With New Year’s right around the corner, people are going to start thinking about their New Year’s resolutions. The most common ones I hear usually have something to do with getting in shape, eating right, working out, and things of that nature. Unfortunately for many of the people that I hear this from, their resolution turns out to be a fleeting moment. There are a multitude of reasons that this may happen, but one of the best ways I think it can be avoided is by having an actionable and sustainable plan. When people are well informed and have a well-structured plan, it greatly increases the chances of adherence and success.
The best way to set yourself up for success would be to hire a coach that will be able to guide you through the process. A coach would be able to take you step by step and help keep you accountable. If you can’t afford a coach or find one that you want to work with, the next best option would be to buy/sign-up for a program that lays out all the tools you need to assist you on your journey. One that I would recommend is the MyTrasnphormation Starts Today app. The app has free and premium access. The premium access will help guide you through a workout plan, guide you through a meal plan and counting macros, and even provide 1-on-1 help from actual coaches. If you can’t afford the premium version, even the free one will help with the same things, just not have as many bells and whistles. You would still be able to get a general meal and training plan that is tailored to you.
If you can’t afford a coach/subscription and choose to go at this journey on your own, here is a little crash course on how to set yourself up to not totally spin your wheels and at least head in the right direction. I would also like to add, in other articles I have written on my site, I do go into more detail for many of these topics I am mentioning and there are plenty other good resources you can find online if you do a little research. I would strongly advise people to at a bare minimum, follow a few people that they trust who put out good information to help make decisions on how to go about their journey.
The most important thing to remember when starting your fitness journey is that you will have far greater success creating habits and not chasing the “quick fix”. Your New Year’s resolution or just a fitness journey in general, is not something that you finish after a month or two. It instead is a commitment to a different way of living that allows you to be the best version of yourself that you can be. So we want to take things step by step, not go from 0-100 and then burn out. If you have never taken your nutrition seriously or if you have never tried exercising before, you shouldn’t expect to start right off the bat following an extreme nutrition and training plan. Instead we want to start small and develop habits that create momentum. The small habits and momentum will then lead to an enjoyable and sustainable lifestyle.
Training and nutrition can WIDELY vary from person to person, but I figured I would lay out some general guidelines and principles that people should at least take into consideration.
When starting a training regimen, the very first thing to consider after determining your goals is considering how many days you are actually willing to train. If you have never stepped in a gym before or have been away from it for a considerable amount of time, it may not be the best idea to jump into a plan that has you doing some sort of training 6 days a week. It may be better for you to commit to training 3 days a week so you can create the habit of going. There are tons of actual training styles, but my personal favorite is bodybuilding style workouts. Regardless of the style of training you choose, I would highly recommend some sort of weight/resistance training in your program. Once you have created the habit of consistently exercising, you can up the frequency to 4,5,6 days a week.
Here is super basic 3 day training split that would be great for beginners who have never lifted before. Cardio can easily be added at the end of each training session or on days you don’t lift to get some extra activity in.
Along with setting up our training plan, our nutrition is another important piece of the puzzle. So rather than jump into either a popular “fad diet” or even ones that have been around for a while, I try to encourage people to create habits first. Then if they still want to try out a special diet, go for it. It just doesn’t make sense to me to jump into a specialized-restrictive diet when the right habits to adhere to it haven’t been established.
Just like training, I like to follow a step by step approach when it comes to tackling nutrition. Going right to fully tracking macros may be stressful or overwhelming for a lot of people. For a quick reference I like this 3 step system that a number of fitness professionals I know follow.
You should first start by making it a habit to count calories. Your main goal should be to see if you can stay accountable for overall calorie intake (calorie calculators are a great place to get a ballpark number to start with for an overall goal, but don’t take them as absolute). Just being more mindful and starting to count calories will inherently help people clean up their diet because they are actually thinking about it. Also during this step, try getting more vegetables and fruits into your diet. Not only do they have a lot of nutrients in them, but vegetables and fruits can be a lower calorie-higher volume option that helps keep you feeling satiated.
Then after you have made tracking a habit (2-4 weeks), you can move to step 2. Which is continuing to count overall calories, but also track protein and try to hit a certain daily protein intake. To set a protein goal, an easy way to start is, aim for 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight (if you have a lot of weight to lose, use your “goal bodyweight” for this equation).
Example: I currently weigh 160lbs, so I am going to aim for 160 grams of protein per day. 160 grams of protein will allot for 640 of my total daily calories because there are 4 calories in every gram of protein.
If you weigh 220lbs and want to get down to 190lbs, you could set your protein goal for 190 grams. It wouldn’t hurt you to eat a little extra protein, but it also won’t hurt to eat at that little lower level either.
Now a lot of people can stay at step 2 and just adjust/drop their overall calorie level and make great progress. But it you want to take it to the next level and really fine tune your results, the next step would be tracking all three macros (protein, carbohydrates, and fats). Tracking all three allows for even more customization. When you start doing this, the amount of individual differences is even greater
Regardless of how you decide to pursue your own fitness goals, you will probably hit some road bumps along the way. If you do have a slip up, don’t let it totally derail you. If you happen to have a cheat meal that you’re regretting, don’t let it turn into a whole day or week of bingeing. Or if you skip a workout, don’t get down on yourself for not going then continue to not go. In any situation, just pick right back where you left off and keep pluggin along. You don’t have to win every day to reach your results, you just need to win more days than you lose.
Something that isn’t included with many training or nutrition plans is the reminder to take pictures. You don’t have to post them all over social media, but you should take as many as you can. One of my biggest regrets is that I don’t have very many good progress pictures throughout my years of training. I have some here and there, but not many. In the day to day when you’re in the thick of things, it may not seem like you have made a lot of progress, but when you take a minute to step back and compare, you’ll be amazed at how far you’ve come. When I look at the few old pictures I have, I can’t believe where I started to where I am, and I’m sure you’ll get that same feeling too. It’ll help push you if you start to get down on yourself or feel like you haven’t been making good gainz.