New Years' Resolutions Are Overrated: How To Incorporate Fitness Into Life As A Busy Professional

Every January, a flood of fitness-related posts inevitably overwhelms social media. New Year's resolutions about getting fit and healthy spawned by holiday hibernations take over Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, etc., only to die back down two weeks later when the motivation wears off. For busy, working professionals, that temporary burst of willpower tends to break even faster.

True, the New Year can be a great starting point to get into shape, lose body fat, and build lean muscle. However, problems arise when new gymgoers quickly find it difficult to stick to going to the gym consistently when other responsibilities take priority. Transition time adds up fast. Waking up, packing the gym bag, driving to the gym, actually getting in a workout, cooking high-quality nutritious meals, and prioritizing quality sleep all take time. In a working world where time is a highly precious commodity, it is easy for many people to throw in the towel and quit.

For some background, I am a young attorney at a large, nationwide law firm. As a practitioner in the firm's Commercial Finance and Banking group, my occupation is fast-paced and intellectual, as well as requires refined attention to time management skills. Between the fall of 2021 and the summer of 2022, I managed to lose thirty pounds in four months (170 pounds and 25% body fat to 149 pounds and 4% body fat), all the while finishing my final semester of law school, studying for the Indiana bar exam, and ultimately being admitted to the Indiana Bar. I've since bulked back to 160 pounds while maintaining 6-8% body fat (because 4% body fat is simply unsustainable as a matter of overall health after a long enough period of time). Although I devote the majority of my time to my career, I'm feeling the best and most athletic I have ever felt.

While striking the proper balance between fitness and occupation may be difficult at first, it is more than possible to incorporate healthy behaviors into your life even if your work schedule is highly demanding. While many New Years' Resolutionites that drop off the bandwagon assume that you can only succeed in the gym at the expense of your career, the truth is quite the opposite. In fact, exercise can become a tool to improve your energy during the workday, mental stamina, and sharpness. Today, I decided to compile my top three favorite principles that I hope help anyone seeking to improve their health all the while maintaining a high quality of career performance.

• First and foremost, focus on habits and consistency, not results.

The reason why all the New Year go-getters yeet the towel ("throw in the towel" is too passive of a phrase to accurately describe quitting full-stop) as soon as staying consistent gets inconvenient is that they are too focused on the end result and not building positive habits. As James Clear put it best in Atomic Habits, "habits are the compound interest of self-improvement." Clear's entire philosophy underlying the process of reaching any goal is based on consistent, tiny habits that compound over time.

The common misconception is this idea that extreme results require extreme actions. If I want a six-pack, I guess I need to do a million crunches as fast as possible. If I want to get stronger arms, I guess I need to try and AMRAP ("as many reps as possible") the heaviest dumbbells in the gym for my bicep curls. The list goes on and on. It's 2023. Reject that mentality. This "ego-lifter" mindset is natural and heavily pervasive because after finishing a workout (even the workouts in which you push yourself beyond your limits), you will not see any immediate results in your physique. Heck, even after two extremely difficult workouts, you won't see a single change in the mirror. Both fat loss and muscle growth (though the former is a significantly faster process than the latter), take time. Not hours. Not days. Not weeks. Months. If positive changes in your physique are your goal, be ready for the long haul.

That said, the key is to start small. Make your fitness routine simple and uncomplicated. Regardless of whether you're looking to put on muscle or lose body fat, lift weights three to four days per week, thirty minutes at a time. That's it. Pick whatever days of the week you want that work for your schedule. Pick a time window. Write it down, and make it stick. When it comes to strength training, make it a non-negotiable to track your workouts. Track the amount of weight, the number of sets and reps, and try to beat whatever you accomplished the following week.

But above all else (and believe me when I say this is the MOST IMPORTANT box to check): stay consistent. Consistency over a long period of time is essential not only for creating results but establishing habits that will last your entire life. Relying on willpower and motivation alone will land you in the same camp as everyone who quit the instant fitness became inconvenient. Instead, relying on small, disciplinary habits that don't require any strenuous mental effort will net you tremendous benefits over time. Don't have time to run five miles every day? That is fine. Walking for twenty minutes a day is far easier to fit into your daily routine. Whatever exercises you enjoy most (whether it be walking, running, jumping rope, climbing, etc.), make it a non-negotiable part of your weekly routine, even if that means doing those exercises for a shorter amount of time.

• Results are built in the kitchen, not the gym.

The harshest truth of getting into shape is, as put by Canadian YouTuber and bodybuilder Will Tennyson, the product of "80 percent diet, 20 percent training." Developing daily habits and routines regarding proper nutrition is even more important than the substance of your workouts.

While getting optimal nutrition and managing calories may seem daunting and complicated, I will make it as simple as this: Tracking calories really works. Specifically, tracking calories and protein. If you did nothing else other than hit one gram of protein per your current body weight daily and burn more calories than you intake, it is a 100% guarantee that you will lose body fat (assuming that's your goal).

As a caveat though, tracking nutrition does have downsides, as it can be very strenuous for many people. It's certainly possible to make significant progress without tracking nutrition whatsoever, but rather by prioritizing getting enough protein, veggies, fruits, and essentially whole foods with every meal. Associating numeric values with foods has the potential to create a poor psychological relationship with food when taken to extremes. This one comes down to personal preference, but a balanced approach to tracking is certainly possible, such as only tracking on weekdays (assuming you don't go overboard on weekends), or only tracking for a month. All in all, the simple habit of regularly tracking calories over time will give you a tremendous amount of knowledge on the nutritional info of your favorite foods. It will get to the point where you will not need to track at all because you'll have enough know-how to estimate the calories in your favorite foods and meals since you'll have measured them so frequently in the past.

No matter how you slice it (yes, pun intended), it is very difficult for anyone (even the most knowledgeable fitness enthusiasts and nutritionists) to guesstimate the number of calories in any one of their favorite foods. Plus, what if you want to eat some ice cream, chocolate cake, or pizza? While the prospect of tracking may be daunting, tracking can give you the freedom and flexibility to eat the foods you enjoy guilt-free and still stay on track with your goals.

If you want to track, I highly recommend downloading MyFitnessPal and using it daily. No, this blog post is not sponsored in any way. While there are many calorie-counting apps out there, MyFitnessPal easily takes the cake for conveniently helping to establish healthy nutrition habits that will last a lifetime. Not only can you track your daily calorie intake, but you can also track your daily macronutrient intake (protein, carbs, and fats), your micronutrient intake (fiber, sodium, etc.), and your water intake. You can even scan the barcode on any one of your favorite foods to automatically log it as well as access a huge database of restaurant foods for nutritional information all in one application. Yes, the barcode scanner does cost a premium membership to use, but believe me when I say it is worth it.

Cut back (don't cut out) your favorite foods. Not only is it more cost-effective than ordering takeout, but being in full control of the ingredients and portions of your meals is key for proper nutrition. Social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube have become a haven for gymgoers to learn more tips and tricks about fitness and nutrition. Instagram reels sporting high protein/low-calorie (also known as "anabolic") versions of what most consider to be "junk food" have taken the platforms by storm. YouTubers like Will Tennyson, Greg Doucette, JumpRopeDudes, Jeremy Ethier, Jack Perez, and a host of other gym rats regularly showcase not only their workout regimes, but their recipes for anabolic ice cream, cake, muffins, cookies, and any dessert you can imagine. Instagram fitness accounts such as _aussiefitness, cooklikeimbook, michaelkory, and tastyshreds often sport their recipes for healthy versions of burgers, macaroni and cheese, pasta, and, yes, even pizza. Even better, all of these recipes are generally already implemented into the MyFitnessPal database for convenient logging.

Now you're probably thinking "But Noah. I simply don't have the time to cook. I work all day, come home exhausted, and just want to order Chinese food." While not a "one size fits all" approach, it is a great practice to prep your meals on the weekends if you have time. Even if you don't or would rather spend your weekends doing other things like chores, errands, or social outings, making it non-negotiable to bring food to work and to plan your dinners ahead of time is key to ensuring consistently proper nutrition.

• Make the process enjoyable.

As I've said, you will not see results in a day, or even a week, so it's key to make yourself fall in love with the process of going to the gym and cooking your recipes. In my personal opinion, there's nothing more fun than tossing back 250 milligrams of pre-workout caffeine and blasting my favorite movie soundtracks over my headphones in the gym. Hitting personal records on the weights every week will become addicting. The endorphins you get from your favorite cardio will create clarity of mind. The sense of accomplishment you get from pushing beyond your previous limits will be carried into everything else you do, including your job. If you allow the gym to become your escape from the stresses that come with your other responsibilities, staying consistent becomes easy.

Throw on your favorite anime opening, max out your incline dumbell presses to failure, and go a little harder than you did the week before.

Bonus Tip: Perfection Is Overrated

2023 is your year to kick it into gear. Pick your exercises. Plan your routine. Get your protein. Track your calories. Drink your water. Get your sleep. Make the process simple, short, routine, and sustainable.

But as a bottom line, be kind to yourself.

Trust the process and be patient. Focus on being good most of the time, rather than perfect all the time. A mindset that prioritizes perfection is doomed to lead to self-sabotage and ultimately quitting, whereas a mindset of being consistently good will net far greater results in the long term. Will some workouts be occasionally more difficult than others? Of course. Will it be harder some days to wake up early, get into the gym, and get the job done? Of course. That is an inevitable part of the process.

At the end of the day, the only thing that matters is that you show up. Do the thing you promised yourself you would do. As long as you don't quit, you're already ahead of the vast majority of the workforce that quits after two weeks.

My verdict on New Years' resolutions? Overrated.

Instead, create routines without relying on a trendy but temporary burst of willpower. Build lifestyle habits, make them stick, and watch yourself become unrecognizable.