April 1st, 2024.
According to a study on New Year's resolutions, 64% of people give up on their goals after just one month!?
Have you ever set a goal and then fell short of meeting it?
Was your goal realistic?
Sometimes we get really excited and assume that our passion and enthusiasm will drive us to accomplish a lot more than is realistic in a short amount of time.
My overly ambitious personality has served me well in many areas of my life but in the past it has also led me to to unintentionally set myself up for disappointment and grossly underestimate the time it takes to do anything, even day to day activities.
My own experiences have really shaped my coaching philosophy. I've now come to learn and encourage others to develop habits and systems rather than strive towards targets such as drop 20 pounds in 6 weeks.
This past quarter, myself and the participants in my Next Level Transformation Program worked on habits rather than outcomes. The habits for me that made the most difference included tracking my macros to ensure I ate enough protein and calories in order to get stronger as another habit of mine was strength training at least 3 times a week.
I did monitor my body composition throughout but I had no target in mind...
The goal was to show up and do the work.
Over the 10 weeks I added 3.1 pounds of skeletal muscle mass and lost 2 pounds of body fat. This resulted in a new body composition- my overall percentage of body fat dropped by 2%. In other words I gained weight, but became leaner.
These may seem like incremental gains/losses, but it was only 10 weeks and simultaneously gaining muscle and losing fat is also pretty magical! Also, I never felt deprived of food!
The research on how long it takes to build a habit is mixed, I've read that it can take anywhere from 21 days to 66 days. Ultimately, each habit is unique and some are harder to tackle than others. This Next Level program was really just about getting started... now I have habits in place that will help me continue to progress for the rest of the year.
Now I've done and run my fair share of nutrition challenges that range from 10 days to 10 weeks, but what I want to make clear is that they are not intended to provide anyone with a complete transformation; transformation takes months, even years, depending on how far you want to take it. I think this is really important to realize when you are envisioning your future self.
So if you are interested in forming some solid healthy habits over a long period of time and want help and accountability, reach out to me. I've re-arranged my programming for my 1:1 coaching and I'm now offering monthly packages which make working with me over a longer period of time and achieving deeper transformation, more accessible.
Let's crush this second quarter of 2024!
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