It's pretty common to believe life begins again after New Year's. This is when goals are set, promises are made and hopes are high.
I have my own belief system about this way of thinking and I want to share with you how changing my thoughts about resolutions have made a HUGE difference in actually sticking to the promises you make to yourself.

Like many people out there, when I was heavy ( over 200 pounds heavy ), I would tell myself how I would join the gym and "get real serious" as my New Year's resolution. I would actually DREAD the day that I was to start this new routine. It felt like a punishment. Every day leading up to it was an excuse to eat whatever I wanted and shrug off exercise because I had a solid "start date". I was gonna do this. It was fine to raid the box of chocolates, stuff myself silly at Thanksgiving and partake in every dish available at every holiday party I went to because my "New Year's Resolution" was gonna fix all of that when that time came.

Well, as always, that time came. The day to start off with some fruit, hit the gym and say no to every food group I loved because I had an extra 10 pounds or so of holiday weight to take off along with the other goodies I abused throughout the previous year. The problem was that by New Year's, I still wasn't really into it.  This was because it was foreign to me. Exercise and intelligent eating habits weren't the norm anyway, so how was this going to become so easy now that there was the pressure of this resolution? It didn't and within a few weeks...I, like most of you out there...gave up because I hated it.

I honestly believe that when we think of anything as punishment, we do our best to avoid it. Trying to begin something that we don't usually do in our every day lives on a given date set by society makes most of us look for ways to rebel. Most of us are creatures of routine and breaking that makes us feel out of place in our own lives. If we felt that we could eat what we wanted and do what we wanted on any given day, we'd all be a lot more relaxed.

So how does this relate to fitness and nutrition? For me, my resolution actually began one random day in March a couple of years ago. I had an opportunity to make fitness part of my life. There was no particular holiday or event coming up, so it was easy enough to ease into it without the pressure of a deadline. I simply began to add this new activity into my routine and it took off from there. Of course I had goals, but since there was no immediate time frame,, I was able to enjoy the process with a firm knowing that I would be where I wanted to be by the time some random event popped up. Fast forward to the next holiday season, I was already where I wanted to be and because it was a habit by this time, I wasn't tempted by "everything bad" that surrounded me. I didn't have to set a weight loss resolution for New Year's and life felt pretty good.

This is why I ask, "Why Wait?" If you begin your new lifestyle on any given day, especially before New Year's, you are already in the midst of your routine. The dreaded day of reckoning won't phase you because you'll feel so empowered by the fact that you already started. If fact, if you get started sooner, you probably won't even pack on the extra holiday pounds because you would have already burned them off. This changes the entire perspective of fitness. It's no longer a punishment. It becomes something that just makes sense in life and since you have nothing to prove to yourself in such an immediate time frame, you get to relax, progress into your new lifestyle safely, properly and with joy.

The way to get what you want is to change the way you view what you want. By making the changes before the pressure hits, you get the ability to change how you look at foods and exercise. When they take on a perspective viewed with enthusiasm, the journey becomes joyful and the pride that follows becomes priceless.

I no longer dread the holiday parties. I have no guilt during Thanksgiving dinner and New Year's Day has become a day I feel comfortable with. I'm there. I've done the work.. I expect to work-out on Thanksgiving morning since it's something I've already done before. I may allow myself some treats here and there over the holidays since I don't have any weight left to lose and my metabolism is higher from the work I've put into my daily routines. If it sounds like I'm bragging a little, well, I probably am...but not with a big head. I want this for you. I want you to to feel good. I want you to get your bragging rights. If anything I've written here makes sense, I have no doubt you'll be loving your body and won't need to bother with unrealistic resolutions ever again.

So again, why wait??