.

What works for one person doesn’t always work for another person.

Two people can follow the exact same dietary protocol or workout program, and they can get completely different results.

I can also give you a formula to calculate your calories and macros (protein, carbs and fats) for your specific age, gender, height and weight. And it will probably only be accurate for 50% of the people who run the calculation.

Trust me, I followed various formulas that got me virtually nowhere.

That’s because formulas don’t take into account lifestyle factors like metabolic adaptation, stress levels, energy levels and a host of other things.

You’re a human being. And human beings aren’t robots.

We have emotions around food. We have other things going on in our lives not related to health and fitness.

We need something that works for us as individuals.

(As an aside, that’s one of the major reasons I’m so passionate about my LIFESTYLE COACHING PROGRAM because we cover all those things.)

Besides, it’s about the execution of the program and having the mindset you’ll do whatever it takes to succeed.

And it’s about doing it for a long period of time.

That’s why you need to pick an approach that’s sustainable for you and your lifestyle.

ACTION STEP – Take one action step today. Start tracking your food in MyFitnessPal. Aim for 40 grams of protein per meal over three meals in a day. Don’t wait. Start right away. Imperfect action is better than no action at all.

3 Tips to Dominate Your New Year’s Resolutions

The end of the year is closing in, and it’s time to evaluate whether you accomplished your goals this past year.

It’s also time to figure out your goals for next year.

Now, you don’t need to see the statistics. You already know people who set “New Year’s Resolutions” are the butt of jokes in January.

Everyone is gung-ho about losing weight or getting in a new workout routine at the beginning of the year, but then the majority of people fall off before achieving their goal.

So how do you avoid becoming one of the many who fail?

This point can’t be emphasized enough.

If you have a “start” date, there’s inevitably going to be an “end” date.

If you want to achieve something, why are you waiting until a date in the future to start? Take a small action right now.

Transforming your body isn’t an all-or-nothing thing.

You don’t need to go “on a diet,” join a gym, start working six days per week and cut out processed foods all at once.

In fact, that’s likely setting you up for failure.

Start doing something right now.

You can start by eating only until satisfied or eating slowly and setting your utensils down between bites.

You can start by getting up 15-30 minutes earlier every morning to exercise.

Choose something simple that you can do right now.

If you wait until the New Year to start, you’re going to be even farther behind where you are now.

That’s going to make things even harder for you.

So make it easy on yourself and take a small action step toward changing your body right now.

Setting big goals at the beginning of the year can oftentimes scare and overwhelm us.

That’s why we need to re-evaluate our current goals and set new goals every quarter.

If you want to lose 60 pounds next year, break it down into smaller chunks. Aim to lose 15 pounds each quarter.

So your first quarter (January through March) goal can be to lose 15 pounds. Then, once you achieve that goal, aim to lose another 15 pounds in the second quarter (April through June) of the year.

It’s much easier for most people to focus on short-term goals than it is to focus on long-term goals.

Long-term goals are important, but many of us tend to set only long-term goals when we make our resolutions.

Break it down, and keep it simple.

Setting a goal to “get fit,” “lose weight” or “get into shape” is setting you up for failure.

Why?

Because you have no idea how to determine whether you achieve it.

Specific goals get specific results.

Unspecific goals get unspecific results.

Do you want to “get in shape?” What does that mean? Does that mean you want to lose weight?

If you want to lose weight, how much weight do you want to lose? 10 pounds? 20 pounds?

Do you want to tighten your waist? How many inches do you want to lose? What pants size do you want to fit into?

And once you have your specific goal (and specific deadline by which you’re going to achieve it), you can figure out your specific action steps.

Instead of saying you’re going to “workout” or “eat better,” determine specifically how you’re going to workout or eat better.

Are you going to strength train three times per week following a progressive program designed by a coach? Are you going to follow a specific macronutrient prescription or eat at least three servings of vegetables per day?

Give yourself specific action steps. When you set specific goals and action steps, you’ll have a heck of a lot more success achieving your goal(s) next year.

My Story: How Fitness Changed My Life

When I was thinking what to write about the other day, I realized I’ve never shared my transformation story on my website.

If you think everything has always been easy for me, you haven’t heard my truth.

I struggled more and for longer than just about anyone I know.

I did dozens of workout programs and attempted all sorts of nutritional approaches, but I still couldn’t seem to make the changes I wanted.

Growing up, I was never one of the bigger, stronger kids in school, so I wanted nothing more than to gain muscle size.

In high school, I watched as just about every other guy in the gym got way bigger and stronger than I was. I wondered how some of these guys got so strong. My sophomore year, I could barely bench press 100 pounds one time!

During high school, I started losing confidence in myself, and I became very shy and introverted. I never spoke in class, I had very few friends and I stayed home on the weekends instead of hanging out with kids from school. Even as I got to college, I isolated myself from everyone else. I had very few friends and kept to myself most of the time.

I didn’t like who I was becoming.

I continued to lift weights when I got to college. I made some decent gains, but I still couldn’t figure out how others in the numerous gyms I attended continued to develop more muscle and greater strength while I plateaued. After all, I never missed a workout. I was working just as hard as everyone else, if not harder, yet remained basically the same.

So after a while, I finally decided to do what I should have done long before – get my pride out of the way and seek help. One day, I logged onto Google and began actually searching for tips on exercise. During the searches, I found many “mind-blowing” bits of advice.

Don’t bench press every other day. Keep your workouts shorter. Train your legs more often to improve your upper-body muscle mass.

So using these newfound bits of advice, I trained consistently for a few years. After a few years, I had put on a decent amount of weight.

When I graduated high school, I was around 150 pounds. A year or two after college, I was up to around 185 pounds.

My confidence steadily increased.

Since I loved fitness so much, I decided to pursue it as a career, even though I had a degree in journalism.

So I became a personal trainer and fell in love with the profession.

However, even after becoming a personal trainer, I quickly realized I still didn’t really know how to transform a physique.

It had been a couple of years since I had built my body up to 185-190 pounds, and I hadn’t put on any more muscle since then.

I also never really had visible abs, and I felt like whenever I put on more weight over those couple of years, I put on more body fat than I wanted.

I was teaching others how to transform their bodies, but I couldn’t even transform my own.

I felt like a hypocrite.

And while I didn’t realize it at the time, I had developed an unhealthy relationship both with food and the weight scale.

I focused for so long on eating “clean,” and I used to freak out when I went on vacation or out for dinner because I thought eating some of those meals was going to completely ruin my progress.

Also, I unknowingly used the scale to determine my self-worth. If the scale said what I wanted it to say, I would be happy. If it didn’t, I would be frustrated.

Not only did I feel like I had no control over the state of my body, but I felt frustrated because no matter what I did, I didn’t see any results.

So I decided to do something about it.

I realized I had never really built the body I wanted, so I decided to pursue something I had always resisted because I thought it would be too hard.

In early 2016, I decided to train for a bodybuilding show.

I attempted to do things on my own the first couple of months because, after all, I was a personal trainer and “I know what I’m doing.”

But after a couple months of failing to see much, if any, progress on my own, I decided to do what I should have done a long time before – hire a coach.

And in just five months of working with a coach, I made more progress than I had the previous nine years attempting to do things on my own.

In October 2016, I competed in my first bodybuilding show in the men’s physique division.

For the first time in my life, I felt like I was in complete control of my body.

I went on vacation with my wife and didn’t freak out in thinking I was going to ruin my progress.

I developed a much better relationship with the scale, and I no longer defined my self-worth based on the number on the scale.

For the first time ever, I truly felt “free” because I was allowing flexibility in my life and still seeing results.

Two years after competing in a bodybuilding show, I still maintain a healthy relationship with food and have a positive body image.

While I’m not sure if I’ll train for another show, I’m so thankful for the experience because it truly changed my life.

While I had many struggles along the way, I want to point out two things I did well.

1. I never gave up

Even though I failed to achieve my goal with my body for years, I never stopped moving toward it.

To this day, I haven’t missed a scheduled strength training workout in nearly nine years.

Even though I have a wife, son, my own business and a full-time job as a personal trainer, I still make my workouts a priority every week.

Also, I stayed with my nutrition the entire time I struggled. I didn’t have weeks I just gave up and ate whatever I wanted.

I persevered.

Making changes in any area of life (relationships, career/finances, your body, etc.) take a long time and are hard work.

If getting fit, getting rich or having an amazing relationship were easy, everyone would embody these things.

It’s my firm belief many people give up way too easily.

Chase your dreams. You’ve got one life to live.

If you use the right strategy and stay consistent for a long enough period of time, you’re probably going to be successful at whatever it is you pursue.

2. I asked for help

For years, I thought it would mean more if I transformed my body on my own.

I thought asking for help would make me look “weak.”

I couldn’t have been further from the truth.

Seeking guidance from others isn’t a cop-out and it isn’t taking the easy way out.

If you’re frustrated with yourself and your own results in an area of your life, why would continuing to struggle make things better for you or anyone else in your life?

If you’re frustrated and not showing up as the highest version of yourself, you’re going to be less useful to others.

So, in reality, not seeking the guidance you need and continuing to show up as a lesser version of yourself is a very selfish thing to do.

Imagine what would happen with your body, your relationships, your mindset and your finances if you became the best version of you because you got help.

Everyone else in your life would thank you!

3 Tips to Avoid Weight Gain During the Holidays

Ah, the holidays are upon us.

You know what that means.

Spending quality time with family and friends.

Giving gifts to our loved ones.

Indulging in some treats and holiday food.

The last one usually gets most people.

While it’s fun to have turkey, mashed potatoes and other treats for Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas and other holidays, it’s important to have a plan going into the holiday season so you avoid gaining unnecessary weight.

Here are three tips to help you keep your waistline in check over the holidays.

It’s the most important step that no one talks about.

While it’s easy to go into “holiday mode” and use the holidays as an excuse to indulge, you need to assume responsibility for your results this time of year.

“Oh, but I have have so many things coming up. It’s just so hard to keep up with my nutrition and workouts.”

If you keep telling yourself that story, you’re going to believe it and start blaming other things for why you’re not getting results.

I get it – I’ve been there.

I’ve blamed other people and things for why I didn’t have the results in my life.

In reality, once I realized I’m powerful to create any result I want in my life, I started having far better results.

You have just a few holiday parties and meals over the course of the 40 days from Thanksgiving to the end of December. You also have tons of meals that aren’t at parties over those 40 days. Make the most of them.

Plan ahead. If you know you’ve got a party on Saturday night and you’re going to want to have some treats, don’t have treats and eat everything in sight the rest of the week.

If you get invited to more parties than that, you don’t have to eat like crap at those parties. You don’t have to eat at all at those parties. No one is holding a gun to your head.

The reason you go to those parties in the first place is so you enjoy time with friends and families.

Eating like garbage doesn’t need to be part of it.

Who cares what others are doing? If others are eating poorly, that doesn’t mean you need to eat poorly.

Have one treat, enjoy it and move on.

Be unreasonable. Be the person who turns down treats that aren’t serving you and your health. Be a leader for others.

Who cares about the opinions of others? If others are pressuring you to eat food, they do so only to justify eating those foods themselves.

Once you assume control of your situation and your results, you become an unstoppable force.

If you eat three meals per day over the 40 days from Thanksgiving to the end of December, you’ll eat 120 meals over that period.

If you eat two meals for Thanksgiving, two meals for Christmas or another holiday and four other meals along the way, you’ll have eaten eight holiday meals.

If you do the math, eight divided by 120 is 0.067.

That means only 6.7 percent of the meals you eat during this time period will be holiday meals.

So if your other 92.3 percent of meals are compliant, you have nothing to worry about.

You can have some turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and pie and be absolutely fine. One hundred percent compliance isn’t necessary to make a change in your body.

The reason some people struggle during the holidays is they go into “holiday mode.” They use one treat-filled meal as justification to have another treat-filled meal. And another. And then another.

Pretty soon they’ve had two weeks straight of eating treats and leftovers. No wonder they gain weight and don’t see results with their bodies.

So take a look at your calendar. Determine when you’ll have holiday events. Then, plan ahead each week and figure out what you’re going to have for the rest of your meals.

If you know you have a party on a Friday night, you need to eat your normal fat-loss portions the other days.

At the meal, follow these three simple steps:

1. Eat protein first (meat, fish, etc.)

2. Eat slowly

3. Stop eating when you’re satisfied

If you follow these steps, you’ll avoid over-eating, and the protein being eaten first will fill you up so you won’t indulge in as many treats and sides.

Then, when the party is over, go back to eating your normal fat-loss portions on Saturday. Make sure you’ve already planned your meals that day so you don’t fall to victim to eating leftovers and going out to eat even more meals.

Failing to plan is planning to fail.

Planning to succeed will lead to success.

In case you haven’t already noticed, you’re not going to find much in terms of nutrition strategy right here.

What you really need is a bulletproof mindset.

Many people think “The holidays are going to be hard. I’ll just wait to start on my weight-loss journey after the holidays are over.”

That mindset is exactly why many people never see the results they want.

When you put something off until “later,” it almost always means “never.”

And there’s a reason why “New Year’s Resolution” folks are the butt of everyone’s jokes in January.

People know most of them are going to inevitably fall off. That’s because they go too hard too soon and they go “on” a program. Whenever you wait to go “on” something, you’re almost inevitably going to go “off” that thing.

Hey, I’ve been there, gone in with this mindset and failed many times.

So waiting until “later” isn’t the answer.

Start now. Think about it – how often has putting something important off until “later” actually worked for you?

Probably not very often.

And if put your weight-loss journey off until the new year, you’re going to be even further behind once January rolls around and have even more ground to make up.

That’s going to make things even harder for you.

So stop thinking of making changes to your body as an “all-or-nothing” thing and get to work right now. Think of it as a “lifestyle,” not a “diet.”

And besides, when you take action during the holidays, which is arguably the hardest time of the year to make changes to your body, you’re going to find January a heck of a lot easier.

And then you’ll be leaps and bounds ahead of everyone else.

So start your healthy lifestyle right now, and you’ll thank yourself later!

Do You Eat Healthy, But You’re Not Losing Weight?

For years, I struggled to transform my body.

I ate “healthy,” but I never really saw any drastic changes to how I looked.

I ate quality protein, carbohydrate and fat sources, and I ate my fruits and veggies.

I didn’t really eat out, and I rarely had any junk food.

Still, I didn’t see the changes I wanted.

Does this sound like you?

When I ask someone about his or her diet, I inevitably receive the comment – “I’m eating pretty healthy, but I can’t seem to lose any weight. It’s frustrating.”

If that’s you, don’t worry.

I’m going to share two reasons why you’re not getting results despite the fact you’re eating mostly “clean” foods.

1. You’re not factoring in QUANTITY

In order to lose weight, you need to burn off more calories than you consume.

Period.

So if you’re eating healthy foods, but you don’t know how much of them you’re eating, you’re leaving weight loss up to chance.

Maybe you’re putting yourself in a calorie deficit. Maybe you’re not.

That’s why certain diets work for some people, but not others.

When one of your friends or family members did the ketogenic diet, Paleo or Whole30, he or she ate in a calorie deficit and had already been consuming an excessive number of calories.

So when he or she did one or more of these diets, he or she restricted certain foods from his or her diet. As a result, he or she was eating in a calorie deficit and lost weight.

Then, you try one of these diets and hardly lose any weight.

Why didn’t it work for you too?

It’s probably for a couple of reasons:

First, you likely weren’t eating in a calorie deficit.

Maybe your friend ate only two meals per day, while you ate four meals per day.

Even if you ate the same amount of food, your calorie needs are likely different than your friend’s needs. You need to factor in age, weight, height, gender, activity levels and a host of other things.

Second, your metabolism may have adapted to a low amount of food.

If prior to beginning a diet, your friend had been consuming an excessive number of calories for a long period of time, he or she will lose weight if he or she sticks to the diet because it will inevitably put him or her in a calorie deficit.

Now, if you had been dieting for a while and eating a low number of calorie prior to beginning a diet, you may or may not lose weight once you begin the diet.

Why?

Because you haven’t been eating many calories for a while, you may or may not be eating in a calorie deficit when you begin the diet.

Your metabolism may have adapted to a low calorie amount.

For example, let’s say you and your friend each began the ketogenic diet with the intent to lose weight.

Even though neither of you are tracking your calories on the diet, let’s say both of you eat 1,700 to 2,000 calories per day when eating the ketogenic way.

If prior to beginning the diet, your friend had been eating 2,500 to 2,800 calories per day on average, your friend would no doubt lose weight when cutting calories down to 1,700 to 2,000 per day.

If prior to beginning the diet, you had been eating 1,200 to 1,400 calories per day on average, you wouldn’t lose weight when taking in 1,700 to 2,000 per day.

Your body had adapted to a lower calorie amount. As a result, you may gain weight on the ketogenic diet.

That’s one of the reasons certain diets work for some people and not others.

Any time you begin a diet, you need to know the number of calories you’ve been taking in prior to the diet and you need to know how many calories you’re taking in during the diet.

Otherwise, you’re just guessing and hoping for weight loss.

2. You’re not ACTUALLY eating that well

Alright, it’s time for a reality check.

Be honest with yourself. Are you actually eating healthy?

Or do you just think you are?

When someone comes to me wanting to lose weight and we go through what he or she has been eating the past week, he or she almost inevitably tells me he or she ate well for a couple of days, but then had a bad two- or three-day stretch.

“Oh, this isn’t a normal week. I don’t usually eat like that. I just had a couple of busy days.”

Really – that’s not normal?

Or is that the reality?

How we think we’re eating compared to how we’re actually eating are often two different things.

Remember, to lose weight, you need to eat in a calorie deficit and put work in for a long period of time.

We’re talking weeks, months or (for some people) years of work.

Do you eat well Monday through Thursday, but not Friday through Sunday?

If so, you’re eating well only 57 percent of the time. Do you think that’s going to get you very far?

Do you eat well for a couple of weeks at a time, but fall off for a week or two at a time?

If so, you’re probably not going to get very far.

For these reasons, I always have people begin by logging their food in a diary.

Self-awareness is highly important when it comes to losing weight.

Numbers don’t lie.

When you begin tracking what you eat, you often realize you’re not eating as well as you thought.

Don’t believe me?

Log your food for a week, and you’ll be amazed what you see.

When you know what you’re actually eating on a daily and weekly basis, you truly have the information you need to make lasting changes in your nutrition.

Is There a Perfect Time to Start On Your Fitness Goals?

Does this sound like you?

You’re about to start a diet or workout program, but then – CRAP! Something comes up.

You’ve got a big project due at work, and it’s going to take a lot of your time.

Well, it looks like you’re going to need to start next week.

Oh, wait.

You’ve got family in town for a couple of days.

Alright, let’s push it off to the next week.

Shoot.

It’s your friend’s birthday bash that weekend.

“Next week will be better,” you tell yourself. “I’ll be ready then.”

And the cycle keeps repeating itself.

Pretty soon, it’s weeks or even months later and you haven’t even begun.

Now, the thought of starting is overwhelming.

You remain stuck, waiting for the right time to begin.

When you keep saying you’ll do something “later,” you’re basically saying “never.”

You’ll always have some reason why you “can’t” get started.

So how do you ever get started?

Remember, taking action on your health and fitness isn’t an all-or-nothing thing.

Many of us associate dieting with severely restricting and following a rigid meal plan.

That’s not a good idea because we’re not going to have success with anything if we can’t sustain it in the long-term.

Instead of thinking you need to add all this stuff into your life, start with one small thing.

It could be as simple as eating a lean protein source with every meal or exercising for 10 minutes in the morning.

Plus, you’ve just got to re-shift your priorities.

If you know you’ve got a busy week at work, spend less time doing things like watching Netflix, scrolling on your phone and cleaning your house until it looks perfect.

Spend more time doing things like grocery shopping, prepping your meals and working out. Besides, these things are going to serve you and your long-term goals much better.

While it may seem like you don’t have much “free” time, you can still do something. Never use a busy lifestyle as a reason you can’t reach for a goal that’s super important to you, especially when it centers around your health.

Remember, somewhere out there, someone busier than you is getting more done!

3 Reasons You’re Not Losing Weight

Every year, 45 million Americans go on a diet. Yet, nearly two-thirds of the population is considered overweight or obese (Nutrition and Weight Management).

So despite all the efforts, why are more people not losing weight?

Are you struggling as well?

Here are three reasons you may not be losing weight.

According to a study designed by Harris Interactive in 2012, about two-thirds of people who set New Year’s Resolutions aim to get fit (Harris Interactive, 2012).

Yet 73% of those individuals give up before ever reaching their goal.

In fact, nearly half give up on their resolution in six weeks or less.

The reasons given, according to the study:

“Too difficult to follow a diet or workout regimen”

“Too hard to get back on track once they fall off”

“It’s hard to find time”

Be honest with yourself – how long have you been giving weight loss a solid effort?

If you have a decent amount of weight to lose, you should aim for about a pound lost each week. Obviously, it’s going to be a bit different for everyone in terms of the rate of loss.

So if you’re trying to lose 25 pounds, you can expect it will take at least six months. And that means you’re putting in a consistent effort every single day – not just Monday through Thursday.

Your body doesn’t care if it’s someone’s birthday. Your body doesn’t care if it’s the weekend. Your body doesn’t care if you’re on vacation. Your body doesn’t care if you’re stressed at work.

If you’re not putting in a consistent effort over a long period of time, you’re not going to get the results you want.

So look yourself in the mirror and ask the question – “Have I truly been giving my best effort?”

If the answer is “No,” you’ve got to figure out why you haven’t been consistent.

Are you hanging around people who are negative influences? Are you spending time in places that aren’t conducive to weight loss? Are you using an approach that’s unsustainable?

Whatever it is, once you figure out what’s holding you back, you open yourself up to a world of possibility.

It’s easy to blame genetics or a “bad” metabolism for why you’re not losing weight.

While metabolic rate and genetics do play a role in weight loss, they’re often used as an excuse when the real culprit is the over-consumption of calories.

While weighing and measuring your nutritional intake can seem tedious and boring at first, it’s absolutely essential for success.

What we THINK we’re taking in calorie-wise versus what we’re ACTUALLY taking in are oftentimes completely different.

According to a research paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine titled ” Discrepancy Between Self-Reported and Actual Caloric Intake and Exercise in Obese Subjects ,” individuals in a group who thought they had damaged metabolisms were under-reporting their caloric intake by an astounding 47% and over-reporting their physical activity by 51% (Lichtman et. al, 1992).

So, as you can see, we need to actually track what we’re eating because it’s difficult to determine what we’re taking in just from eyeballing it.

For that reason, it’s essential for have a good food scale and measuring cups. If you don’t have a food scale already you can get a cheap one for under $15 HERE (not an affiliate link). Otherwise, you can find one at your local Target, Wal-Mart or similar store.

So if you’re not losing weight, you may need to have an honest discussion with yourself. Are you actually eating in a calorie deficit? The only way to truly find out is to measure and track.

Have you been dieting for a really long time?

As in, you’ve been taking in really low calorie amounts over and over again?

You may have lost weight for a while, but eventually, you probably plateaued.

So you kept eating less and less, hoping the scale will eventually budge.

If you’ve been consuming very low calorie amounts for a significant period of time, your metabolism can actually decline and adapt to a lower calorie amount.

In other words, if you used to maintain weight at 2,000 calories, you may now be maintaining weight at only 1,300 calories. Since you’ve been eating fewer calories for a long period of time, you’ll find your metabolism has adapted and will require even fewer calories to lose weight.

Want proof? Look no further than a study done on NBC’s reality TV show “The Biggest Loser.” Researchers followed participants from the 2009 season for six years following the show. Of the 14 studied, 13 regained weight and four were heavier than before the show began (Kolata, 2016).

To make things worse, almost all contestants had slower metabolisms than they did six years prior and burned fewer calories at rest. In fact, the winner of the show re-gained more than 100 pounds and, six years after the show, burned 458 fewer calories than would be expected for a man his size.

So extreme diets and calorie cuts aren’t the answer.

If you’ve fallen victim to the hype of extreme diets and are metabolically adapted to a low calorie amount, there’s still hope.

However, if you want to lose weight in the long run and actually keep it off, you’ve got to accept it’s going to take quite a bit longer than you would like.

It’s going to sound counter-intuitive, but adding calories is what you need to do right away. If your body has adapted to a very low number of calories, you need to slowly add calories back in over the course of weeks or even months until your metabolism has been restored to a normal level for someone of your age, weight, height, gender and activity level.

While you’ll likely gain a bit of weight along the way, you’ll probably notice an improvement in hormone levels, energy levels, hunger, sleep and less stress overall.

REFERENCES:

Harris Interactive. “New Study Finds 73% Of People Who Set Fitness Goals As New Year’s Resolutions Give Them Up – Bodybuilding.com.”Bodybuilding.com. Bodybuilding.com, 28 Dec. 2012. Web.

Kolata, Gina. “After ‘The Biggest Loser,’ Their Bodies Fought to Regain Weight.” The New York Times. N.p., 2 May 2016. Web.

Lichtman, Steven W., Krystyna Pisarska, Ellen Raynes Berman, Michele Pestone, Hillary Dowling, Esther Offenbacher, Hope Weisel, Stanley Heshka, Dwight E. Matthews, and Steven B. Heymsfield. “Discrepancy between Self-reported and Actual Caloric Intake and Exercise in Obese Subjects.” The New England Journal of Medicine. The Massachusetts Medical Society, 31 Dec. 1992. Web. 30 October 2018.

“Nutrition & Weight Management.” Tools for Ideal Weight Control. Boston Medical Center, 2014.