Make 2017 Your Fittest Year

There is a very big gap between your current self (which you may be unhappy with in some way), and your future self, which is the person you want to be based on your resolutions. The difference between these two versions of you is your level of motivation and consistency. Simply, if you’re very motivated, but you lack consistency, your New Year’s resolutions become a meaningless goal, which won’t make any real difference in your life. It works the same way if you are one of those people who really want to see their resolutions through, but motivation is lacking. For the most part, the general reasons why so many people never really see their resolutions through the first quarter of any New Year is because:

1) The resolutions are so lofty and so broadly stated that you end up not know where to get started;

2) We don’t develop any incentives or rewards that are strong enough to keep us motivated and committed throughout the year;

3) We conveniently ignore and at times fail to set any negative or undesirable consequences for ourselves should we not achieve our resolutions;

4) We set our resolutions based on outwardly driven goals, instead of working intrinsically on our self-improvement;

5) A combination of the above factors.

So what is the best way to set goals, and stick to them? 

When I began my weight-loss journey, it started from a point of dissatisfaction with myself, my body. I had gained so much weight in 2015, that by the time it was August, so many of my clothes that I had purchased at the beginning of that year no longer fit me. Imagine having to rotate two pairs of trousers to work for an entire week, simply because all the other pants just will not fit. I mean, the pants won’t even go beyond your thighs. Either that or if I do manage to get them up, the zipper pops. Yeah, painful experience. Do you know what that does to your overall confidence and appearance? Surely I could have simply just bought some new clothes, but sadly that wouldn’t solve the problem; I was overweight and it was affecting me physically and otherwise. I needed to solve the problem, and not simply find a retail therapy stop-gap measure.

So, I just started. Not too much thought, hesitation, or over-planning. I knew that weight loss was the primary goal. I didn’t need to draft a long list of goals for this to take place. I didn’t even rush to get a gym contract. So I started by hopping on the scale and checking my weight. Luckily I had been fit and in shape before, and through several body assessments in prior years, I knew my optimum weight. I bought myself a skipping rope and some resistance bands and started my own 30-minute sweat sessions at home after work. Outside of working out, I looked closely at my social relations and behaviours, and I gradually eliminated elements which I felt influenced me to eat unhealthy and unnecessary foods and engage in any other unproductive activities.

I didn’t go cold turkey, and I still rewarded myself with something sweet and decadent after every fortnight of dedicated, unbroken four-day workouts. And for motivation, I would use own photographs of a younger, fitter and healthier version of myself as my phone screensaver, so that I could see the pain of my weight-gain daily. For additional motivation, I neatly packed up all the clothes that could no longer fit and laid them out in a section of my wardrobe that I would see daily when I picked out what to wear every morning. 

This recurrent visual served as a constant reminder of what I needed to achieve. I didn’t really wax poetic to anyone about what I was needed to do, or how badly I had let myself go and come to this point where I wasn’t comfortable in my own body. Telling everyone and advertising what I was dealing with may have opened me up to too many detractors and too much ridicule that it may have thrown me off course. That’s the last thing you need when you have set yourself personal goals.

By the time I got a gym contract and started tracking my workouts, food and calorie expenditure at the end of September 2015, I had already developed my own flow and workout routines and attained a good sense of what my body was capable of through training, eating right and getting enough sleep. A little over a year later after pushing myself to limit and sticking to my guns throughout the journey (which is on-going), I can safely say I reached my health and fitness goals. Actually, after over 420 days of consistent effort, diligent workouts and rest periods and food tracking, I surpassed what I had expected of myself. It feels great.

So these are the same principles that helped me succeed in attaining this fitness goal that I have adapted to share with you at the beginning of this New Year. Enjoy & Happy New Year may this be your fittest year yet.

Stay tuned to my posts for the Top 5 Ways to Achieve your New Years Resolutions.