New Years Goals

I took a look back at a blog I wrote 9 years ago, “Getting Through the Holiday Season” and even with many years past, this guide still holds true. I picked up some ideas since then to keep your motivation up and to make this January easier on you.

​Think of your goals now
Now is a good time to start thinking of your goals for next year. Knowing that you have a goal to work towards starting in January will help keep it in mind throughout the Holidays. This will hopefully lead to better decisions when it comes to eating and exercise. You can still have fun during the Holidays, but practice a little more control at parties and get a few workouts in. You will be much happier if you made an effort on your fitness program as opposed to the “I’ll wait till the New Year to get started”.
 
Last year’s goals are still worth achieving
Like many goals in life, fitness goals can take longer than expected. Somehow though we tend to get down on ourselves for not achieving rapid results. I blame the all the aggressive marketing in the fitness, nutrition, and supplement industry. They give us extremely high expectations in weight loss or muscle gain in order to sell their products. Sure you could lose 20lbs in 2 months, but it will most likely take longer which is fine since it’s better for you. Revisit last year’s goals and come up with a refined game plan to achieve them.
 
Be good on non-party days
It’s hard to make progress this time of year, but you can minimize the damage by eating healthy and not drinking alcohol when there are no Holiday events going on. I find that being good through most of the week makes the Holiday meals tastier and more fun.
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Pick your poison on the small parties
On the big Holidays most of us are going to eat and drink whatever we want. If done within reason, that’s ok. Have fun and enjoy the time with family and friends. For those smaller Holiday parties that only last a couple hours, pick a couple fun items and have the rest be as healthy as you can. You can skip out on some of the “bad” items: wine, snacks, dessert, heavy side dishes, etc.
 
Do it or pay the price
Everyone has to make an effort on the Holidays if you want to come out of them feeling good in 2020 and I’m no exception. For me it’s beer, snacks, and meat. I love them at parties, but I know that if I go to crazy, then my health and fitness goals get further away leaving more work to be done next year. I have been chasing(literally) my goal of running under a 12 second 100m race for 3 years and I know the better I am now the better chance I have of finally achieving it. This goal also, coincides with being healthy in general which ensures that I keep a healthy personal profile. Put a moderate amount of work in now and you will be happy you did next year.