Stop Failing New Year's Gym Resolutions
Photo Credits: Liv Frey, The Michigan Daily
By: Cooper Williams
With the new year coming and going, I’m sure many of you have written and hopefully committed to your fitness and health goals this year so far. Many people set goals concerning the gym and their health at the start of the year, but they often fall back into the same old habits. A survey held by “Sundried” with a sample of 4,000 people found that 43% of them thought they would fail after just a month. Research also shows that over 95% of resolutions are fitness-related, but by March, only around 10% of goals remain. My plan is to help and show that it is possible to stick to your goals whenever they’re made, especially New Year's Resolutions.
One of the hardest challenges to overcome in your health and fitness journey is sticking to a routine. I personally have been going to the gym 4-6 times a week for the past 2 and a half years and tracking my meals at the same time. With that being said, it hasn’t been easy, being a full-time high school student, employee at Southern Hills Country Club, and participating in many extracurricular activities, it can be hard to find time. I believe that this is a big reason why people allow themselves to slip out of their goals. Although it's understandable that life can get chaotic and challenging at times, it’s never too much to be able to commit time to your health.
Another problem with most New Year's Resolutions is that people typically set too high expectations on themselves: Go to the gym 7 times a week, no cheat meals at all, etc. The issue with this is that they are black and white goals; if you slip up even just a little bit, you can feel discouraged or as though you failed. This is not what a goal should feel like; a goal should be something that, yes, you do strive to stick to, but one slip-up shouldn’t make or break the whole goal. With this being said… If you truly want to achieve your goals, then you have to keep yourself accountable.
This is what ties all of the problems, solutions, issues, and setbacks together. If you want to find an excuse to skip the gym one day or cheat on your diet, you will find one. Vice versa, you can also find a way to make your goal work if you apply yourself. I will add, one day doesn’t break a goal, one missed workout doesn’t break a goal either, and you can’t beat yourself up about it either. The whole point of a goal is to be able to make a change for the better in your life; tearing yourself down defeats the whole purpose.
If you’re reading this and wondering when I’ll actually give advice on HOW to stick to goals instead of telling you why you should, here it is… I’ll start with the thing that has helped me the most: Having a plan. Personally, for training, I follow a PPL x Arnold split, and it has been working for me for about a year. This is a six-day-per-week training program that follows:
Day 1: PUSH - Chest, Triceps, Shoulders
Day 2: PULL - Back, Biceps, Rear Delts
Day 3: LEGS (Hamstring Focused) - Hamstrings, Quads, Calves, Abs
Day 4: REST
Day 5: CHEST/BACK - Chest, Back, Abs
Day 6: SHOULDERS/ARMS - Shoulders, Triceps, Biceps, Forearms
Day 7: LEGS (Quad Focused) - Quads, Hamstrings, Glutes, Calves, Abs
Photo Credits: coopklifts on Instagram
Photo of me deadlifting with my brother.
Although this isn’t a one-size-fits-all kind of split, it has allowed me to have fun in the gym and be able to progress in the lifts I do. That leads me to bring up another important thing to remember: The gym is supposed to be fun; it’s supposed to be something that you look forward to during the day. It’s important to find exercises and a training plan that you truly do enjoy; the same goes for your diet.
Switching to the diet, if you haven’t taken anything from the article so far, this is what I want you to take away: Your diet. It IS hard to eat healthy all the time, but it is not impossible. If you slip up and have something “unhealthy,” it doesn’t mean you failed, it doesn’t mean that you’re a bad person, it means that you’re human. You shouldn’t phrase your goal about diet as something like: “I can’t cheat once,” or, “I can’t eat anything unhealthy anymore,” what it should be is, “To eat more healthy foods that will be better fuel for my body, but everything in moderation is key.”
Being able to eat food that helps your goals makes completing your fitness goals much easier. Personally, it has been a challenge to be able to stick to a diet over time, but as long as you don’t beat yourself up over one setback and just keep on trying to eat better everyday that’s what truly matters. Whenever I bring this up with people, they usually say one of two things: It’s too expensive, or it takes too much time. Valid reasons for sure, life gets busy, and it is easier to press 5 buttons to get DoorDash delivery every night. But using an analogy I’m sure many of you have heard; The fuel you put into a sports car is better than the average/worse gas because you want to take care of the nice car. The same should be thought of with your body; whatever you put into it is what you will be able to use as fuel and energy.
You’re probably thinking to yourself, “It’s easier said than done.” To be transparent, it is, but I do have a few tips that helped me to go from almost 200 pounds to more muscle mass at a lesser 170 pounds within the span of two years.
Yes, it takes time. Are there crash diets and fads to lose a bunch of body weight all in the span of a week? Yes, there are, but we want to be able to lose weight, put on muscle, and most importantly, keep the excess fat off and feel better in our bodies. (This takes time!)
Don’t be too hard on yourself. You can’t gain all of your dream physique in a day, and you can’t lose it either. If you have a day where you feel like you messed up a lot on your diet and goals, and you ate way over your calorie goal, remember that most of the weight on the scale shown is water weight, and it will go away after a few days.
That brings me to my last tip: do NOT worry about the weight on the scale. I know that many people stress about this when trying to lose weight, but trust me, it does not matter as much as you think. It is a TOOL, but not the full answer when it comes to fat loss and building muscle. The number on the scale cannot tell you if you are putting on weight because of muscle, water, fat, inflammation, etc. Do not stress if you put on a pound overnight and think you need to torture yourself the next day by lowering your caloric intake.
Be kind to yourself. If you miss a workout, tackle it the next day. If you skip/miss a meal, fix it next meal. If you cheat on your diet, guess what, you’re a human. Being hard on yourself to stay disciplined IS good, but good things can be taken too far. Remember that this is something you are doing to better yourself, but if you’re doing it to reach a goal and then be done, whenever you get the results you want, it will be easier to return to bad habits.
I could give you a whole list of motivation or tips to help you, but truly, just do it for yourself. Do it for the person that you want to become, whether it’s a new years resolution or just a goal you’ve made, do it for your future self. Every day doesn’t have to be perfect, and there will be setbacks. Stay true to your goals and don’t lose sight of the long-term goal.
