Year in and year out, the two of the most popular New Year’s Resolutions are “Lose weight” and “get fit.” For most people, especially in America which has a high rate of overweight people, losing weight and getting fit are goals we want to achieve no matter what time of the year. After lots of indulgence through the holidays, the first day of the New Year seems to be the opportune time for changing our habits to get a better body.

Unfortunately, most people never reach their goals when it comes to weight loss. Many will make progress for the first few weeks then regress into old habits that lead to being overweight. Some give up on their goals before they even start.

Don’t let another year pass you by! If you’re going to make a Resolution to yourself, keep it! Even though its cliché, New Year’s Resolutions are actually a good motivator for losing weight and getting fit. Here are some tips on how to help you keep them.

1. Have a Good Plan

You won’t lose weight for the New Year if all you do is occasionally go to the gym or eat healthy every once in a while. It’s likely you can lose a few pounds this way, but it’s only temporary. As soon as you go back to your old habits, then your weight will return to where it was too.

Real weight loss is due to daily commitment. Moving towards your goal every day and building momentum. Going from overweight or obese to fit and healthy will not happen overnight, and it won’t happen without effort. It’s hard work to change our bodies, no matter which way you want to look at it.

We recommend the P90X Workout as a great plan for weight loss. It is a 90 day program that will get you fit when you commit to the program. It’s not some useless machine you hide in the closet to bring out when you’re feeling motivated or a pointless diet you can’t stick to.

P90X provides all of the tools you need for losing weight, getting trim, and keeping in shape for a long time. A diet guideline will give your nutrition throughout the 90 days. The P90X diet is not difficult to follow since they are simply guidelines on what you should eat. It is designed to give you energy for the P90X Workouts. You won’t be starving yourself or eating only vegetables or anything extreme like that.

The daily P90X Workouts will start burning body fat immediately. As you progress, the workouts get more challenging and you push yourself harder. Your cardiovascular ability builds up and your muscles get stronger and more toned. By the end, you should feel like a completely different person in terms of how healthy you feel.

P90X is great for anyone who wants to lose weight for the New Year. Whether you’re overweight or in shape, P90X has helped thousands of men and women lose weight.

2. Success = Motivation + Momentum

Success, when it comes to losing weight and getting fit, means reaching an end goal. We all have a defining point where we consider our health a “success” or not. Most of these goals are “Lose 30 pounds” or “Fit into the skinny jeans I got for Christmas by March.”

To attain success in a long-term goal (like make more money, improve my personality, lose weight, etc) requires two things: motivation and momentum. Motivation is what kick starts our minds towards a goal. Momentum is what allows us to reach those goals over time. A combination of motivation and momentum is the formula for reaching any goal.

So what’s the difference?

Motivation is the “incentive for action.” It’s what we imagine or desire to move us towards a goal. In simplest terms, it’s the reward for our hard work. Sometimes this motivation is positive, like “I want my body to look like this Hollywood actress’ body so I am working hard for it.” Other times, we motivate ourselves with something negative, like “If I don’t lose 20 lbs in the next 2 months I will be very unhappy with myself…”

The New Year’s Resolution is for many of us great motivation, even though it can be negative. “Did I just let another year go by with me being 50lbs overweight? I need to do something!” Most of the time though, we are excited to a new beginning, a new year to start over and make better than the previous years.

But motivation doesn’t last. On the night of December 31st, right before the New Year, we are usually drunk with excitement (while many are literally drunk too.) When the ball drops, we give love to the people around us then start thinking about the upcoming year. We make plans to go to the gym, eat healthier, quit smoking, get a 6-pack, or do whatever necessary to reach the goals we have.

This cocktail of emotions is very powerful. The problem is that we can’t replicate such powerful motivation over and over. The effects seem to wear off after only a few days, and from there we are on our own.

That’s what we need momentum. Momentum is “strength or force gained by motion or by a series of events.” Sure, motivation can work for the next day after New Year’s Eve, but momentum will be the reason we reach or do not reach our goals in the next few weeks or months.

Momentum means taking action! Every single day we must do something that moves us towards our goal. You must build momentum (it starts with motivation) and you must keep it going if you want success.

This means going to the gym on schedule, doing our daily workouts, and eating healthier for every meal. These actions add up to build momentum and they will be the reason we actually lose weight. Momentum means work! Every single day that moves us towards our goals means a tiny success we can cherish.

Motivation is usually in our heads and momentum is usually physical action. It’s why coaches can motivate a losing football team at half-time with a powerful speech but the momentum of a game doesn’t really change until that losing team scores a touchdown to change the direction.

Success can only happen when we have motivation and momentum. Too many people get hung on motivation. Few take the action necessary to build momentum, a process that takes time and effort on our part. Commit to a long-term goal of losing weight, and reach it by making progress towards it every day.

3. Positive, Daily Motivation

While we’re on the subject of motivation, it’s important to know what kind of motivation works best.

Daily Motivation – Over time, we build momentum with our actions. Every time we spend an hour at the gym or finish a good workout, we are building the momentum we need to reach a long term goal.

The problem, of course, is getting ourselves to the gym or starting that workout. It’s especially true during the dark winter months when most of the country is freezing and snowed in. This is why we need to motivate ourselves daily. We are trying to build momentum and that means taking action every day. You absolutely must motivate yourself every day to take these necessary actions.

People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily. — Zig Ziglar

Every time you need to work out and can’t get yourself to do it, just think about all the reasons you are doing it in the first place. Get yourself pumped about it and start. For most people, the trouble is with getting started. Once we do though, most have no problem finishing their workouts.

Positive motivation – When we motivate ourselves, it usually means giving ourselves a mental pep-talk. It’s important to avoid using negative thoughts to motivate ourselves, especially if we want any long term success. We say stuff to ourselves like “I’m so fat! I’m disgusting and need to work out!” or “I need to lose weight or he will never ask me out!”

Focus on the positive. Focus on what you want – “I want to do this work out because it will make me feel good!” “I want to prove to myself I can do this!”

Being mean to ourselves is temporary motivation. We use it as a mental trick to feel in control, when in reality, we are not (otherwise, you’d be in shape and healthy, right?) Don’t say things like “I need to lose weight…” or “I should be getting healthy …”

It is much easier to figure out what we want and focus entirely on that (internal motivation) then forcing ourselves to do something because we “have to” or “need to” to please someone else (external motivation)

4. Take Advantage of Winter

New Year’s Day happens during the winter in the Northern Hemisphere, which can help us and hurt us at the same time. When it gets cold out, we try to avoid going outside unless we absolutely have to. Trips to the gym get set aside for a movie and a bag of popcorn. Since we don’t have to wear revealing clothes, we are not very motivated to get in shape either since we can cover ourselves up with a big coat.

The upcoming 3 to 4 months of winter are a great opportunity to get into shape. When springtime rolls around, anyone getting healthy during the winter has a huge head start on someone who has been lazy during it. Someone who starts a diet and exercise program now will be much more successful then someone who wants to wait 3 months and try to rush in a bunch of exercise to catch up before the warm weather comes.

Workout programs like P90X and Insanity are great for winter because you do them at home. You have no excuse when your gym is right in your living room!

More Gyms. More Health Products, Yet Less Healthy

It is truly amazing that America has the highest obesity rates in the world, yet more gyms and health clubs than any other country. We spend more on health care than any other country, yet rank 37th in the world for effectiveness (Without getting in a health care reform debate, our poor health care has a lot to do with treating disease after it has happened, and little on preventing the problems in the first place.)

Fast-food chains spend billions of dollars on advertising each year to get us to eat at their places of business. Does this huge amount of money influence you? Maybe, maybe not, but it does influence many people around you.

Are we to blame the systems around us for the obesity problem? We can, but the problem is truly within each and every one of us. If you are overweight or obese, the blame is on you and you alone. If you want to change your life, it starts in your head.

The Point of No Return

Why does it take a catastrophic event to change our lives for the better?

You end up in the hospital and find out you are diagnosed with diabetes.

You play a flag football game at a company picnic for the first time in a decade and collapse on your ass.

You take your shirt off at a public event, someone makes a snide remark, and you can’t get it out of your head for days and weeks and months.

The event can be mental or physical.

When you hear amazing stories of people getting healthy quickly, they do it for a reason, not because they “felt like it.”

So why wait like something for this happen? Why not prevent it in the first place. Predict your “catastrophic event” or realize your “great discovery” so you can change today.

You can motivate yourself with fear of a heart attack. Or the fear of losing your kids or grand kids because you’ll kick the bucket early at the rate you are going. Or you can motivate yourself because you are just sick and tired of not being healthy.

Despite all of marketing thrown at us, as a citizen of a developed country, you have amazing opportunities. There are gyms and health clubs all around you, plenty of free fitness information you can access on the web, public parks, YMCA, and more.

You have no excuse to not be healthy because you do not have the resources. What’s stopping you is within your mind.

You Only Get One Chance. Appreciate What You Have

Take some time to yourself to think. It’s a simple exercise, but many people don’t stop to think about their lives. Sure, we all have quiet time, but do we set any time aside to actually think about where we are going in life?

Goal setting is something many people do not do, yet it is a fairly powerful tool. The reason it is so powerful is because it gives your subconscious some direction. Whether you’re aware of it or not at the time, your mind tends to work towards a goal. Obviously, you have to do the work towards your goals – they will not magically happen.

If you have no goal, how do you know what to do to get where you want?

Think about where you were 10 years ago. Did you feel great about yourself, or did you feel as miserable as you do today?

This is the important question: Where do you see yourself 5 years from now at the rate you are going? Don’t bullshit yourself here. Follow the trend line of your life.

If your last 5 years have consisted of no exercise and a diet of “Value Meals,” chances are your health has deteriorated over those years. Do you see a heart attack? Diabetes? Death?

Spend time thinking. Think about every year carefully as it passes. How is a poor lifestyle going to affect your life each and every year?

Where do you see yourself 5 years from now if you changed?
Now imagine where you will be if you decide to change your life today. What do you want to have? How do you want to feel? How will others see you? Remember, you’re not “wishing.” You’re imagining.

Imagining yourself in a better place is generally enough motivation to set goals for anything. Whether its money, health, social, whatever. Picturing yourself better off is a powerful motivation. Change starts in your head.

You only get one body and one life to live. There is no reset button. Learn to appreciate what you have and you will begin to take better care of yourself. When you start to appreciate what little time you have on this earth, change comes easier.

Then why do you do it? I won’t lie, I used to think that weighing yourself everyday makes sense, especially if you are on a diet and exercise program. But sometimes our bodies don’t make a lot of sense. We can work our butts off in the gym and eat right all day long, and still gain weight the next morning. We can eat a ton of food, wake up, and actually lose weight.

It would happen to me all of the time, and it’d set the precedent for the rest of my day. If i didn’t lose weight after a great day of exercise and diet, I’d get depressed for the rest of the day. If I did lose weight, then I’d end up doing what I was going to do anyway.

I’ve learned to weigh myself just once a week. If your happiness level is tied directly to your weight, then you should do the same. Daily fluctuations in your weight are not worth thinking about. They will drive you nuts.

Set a goal for yourself – If you’re on a long-term weight loss program (30lbs in 2 months for example), set weekly goals. That’s about 4 lbs per week. If you are pushing yourself to eat properly and get a lot of exercise, then you will stick with it all week long until “weigh-in” day. If you’re weighing yourself every single day, then you are going to think way too much about what you are doing.

Focus on How You Feel – When you don’t focus on the number of pounds you weigh, have lost, or have gained, you think about other things. Ideally, you’re focusing on your goal. And if you’re doing everything right then you will be more concerned with how you actually feel (which should mean you feel good!). How you feel is far more important than your weight or body fat percentage.

If you’re a habitual weigher, try only weighing yourself once a week and see how it does. I think most people will benefit from this because you will be much more focused on what’s important.

But lets be honest. Americans watch more TV than any other country, and America is the most overweight country on the planet. The correlation is there. Take a look at this graph: correlating the amount of hours of TV watched vs obesity rate.

Can’t find the United States on that graph? Take a closer look at the lonely dot on the upper right hand corner.

Replace TV with something Productive

The data is there. Watching TV doesn’t add on calories to your tummy, but it does absolutely nothing to help you burn them. As you sit there, watching your favorite shows, you’re not doing anything for your body to burn those calories you ate today.

A simple remedy for this is to replace an hour or so of TV with something productive. Take a walk, hit the gym, whatever. Just get off your ass and MOVE! If you can’t stand missing your favorite shows, get yourself a Tivo. Reward yourself after a workout by watching your favorite shows without commercials.

As Americans, we’ve fallen into a trance with our TV’s. It’s so bad that the NFL started a program to encourage kids to go outside and exercise. We’re going in the wrong direction with our priorities in life, but heck, it’s been like this for ages.

Studies on happiness have shown that people are not happiest when they are watching TV. It would be safe to assume that we enjoy TV so much that it makes us happy, but that is not the case. There is no interaction with TV, there is no input from us.

Instead, we find ourselves happiest when we challenge ourselves, whether mentally or physically. Replace some TV with working out and exercise and you will reap the benefits.

Because if you slip up and set yourself back a step or two, you ultimately think that your goal is unachievable if you’re worrying about the long term. “Great, I had that cake at work and now my whole diet is ruined. Stupid Milton!” If you’re taking it a day at a time then admit it, you still screwed up. But there is always tomorrow. Refocus your energy on the day ahead. Motivate yourself enough to reach all of your tiny goals the next day, and learn from the mistakes you’ve made in the past.

Swole for Summer – Day 16 Update

In the grand scheme of things, I’m doing pretty well on both my diet and exercise. I was planning on going to the gym only 4 days a week, but I’ve been so concentrated on Swole for Summer that I feel like a loser if I don’t go to the gym every chance I get. So even on my off days, I will drag my ass to the gym to get some cardio in to make up for all the cardio I haven’t been doing.

Thank god for spring. I can cook, but 97% of what I can cook involves a grill. When it’s warm outside then that means I have no excuses for screwing up my diet. It just makes it a whole lot easier when I have so many other things to worry about.

It’s funny because I look at the daily progress pictures and don’t see a damn thing changing. I’m going to assume that you’re all as sick of looking at my moobs as much as I am. But hell, I dropped 12.5 lbs in a little over 2 weeks, so it has to be going somewhere.

No intro to this article; I’m just gonna get down right down to it. Some may be offended or insulted by this article, but unfortunately my information does not take into consideration anyone’s feelings. I’m here to give the information honestly and truthfully, because that’s what reveals character.

Why are there some people that are fit, and some that are fat? Why do those fat people ask themselves why they are not fit? And most importantly, why do those same fat people convince themselves that they just can’t get fit?! I’ll tell you why. It’s one simple and straight-forward word: LAZINESS. To transform your body into a work of art takes A LOT of time, motivation, dedication, and discipline. For some reason, the fitness industry these days will have you believing that you can by the latest Ab-Lounge and Bowflex, workout for 20 minutes a day, three days a week, and be Adonis.

Besides the foolish and ludicrous statements made by the manufacturers of these machines, people eat it up like there’s no other food on the earth! WHAT THE @%$&*!! Can most of this country really be that ignorant? I mean come on people, do you actually believe working out for a combined one hour a week will get you into shape? Do you live on this planet? Transforming your body into a chiseled, well-oiled machine is one of the most difficult tasks that a man or a woman can do. The task is long and daunting. In no way, shape, or form is it easy and fun. Sure I can sit in front of the TV all day doing my Ab-Lounge for 20 minutes a day; who couldn’t? It’s so fun and easy!

I would now like to bring you back to the real world and introduce you to a statement that everyone should live by: IF IT WERE EASY, EVERYONE WOULD BE DOING IT! Why didn’t elite athletes like Lance Armstrong, Michael Jordan, Mike Tyson, Joe Montana, and Mark McGuire use these catchy fitness gadgets designed to replace working out? Because they are A-T-H-L-E-T-E-S! Why would a normal person believe that something sold on an infomercial that easily fits in your closet or under your bed can actually replace resistance, strength, and speed training? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the mind is a powerful weapon. You hear something that sounds easy and effective, and you immediately jump on it. Unfortunately, in the world of true fitness, the golden rule is that if it is easy you want to avoid it at all costs. If you’re doing crunches, your stomach should feel like there is lava in it.

You shouldn’t be saying to yourself, “Wow, I’m getting such a great workout and it’s so fun and easy, and it doesn’t put any strain on my abs or back.” Get real genius.

Welcome to the real world. For some unknown reason, most people will always want to take the easy way out. They want to take the paved road instead of the dirt road. Why? Because in this day and age, we are lazy, sedentary animals. You ever see a lion in the jungle taking it easy? Nope! If he did, a younger, hungrier lion will tear him to shreds. Most people think that it can be fun and easy to attain a flawless physique and extraordinary strength levels. Unfortunately, when their goals are not met, they immediately convince themselves they can’t improve their bodies because of genetics, injuries, whatever excuse they can muster up. You’re only lying to yourselves. Stop making excuses to not workout and get your ass into the gym and on the roads. Go do 500 crunches, not 20 Ab-Lounge twist things or whatever they are. Go hit a heavy bag instead of doing Billy Blanks Tae-Bo video. GO AND ACTUALLY PUT SOME MEANING INTO YOUR WORKOUT!

What do you think those fitness gadgets will do for you in the long run? Seriously, it is so annoying to see someone using the latest Home Gym and wondering why they are not increasing strength and size like the next guy at the gym? Well, how about the fact that you are sitting at home, using a piece of plastic to guide your puny body through a motion that doesn’t even stimulate the proper muscle fibers which cause strength gains. Why doesn’t the lady doing Ab-Blaster workouts have a tight midsection like the lady that works her midsection in the gym? Because the lady in the gym is actually using her body to improve on her body, not a “toy.” That’s all these new and improved fitness gadgets are: toys! Don’t listen to Chuck Norris and his sexy assistant. The Total Gym will never in a million years replace real gym exercises. If that were the case, no one would go to a gym. Everyone would stay at home to workout, because the house is cozy and comfortable.

You are an athlete. A strength driven, power based, speed possessing ANIMAL! You need to be in the concrete jungle, not on the padded carpet. Stop believing what you hear and research the facts. Don’t make excuses to make yourself feel better about not attaining your goals. How bad do you want it? If you kind of want it, buy the Total Gym. If you actually want it, don’t be ignorant and start using your body for what it was made for: a temple of pure perfection. No one will know the true potential of the human body unless they push it to the absolute max. You need to sweat, bleed, ache, be sore, and then do it harder the next time. Fun? Movies are fun. Going out to dinner is fun. Working out is anything but. NO PAIN, NO GAIN!

Don’t be regular. Get your ass out of the house and off the fitness gadget you just bought on Channel 3 and get into a gym!

“DIG! Bury Me! Underneath! Everything that I am!” – Mudvayne

“Heavy! I want it Heavy!” – Disturbed

“Yeah! You push it! Yeah! You push it!” – Static-X

We all love music. I find that some bands are better used as the soundtrack to my weight training than others. While my local pussyfoot gym spins tracks from the latest Britney Spears record, in my head I’m singing Mudvayne and Disturbed tracks over and over again, hell I even sing out loud sometimes (but not too loud). Yes, I do need an Ipod Nano, but I digress.

So what exactly is my point? My point is this: when you are in the gym you need to be in the zone. Too many folks saunter into the gym with Britney Spears’ intensity. They walk up to the dumbbells, sigh, lift off the same weight they used last week, and hit the same number of reps and sets as last week¦ and last month¦ and likely last year. These are the same folks that won’t squat because it hurts their back, they won’t run because it hurts their knees, they won’t use a barbell because it HURTS THEIR HANDS! These things can be fixed, worked through, or worked around, but instead it’s an excuse to sit around on machines doing the same endless reps, day after day.

Then later when I’m trying to finish up my super-set so that I can get in one more exercise before the gym closes, I have to listen to, “I like to exercise late because there isn’t really anyone here to watch me. Maybe if I was in a bit better shape I wouldn’t mind so much, you know?” NO! I don’t know, buddy! I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about! I like it when other people are working out around me. Guys like me start up unspoken competitions with other similar athletes. We watch intently to see if our rivals hit their deadlift max this week. We check out the shredded guy’s calves to see if ours are still bigger. But we don’t watch you.

In fact I don’t really care what you do because you add absolutely nothing to my training, but please move away from the decline bench so I can finish my last set of weighted decline sit ups!

If you want to make progress you need to DIG! You need to want it HEAVY! You need to PUSH IT!! Eat what you know you need to eat. Lift more weight every single workout no matter what. Get in that zone so you can block out the rest of your life, so that the only thing you see right now is that bar on the floor, and you know that today, right now, you’re about to lift 5 lbs more on this exercise than you’ve ever lifted before, and hell if you can get an extra rep you’ll do that too. Get IN that zone, because it’s time to DIG!