The New Year is a great time to reflect on the past and to ponder the future.  If you’re like most folks, that reflection often includes a look in the mirror and the recognition that you’ve put on a few pounds over the past year.  Hence, the perfect opportunity is presented to work off that excess baggage and resolve is made to target your health and fitness in 2010.  Unfortunately, your history of success with New Year’s resolutions speaks for itself and you will likely fail.  I believe there are 5 reasons why fitness is the perennial loser in the resolution game.  My hope is that by understanding the shortcomings of the fitness-oriented New Year’s Resolution you will instead be successful and satisfied with having lost weight and improved your health marginally by St. Patty’s Day.  Here are the 5 ways to sabotage your fitness resolutions:

1.     You Don’t Make a PLAN

It’s often said that “failing to plan IS planning to fail”.  Unfortunately, most New Year Resolutions are impulse-driven based on a last-minute forced vision of ourselves over the previous year, or more.  A good fitness plan will include mapping out the types, intensities and amounts of exercise you will accumulate daily, weekly and monthly.  Your plan should incorporate physically scheduling your exercise sessions for the week into your datebook.  Moreover, schedule more training sessions than you need.  This allows you to anticipate conflicts and increases the likelihood that you’ll at least achieve your minimum number of workouts each week.  Buy a fitness book that offers you structure, join a gym, or hire someone to help you make these decisions. 

2.     You Don’t Set SMART Goals

A S.M.A.R.T. goal is one that is specific, measureable, attainable, realistic and timed.  In fitness, a SMART goal would be to lose 1 to 3 lbs per week over 10 weeks.  This would amount to a 10-30 lb weight loss in that period, which may not provide the quick fix most of us desire, but hey, if your 15 lbs lighter by April that would be a significant accomplishment.  Weight is easily measureable.  It is definitely achievable in the 10 week time frame and is realistic based on scientific research.  In setting a time period you give yourself a deadline in which there will be re-measurement of your progress.  Programs designed to create change should be slightly restrictive, but they should also be temporary.  You should have the opportunity to move into a maintenance period for while and then re-engage yourself to progress further.  All of this effort provides the structure through which you will gain motivation and feedback for your efforts.

3.     You Expect Quick Returns

Unfortunately, in our society we have come to expect miracles instead of creating them.  Nobody is going to wave a magic wand and…poof, you’ll be in a size 2.  This leads to one of the greatest failings in fitness programs…the regain.  You need to be persistent.  You need to learn from your past and current experiences and you need to change your mindset.  A quick return is 10 lbs in a month.  Be super-satisfied if you achieve this! 

4.     You Don’t Tell Anyone or Garnish Support

Developing a support system is essential to the success of most structured behavioral change programs.  Take AA and smoking cessation programs for example that require that you spread the word.  Unfortunately, the emotions and social stigma of being overweight along with the fear of failure based on past experience cause people to keep their weight loss efforts to themselves.  However, keeping your program a secret will continue to allow people around you to sabotage, often unknowingly, your efforts.  In telling people your objectives, they are more likely to both be supportive and to possibly join you. 

5.     You Don’t Change Your Diet

There is no magic ratio of diet to exercise when attempting to change your body composition.  There is however a magic number that you need to be conscience of.  That is your metabolic break even point.  It’s much easier to stay under this number using nutrition strategies because of the effort necessary to compensate for poor eating.  For example, it would take you ~30-60 minutes on a treadmill to burn off the calories in one slice of pizza.  Most women will lose weight on 1400 Calories a day and most men on 1600.  You need to learn how to keep your Calorie intake within this range on average over the course of 7 to 10 days to lose weight. 

Bonus: You Use Exercise to Lose Weight

Most people believe that exercise is the conduit for creating sustainable weight loss.  This may be true.  However, this perspective often leads people into a negative relationship with exercise or physical activity.  Instead…you should be looking to find activities that you enjoy.  For example, train to overcome a physical obstacle like running your first 5K or 10-miler and you’ll lose weight as a byproduct.  Moreover, you’ll have accomplished something that is often more powerful than the consequential weight loss.  You will have proven to yourself that barriers can be broken and that mentally you’re tougher than you thought!  So, change your perception of exercise. 

Now it’s your turn to act on this knowledge and to make your resolutions a success in 2010!