5 Reasons Why Your New Year’s Resolution Fails

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So it’s the new year. New year, new you, right? A lot of people take this time to get serious about bettering themselves, however, 80% of people fail to stick with their resolution. To help shed light on why that is, we have compiled a list of the top reasons, in our opinion, that people fail in keeping with their New Year’s Resolution.

  1. Not Educating Yourself

Embarking on a new lifestyle is challenging, and most people do not do enough to educate themselves on how to make effective changes that are enduring. Consulting with professionals like physical therapists, personal trainers, or nutritionists, or just doing self-research goes a long way to making sure your efforts are effective and sustainable.

  1. Trying a fad diet

There’s a reason why a fad diet is called a fad diet. They simply don’t work long term. A lot of diets out there promise drastic results very fast. Think about the Keto craze currently going on. And as true as that might be, sticking with something like that is virtually impossible because it usually involves depriving yourself of very important nutritional components. Remember the Atkinson Diet a few years back? There’s a reason why no one talks about that diet today.

  1. Having High Expectations

Getting into a new lifestyle is hard work and any health and fitness professional will tell you that results are slow, especially if you are doing things the correct way. When your expectations are too high, such that you step on the scale every morning and after workouts to see how what you’ve been doing is making an impact, you set yourself up to fail. You will likely see some fast results just by tweaking your diet, but when you start to see the scale not change or even go up occasionally, you will think all of your hard efforts are for nothing, and your motivation will tank, I promise you that. Have 1 day a week where you step on the scale in the morning and keep a log to track progress over time. You will generally see changes and that will re-affirm that you are going in the right direction.

  1. Giving up Before March 6th

March 6th marks the 66th day into the new year, and science has shown us that in order to make something habitual, you need to stick with a behavior for 66 days. You have to give yourself time to make sure your efforts become “something that you do” as opposed to “something you have to do.”

  1. Not Having Any Fun

This is one of the most important in my opinion. There are literally thousands of ways you can be active and thousands more healthy meals you can prepare. I know a lot of people who think you have to go to a gym and do the boring machines and eat nothing but rice, chicken, and broccoli for every meal. How awful does that sound? If you are not having fun with what you’re doing actively or with what you’re eating, you will lose interest. Go out and try new things and learn how to make fun healthy whole food meals that you look forward to. You don’t know what you like until you try it.
-Rob Hodges, PT, DPT