New Year Resolutions for 2012 – Get Fit and Lose Weight
It will soon be January again, a new year and a new beginning. The Christmas stuffing will be over and the goose fat placed back in storage. The Christmas puddings will be eaten and the last of the Christmas cake will be slowly drying out in the kitchen. Then shortly after the last signs of Christmas will be gone. Well, maybe the signs in your house, but not the signs on your hips and your belly!
And this is why every January people promise themselves to finally get fit and lose weight. All over the world people sign contracts with local gyms, buy new running shoes, order healthy recipe books and leap on the latest fitness and weight loss fad. And by February all of this is forgotten too.
The main reason why people fall off the wagon is because their expectations are too high. So this new year, be sensible and realistic when goal setting. If you are like most people who set healthy new year resolutions, you probably have a list a little like this;
- Get fit and lose weight
- Drink less / quit smoking
- Connect with old friends and family
- Be more organised, work harder
- Earn more money
Very rarely do New Year Resolutions differ greatly from this list. People tend to want to be healthier, fitter and have more money! Plus, people always say they plan to meet up with old friends and family more.
All of these resolutions are attainable though. Fitness and weight loss is really easy to achieve with the right guidance. People fail each year because they make the wrong decisions and then give up too soon. There is nothing more frustrating than hearing people say “I have tried everything to lose weight” when they have hardly made any changes to their lifestyles at all.
For example, many people join a gym to lose weight. This generally means that a couple of times a week they go to the gym and exercise for around 1 hour, although about half of this time is spent waiting for a machine, stretching, drinking water, watching the plasma screens, looking at the other gym goers. Then after one whole month of “going to the gym” they declare that it does not work, as they have lost no weight. However, what this really means is that they have found that if you are overweight and unfit, doing around 6 hours of exercise (assuming around 45 minutes of actual exercise is done each session, twice a week), spread over a month does not lead to weight loss. Well, that really is no surprise at all! Professional athletes will exercise for 6 hours a day, not 6 hours a month!
I do not mean to be harsh, but the real reason why people fail to lose weight after joining the gym is simply because they are not doing enough exercise. Ideally you should do 45 minutes of exercise (not including time spent queuing, washing, drinking, talking, stretching) every single day. This is the minimum really. Better is 60 minutes a day for a month – 30 hours in total, i.e. 5 times more activity than the twice a week gym visits.
However, this is not all. As well as exercise you must, absolutely must, change your diet. Exercise helps you to burn energy, increase metabolism and improve your health. However, poor diet will still lead to weight gain even in the most active people. Athletes and bodybuilders have to keep a careful eye on their diets and they are exercising for hours every day. So you must also.
Making these changes is not easy, but then that is why you make a “resolution” to stick to them. Do not make your resolutions lightly! Promise that you will stick to them. You long-term health and happiness depends partly on your ability to stick to a healthy lifestyle. Start making positive changes today, set realistic goals and follow structured plans.
Jon Wade blogs about health and fitness. He is studying health sciences and has almost 20 years experience in martial arts and fitness. Visit his blog and you will find out how to eat a healthy and balanced diet and how to lose belly fat too. Free support through the website, you have nothing to lose, so come on over!
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