New Year’s Resolution: The 2 Main Things to Reach Your Ideal Weight

Every year tons of people make New Year’s resolutions in the hopes of becoming more healthy and fit. Yet only around 9% of people actually report feeling like they were successful in reaching their resolution! Why is that? In my personal and professional experience, it’s because people overcommit and are extremely vague about their goals. You really only need to do two basic things in order to reach your ideal weight this year:

1. Move more
2. Improve your diet

Yes, those two points are extremely vague, but highly customizable based on where you are now. Let’s take a closer look.

Move more than you are right now

If you’re not working out at all right now, why would you commit to working out every single day or even 3-5 times per week? I challenge you to make it realistic and sustainable for you. Here are some ideas:

• Increase your current training by 1-2 days per week. If you’re training with Runtastic Results and are doing 3 training days per week, bump it up to 4 or 5.
• Start out your day with this Good Morning Energizing workout 2-3 mornings per week.
• Take your dog for an extra walk each day or perhaps start jogging with him/her (while, of course, tracking it with your Runtastic app!)
• Don’t stay glued to your desk during the workday. If you’ve got the chance, these are our favorite ways to get more active on the job. 

You don’t need to commit to what your friend or neighbor is doing. This is your life, and you are YOUnique!

Improve your diet with food tracking

It’s completely unrealistic to think that one can resolve to “eat healthier” and then completely rock it without making any mistakes all year! Instead of trying to cut out all carbs and only eat salads (even though I LOVE salads!), start tracking your food. You can enter your goal weight (whether you want to gain healthy weight or lose the extra fat) right into the app, and it will tell you exactly how many calories as well as grams of macronutrients (protein, carbohydrates and fat) you should be eating per day to reach your goal.

Shift your focus from needing to be absolutely perfect, and instead make it your goal to start tracking your food consistently so that you can get a good idea of where you are now and where you can improve. You can check out these practical tips to master food tracking from Nina Silic and me, so you too can become a food tracking pro!

Most people think that food tracking is very restrictive, when in fact I find it very liberating! You can, in theory, eat anything you want as long as it fits in your daily calories and macronutrients. However, you will quickly find out that the healthier the foods you choose, the fuller you’ll be for longer and the more energy and fewer cravings you will have. Here are some examples of how to set goals based on food tracking:

• Start small — only track 3 days a week and one day on the weekend to get a feel for it.
• Over time, increase to tracking daily and teach yourself about the importance of macro- and micronutrients.
• Make a list of your favorite not-so-healthy recipes and revamp one per month to a healthier version. For example, you can swap your brownie recipe with these Super Moist Chocolate Brownies (with a secret ingredient!) or this chia pudding recipe instead of ice cream in the evening.

So, what do you think? Are you up for the challenge? Does this make tackling your health and fitness New Year’s resolution a bit less scary? Share your goals, thoughts and feelings with us in the comments below! Together we can ROCK 2018! #strongertogether

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