Happy Chinese New Year!! Today marks the beginning of a new year 4710 - year of Dragon - according to Chinese Zodiac.
Dragon symbolizes courage and prosperity in Chinese Zodiac, although it's the only imaginary animal among the 12.
If you missed your New Year's resolutions on January 1 (solar calendar), you've got a second chance to jump-start your resolutions in Chinese New Year (lunar calendar).
With a second chance around, what do you want to accomplish this year? more time with family? start up a new business or revive your current business? get a new job or career? Whatever it is, we’re here to support you, motivate you and keep you on track in every step of your journey.
Join me and 40,000 other high-achievers for the 100 Day Challenge, to set your goals and your personal strategic plan. Visit http://bit.ly/buTskW
When the New Year's parties end, a lot of us are left with some tough promises to keep.
The latest NPR-Thomson Reuters Health Poll is revealing what Americans are making their New Year's resolutions.
The telephone poll of more than 3,000 adults across the country was conducted during the first half of December. The margin for error is plus or minus 1.8 percentage points. Click here to read the questions and complete results.
How much did people want to lose? Almost half of people with dieting in mind wanted to drop 10 to 29 pounds. About 21 percent wanted to shed between 30 and 49 pounds.
Fifty one percent of all respondents make a resolution to exercise more. Thirty five percent pledge to lose weight and 9% of smokers make a resolution to quit smoking.
Some people have had a lot of practice with their vows to do better. A little more than a third of people have resolved to lose weight at least once in the past five years. Among those who have promised themselves they'd shed a few pounds, 38 percent made that resolution five years in a row.
Making a resolution is the easy part. How well do people actually do? Overall, 57 percent of respondents who wanted to lose weight in the past told us they'd reached their goal.
Quitting smoking is more challenging. Among people who had vowed to quit smoking at least once in the past five years, only 36 percent said they had succeeded.
Now, we have to admit that we wondered how accurate people's reports of success on their goals might be. The folks at Practice Fusion, a supplier of electronic medical record systems for doctors' offices, gave us another way of looking at things.
The company combed through a sample of real-world data from doctors' records, including the weights of more than 21,000 patients measured in 2010 and again in 2011. There's a lot of people who are losing some weight. Overall, about 46 percent of people lost some weight. On average, it was about 7 pounds from one year to the next.
Now the Practice Fusion data are from people who saw their doctors regularly, and we don't know how that lines up with respondents to our poll. After looking at the poll's findings and his own company's data, you might not reach your ambitious New Year's health goal, but it's still worth a try. You may lose a little weight, which is better than none at all.
Morris County NJ personal trainer and fitness coach Carey Yang explains the New Year's Resolution Syndrome, how to set the right goals and provides proven strategies to cure it for good.
Losing weight and getting healthy rank the Top 3 New Year's Resolutions for most people. "You can witness this from the crazy crowd in the gym for the first two weeks after the New Year. People all over the world are searching for tips and advice in losing weight, building muscles, eating right, finding workout routines, and achieving six pack abs when the New Year Eve's ball drops," says Carey Yang, a certified personal trainer and fitness coach.
Yang is the owner and master personal trainer at Beyond Fitness Solutions, LLC -- a leading in-home personal training and weight-loss management company serving and helping clients in Morris County, Sussex County, Passaic County, Essex County and Somerset County areas in New Jersey.
Health and fitness is the case where haste makes waste, as the old saying goes. Many people start the new year with good momentum, then lose steam by the end of January. By February, most people already quit or visit the gym much less often.
One study from the University of Scranton showed that a quarter of people who resolve to lose weight and change their eating habits on January 1st will go back to their old ways within a week. By the end of January, one-third of people quit. Only half people still stay on their New Year's resolutions after 6 months.
"No wonder it's such as a big struggle for many people whether to make or not to make New Year's resolutions. They want to set goals and achieve them. On the other hand, they are also afraid of failing to keep the resolutions," Yang says.
Yang explains 5 common pitfalls when making New Year's resolutions and shares his strategies to beat the New Year's Resolution Syndrome.
1. Dream big but start small. Your old-and-never-worked resolution could be like "I resolve to start exercising 5 to 7 times a week, 30 to 60 minutes each time." If you haven't exercised regularly for the last 3 months, this resolution is bound to fail and you're doomed!
Start with small baby steps. Start with a combination of walking, aerobic exercise, strength training, and other physical activities for 2 to 3 times for a total accumulation of 2 hours of exercise a week. The key is to be able to get into a regular exercise habit. Gradually increase the duration, variety, intensity and frequency. This is one of the reasons why a personal trainer or fitness coach can be a really good source of professional guidance and accountability.
2. Make multiple resolutions that reinforce each other. When you make a healthy resolution, you'll start to re-think about falling back to those not-so-good habits.
Make multi-week, multi-month and multi-year resolutions. Why makes "annual" resolutions that you can only follow for a month? Have a big picutre. Break it down into smaller, realistic, achievable mini goals. You'll feel better when you accomplish the mini goals. It gives you more confidence and momentum to stay on track towards your bigger goals.
If you're still smoking or eating junk foods regularly, why do all the cardio and strength training? It just doens't make sense. You won't transform to your dream body even if you train 7 days while staying on the unhealthy lifestyle and poor eating habits.
3. Food is your friend, not your foe. Make a good friend with your foods. Every year, or in fact evey day, you'll see new diet books on the market. You lose money but not your weight. Food is the source of energy to fuel your body so that you can function and perform. Eating healthy foods is the choice you can make. Replace the poor choices with healthy ones.
Pick two of your weak areas and consciously replace them with healthy choices and stay on them for a month. Similar to exercise, too much too soon is going to backfire. When you can stick to the two healthy choices for a month, then you start to include more healthy choices.
4. Get a good night sleep. Go to bed a half hour earlier. I know many people are eating late, snacking, drinking alcohols, watching TV shows in the evening to unwind their stress from the day. These poor habits disturbance your sleeping quality. They drain your energy and sabotage your resolutions if you want to lose weight and look good.
If you have followed the first three tips, you shouldn't be here. Your body releases growth hormones while you're sleeping that help you build muscle. Deprivation of sleep also makes you crave for sugary and high fat foods and make you wan to eat more to feel satisfied.
5. Watch your environment. When you want to lose weight and stay fit and healthy, you need to watch out who you're associated with. You are the product of five of your closest friends.
Obesity is epidemic and contagious. Some people call it "sympathetic weight gain" with your friends. On the other hand, thinness could be contagious too. See who has the upper hand over the other.
So stay close to your fit and healthy friends. But don't break up with your overweight friends as yet. Just be aware and stay conscious in your environments.
Stay away from sources that drain your energy and damage your health. Make friends with like-minded people who are positive, fit, healthy, high-energy and high-performance.
Watch the slideshow video on how to beat the New Year's Resolution Syndrome:
About C. Carey Yang and Beyond Fitness Solutions, LLC C. Carey Yang, Your Dream Body WorkoutXpert (TM), is a certified personal trainer and fitness boot camp instructor based in Morris County, New Jersey. He provides in-home personal fitness training, backyard boot camp, wellness and lifestyle coaching, and fitness and weight-management seminar. He specializes in helping busy, working professionals who want safe, effective workouts with maximum results in minimum time. Yang is the creator of the 6-Step Dream Body Blueprint (TM) Body Transformation System.
To learn more about lifestyle and wellness coaching, personal fitness training and nutritional counseling and to sign up for a free monthly e-zine, receive free fitness and fat loss e-books, and schedule a complimentary consultation, visit http://www.BeyondFitnessSolutions.com.
He is also available for media interviews, providing a list of tips and articles, and presenting wellness and fitness seminar. Call 973-303-2424 or email Carey at BeyondFitnessSolutions.com.
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NJ Personal trainer and fitness coach Carey Yang explains why New Year's resolutions fail, why you hold the key to solving the New Year's Resolution Syndrome, and how to set the right goals.
Sign for your FREE 'Jump-Start Your Body' Workout and Nutrition program or request your complimentary fitness consultation in Northern New Jersey at http://www.beyondfitnesssolutions.com.
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Your old-and-never-worked New Year's resolution could be like "I resolve to start exercising 5 to 7 times a week, 30 to 60 minutes each time." If you haven't exercised regularly for the last 3 months, this resolution is bound to fail and you're doomed!
Start with small baby steps. You could start with a combination of walking, aerobic exercise, strength training, and other physical activities for 2 to 3 times for a total accumulation of 2 hours of exercise a week. The key is to be able to get into a regular exercise habit. Gradually increase the duration, variety, intensity and frequency. This is one of the reasons why a coach/trainer can be a really good source of professional guidance and accountability.
Improving health and fitness is on the top 3 New Year's Resolutions for most people. You can witness by the crazy crowd in the gym for the first two weeks. I can testify by the exploding number of visitors to my website and blog and new subscriber signups. People all over the world are searching for advices on losing weight, building muscles, eating right, workout routines, six pack abs, etc.
Health and fitness is the case where haste makes waste, as the old saying goes. Many people start the new year with good momentum, then lose steam by the end of January. By February, most people already quit or visit the gym much less often. Pad yourself on the back if you're still working out by June. You're rare if you're still showing up in the gym regularly by year end.
One study from the University of Scranton showed that a quarter of people who resolve to lose weight and change their eating habits on January 1st will go back to their old ways within a week.
The following list shows how many of these resolutions are maintained as time goes on:
- Past the first week: 75%
- Past two weeks: 71%
- Past one month: 64%
- After 6 months: 46%
Source: Auld Lang Syne: Success predictors, change processes, and self-reported outcomes of New Year's resolvers and nonresolvers, by John C. Norcross, Marci S. Mrykalo, Matthew D. Blagys , University of Scranton. Journal of Clinical Psychology, Volume 58, Issue 4 (2002).
Respect yourself by showing your commitment and accountability in healthy lifestyle changes, not just 3 days, one week, or 6 months, permanent, for the long run.
One of the biggest mistakes when people make their New Year's Resolutions is that they want to change and do too many things, too soon and at the same time!
Sooner than later they get so overwhelmed that they simply cannot keep up with and just quit.
Changing or replacing an old habit takes time to become permanently part of you. Healthy lifestyle and habit changes don't just happen overnight. You should have known human behavior by now. It's true to eating healthy and working out regularly.
It's perfectly okay to dream big and have a big goal. But you need break down the big goal into smaller goals and action steps. Dream big but start small.
Make the smaller goals challenging yet still easily and realistically achievable. You'll feel confident and good about yourself when you achieve the small steps. It gives you the momentum, reinforcement and sense of accomplishment to move to the next step, a step closer to your bigger goal.
I suggest that you pick no more than two things to work on in each of the following areas. When you stick to it for one month, then add another one or two thing in the following month. If you're really conscious about your actions, you'll achieve 24 things in one area by the year end. That could be your bigger goal.
I must admit that I cannot start to change with all 24 things at the same time in just one area. But I can certainly focus on just two things in one month.
Here are four more habits of highly fit and healthy people. They're equally important elements to keep a fit and healthy lifestyle.
Healthy Habit #4: They Have Goals
Highly fit, in-shape people always have a goal. After all, you can’t improve something unless you know what you are trying to improve it to. Those goals can be small and incremental, or large and ambitious. In either case, they act with a sense of purpose when it comes to their health and physical fitness.
Whether that goal is to maintain their current physique, improve it, reduce body fat, gain additional muscle, increase their endurance or stamina, become more flexible, improve their coordination, or develop a better golf swing, they will always have a goal that they are shooting for.
They have more stable blood sugar, more consistent energy levels, and are less prone to gaining body fat because they rarely eat more calories in any given meal than their body can utilize.
Healthy Habit #5: They Drink Water
Highly fit people understand the benefits of water. When you see them, whether it's at the gym, at home or in the office, a bottle of water will often be close at hand. Proper hydration isn’t just important to athletes and runners, but everyone. Water can blunt fatigue, improve concentration and thought clarity, discourage the formation of kidney stones, improve digestion and improve performance in the gym.
Healthy Habit #6: They Don’t Diet!
Highly fit and healthy people understand that long term health and fitness requires consistently eating smart. And smart eating for a highly fit person is just part of their everyday routine.
They don’t skip breakfast. The often bring their own lunch to work and they seem to always be snacking on healthy foods like apples, vegetables and nuts.
The one exception to this rule is competitive male and female bodybuilding. Competitive bodybuilders will often diet leading up to a competition in order to drive their body fat down to very low levels. It’s very difficult for any person, no matter how well-conditioned they are, to maintain these extremely low, competition-grade body fat levels for any significant amount of time.
Healthy Habit # 7: They Record Their Progress
Healthy, highly-fit people keep track of their exercise so they can determine whether they are actually making progress toward their goals. You can’t improve what you don’t measure.
It may simply be a notebook where they write down each exercise, the weight and completed reps. Or it may be more formal, for example a store-bought exercise and fitness log or a sheet provided by their gym.
It takes conscious and consistent effort to break old habits and form new healthy habits. Start small. Pick 1 to 2 habits a week to work on. Pay attention to your focus and environment. Make sure they're helping, not sabotaging.
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Sign for your FREE ‘Jump-Start Your Body’ Workout and Nutrition program or request your complimentary fitness consultation in Northern New Jersey at http://www.beyondfitnesssolutions.com/.
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