Make it for life

The New Year is here and so are all those well-meaning New Year’s resolutions.

If statistics hold true, your chances of making those resolutions stick are unlikely. If you are one of the many who will make a commitment to a health and fitness program in 2016, 53 percent of you will likely quit by the end of February.

Statistically, 80 percent of those who start a program in January will quit and drop the fitness commitment by the end of the year. If a diet program is on your to-do list for 2016, you really do not want to hear the success rate on dieting. Of the approximately 40 million Americans that start a new diet program each year, roughly 95 percent fail within a few months of starting the diet.

OK, let’s not be negative about our hopes and dreams of a healthy and fit 2016 and beyond. What is the best way to approach health and fitness so it will have lasting results throughout the new year and the rest of your life?

How do you structure your willpower and hold to your resolve of a healthy and fit New Year?

1. Baby steps — start with a reality check. Make a list of short- and long-term goals. Keep your short-term goals simple and attainable with activity wrapped around functional fitness. Functional fitness is any activity that can be incorporated into your daily routine. Walking the dog, taking stairs instead of elevators, eat less sugar, etc. Make your long-term goals realistic, start by slowly working toward habits such as getting to the gym every other day or dropping sugar altogether over a period of time. Avoid a shotgun start as most people lose interest quickly to intense change.

2. Limit the number of changes to your diet and workouts. Doing one or two things until they stick and become a habit is always best. Making many different changes to your life and lifestyle will result in failure. In almost every case, New Year's resolutions require you to change your behavior. Changing too many old habits at once is just not how we are wired. Imagine how difficult it would be to set a lofty goal to lose weight, stop eating your favorite foods, get to gym every other day, cut out wine or beer and walk at least 10,000 steps each day. Great ideas, but really do you think you can do all these at once? Statistically, you will fail at one if not all of them relatively quickly.

3. Exercising self-restraint is the most difficult aspect of any health and fitness lifestyle shift. Be sure to establish alternatives right from the start by making a list of activities and healthy foods to opt in for moments of weakness. Fresh fruits over candy, nuts over chips and a brisk walk or hike when you just don’t feel like heading to the gym.

Always have a plan to avoid sedentary situations and poor food choices.

4. No cheat days until you reach very specific goals — and never take them before you have had at least 90 days of success with both healthy food choices and solid exercise gains. There are a number of fitness professionals that believe cheat days help get their clients through rough patches.

Cheat days do not help set up good habits; they only serve to remind you how good poor habits feel and in many cases make you question why you’re trying to get healthy. Don’t fail due to weak moments of guilty pleasures.

5. Make a plan, then set goals that are easy to reach. Adjust your plan as you go, making your goals more difficult as you make progress. What is measured is valued, so log your forward progress.

Following a good, but flexible outline will give you the sense of accomplishment as you pass your mileposts. Measure inches, not pounds for example, and build your ultimate waist size into your plan. Before you know it, you may very well pass your own expectation.

6. Incorporate mindfulness each day. I have talked a lot about the positive aspect of keeping your mind calm and reducing stress.

Practicing some form of meditation each day, even if it’s just 30 mins of calming music that makes you feel great, can increase your chancing for lasting effects to your health and fitness progress.

All health and fitness success and failures start in your mind.

If you can control your emotions, moods and stress, you can do anything you set your mind to, including great health and fitness. Don’t underestimate the power of a positive mind and outlook.

7. Talk about your health and fitness plans for 2016.

Put yourself out there with friends and family for a number of great reasons. First and foremost, it allows the people around you to offer motivation and support. The second reason to talk about your goals is to establish your commitment. Words become actions, whether it’s self talk or talking frequently with others, words do become reality. Support your resolve and actions to change yourself for the better by talking about it often and to many.

8. Finally, don’t take on these tasks on alone. Team up on your New Year's resolutions to better your health and fitness. Working with a partner or friend will help keep both of you on track. Hold each other accountable or do it in a group setting where pressure from the group helps keep you moving in the right direction. Getting help from a personal trainer or other fitness professional is also a great idea.

Don’t become another year’s dismal statistic of failed New Year’s health and fitness resolutions.

Stay positive, don’t beat yourself up if you miss a few workouts or eat badly in the beginning.

Just stay focused, pace your goal setting and keep your nutrition and workouts interesting by mixing it up with new foods and exercise.

Just remember to keep an outlook that you are starting a new chapter of health and fitness that will last now and into the future.