INTRODUCTION
So the new year is here! Happy New Year to everyone reading! During this time, most people try to start there new fitness goals, new diets! However, most people fall off rather quickly? Why is this? Well, there are many reasons why people fail in their “New year diet”. In this article, we are going to go over a few reasons why people fail, Also we are going to explain how to you can prevent it. We are going to help you set your new year up perfectly and help you maintain your goals and stick with them!
A lot of people overcomplicate their New year diet and goals. When in reality it is fairly simple to get started. The biggest point I am going to make is that it takes time. A lot of people jump on diets and expect to see results the next day, this is just unrealistic. The key to fitness goals in any way is patience. While we are on the topic of diets, let us get into our first tip.
DON’T JUMP ON ANY STUPID PLANS
So the new year is here! Happy New Year to everyone reading! During this time, most people try to start there new fitness goals, new diets! However, most people fall off rather quickly? Why is this? Well, there are many reasons why people fail in their “New year diet”. In this article, we are going to go over a few reasons why people fail, Also we are going to explain how to you can prevent it. We are going to help you set your new year up perfectly and help you maintain your goals and stick with them!
A lot of people overcomplicate their New year diet and goals. When in reality it is fairly simple to get started. The biggest point I am going to make is that it takes time. A lot of people jump on diets and expect to see results the next day, this is just unrealistic. The key to fitness goals in any way is patience. While we are on the topic of diets, let us get into our first tip.
CALCULATE CALORIES AND PROTEIN
So, what is the best dieting plan to follow? We have mentioned it before, and all diets come down to a simple solution. Calories in vs calories out! At the start of the year just calculate your daily calorie and your protein goals and begin to follow these for a few weeks. It is free, easy and so simple.
Another bonus of dieting like this is that it makes you aware of how many calories and how much protein is in certain foods. Why is this important? Well, after a few weeks or months tracking your food, you will be able to stop tracking it and be able to eat knowing what is going into your mouth. Being aware of what you are eating is a great skill. It will lead to ultimate freedom on your diet. Not having to track, but knowing how much you are eating.
DO NOT SET UNREALISTIC GOALS
Another reason people fall off their goals and plans is that they set themselves unrealistic goals. They start the year by setting goals like “I want to lose 3 stone in January” or “I want to be able to bench 100kg in 3 Weeks”. When setting up goals, you want to set up goals that are a little challenging but also reachable.
Instead of setting goals like that, you should set goals like “I want to stick to my calories” or “I want to move more or gym more”.
Another top tip is to set up multiple goals. I tend to set a Daily, Weekly, Monthly and maybe a yearly goal. This way you make sure that you get wins throughout your journey. Keeping you motivated and staying on target.
FOCUS ON GYM GOALS RATHER THAN WEIGHT GOALS
Most people go into the new year wanting to lose X amount of weight or get to X weight. However, we would suggest trying setting other goals and forgetting about your weight. Maybe set a goal for a distance run, or weight you can lift. It could even be simpler than that, you could just set goals to go to gym X amount of times a week.
Why do we suggest this? Well, just because you set a weight goal doesn’t mean you have to tools to get there. However, if you set a goal for, let’s say, working out X amount of times a week, then weight loss and strength gain will be a by-product of that. Setting this goal is giving you the tools to achieve other things.
The gym doesn’t have to be about weight loss! There are plenty of reasons you might want to go to the gym. To move more, Lift heavier weights or to get out of the house and deal with anxiety. So just going to the gym to help you hit a weight goal, seems like a bit of a waste of a gym visit. As we have said above, Let the weight be a by-product of other goals.
DON’T PUNISH YOURSELF
The Holidays are a time for celebrations, family and enjoying life. With this comes enjoying food. We will all be doing this, so don’t feel like you are the only one. If you plan to have a new year diet, don’t punish yourself. Don’t go in it with the mindset that “oh, I overate at Christmas so now I need to undereat all of January.” That is not a healthy or sustainable approach. Don’t calculate your calories and then take another 300-500 off just to get things moving.
What you should do is put the holidays behind you. Calculate your calories and just stick to them. Let us say you “enjoy” the holidays for around a week. Eat what you want, drink what you want and just, in general, enjoy yourself. How much damage do you think this is going to do? Odds are if you are an active person, who exercises regularly and has a fairly healthy and nutritious diet anyway. It won’t make a blind bit of difference. You might be a bit bloated and feeling “groggy”, however, you will not wake up back at square one. 1 week isn’t going to change everything and revert it to the start.
The best thing you can do is get back on your diet, put the holidays behind you and just get back to where you were before hand. Whatever you do, don’t punish yourself.
TRACK YOUR PROGRESS
Tracking. It is a word we use a lot when talking about food, however, it doesn’t get brought up much when it comes to working out. When starting a new plan, a new diet or anything in the gym. It is always a good idea to track your progress.
We aren’t talking about hardcore tracking. Taking a logbook and tracking every lift, each set and each weight. You can do this if you like. If your goal is to get stronger we actually highly recommend you do this. However, just making a mental note is good enough. “Last week I managed a 100kg Deadlift for 3, this week I am going to do a 105kg deadlift”.
This will also help keep you motivated and moving towards your goal. It is hard to give up when you have a number to reach. Thus, in turn, keeping you motivated and working out. Luckily for you, our free workout application has a weight tracker built-in. You can use this to track your lifts or anything else you want to track.
CONCLUSION
As you can see, there are a few things you can do to help set up your new year diet right. Following these tips will help you stay on track, reach your goals, whatever they may be! Remember dieting can be fun, Finding out new recipes and trying to workouts or exercises can be challenging and fun. There are plenty of Instagram accounts where people post low-calorie recipes. Maybe we will do a blog post with all our favourite accounts.
To sum up, this blog, Remember that dieting in any way takes time and patience. You won’t see results straight away, but if you keep consistent and preserver then you will hit your goals. I think a lot of people have misunderstood how long the process can take. We are trying to fix that.
Remember, if you want to calculate your daily calories or macros head on over and download our free application. You will be able to use the free calorie calculator to calculate your daily calories or macros. It also contains hundreds of free workouts and other useful features for you all to use. Click here to download now, or click the icon below.
Written by Kieran Blacker
Kieran is the CEO and Founder of Sets & Reps. He decided to make an application that helped people get a gym workout when not at the gym. He designed, Coded and built the application himself.