I’ve lost over 1,000 pounds from dieting…and failed miserably.  Wait…..What?  Hold on and read along.

Tis the season of parties, egg-nog, booze, cookies, tamales, turkey, ham, cookies and over-indulging.  You know what else is in season?  Hearing people say, “after the new year, I am going to get serious about dieting/fitness”.  I’ve heard 3 different people say those words in the past 24 hours alone.

They’ve already failed.  You may have already failed. I used to fail every December.

If this is your plan, you’ve openly said that you are going to procrastinate something over the next 3+ weeks.  This attitude makes it likely that your plan is going to fail anyways, at least in the long term.  Brutal truth.

For starters, your idea has a high propensity for failure based on your labeling it as a “diet”.  When you say diet, your telling yourself that you will eat clean for a season to achieve a short term goal in hopes that your weight doesn’t come back.  Some of the cool kids call this “yo-yo dieting”.  You’ve probably done this before.  I did….A LOT.

If you know me or have been reading this blog for a while, you know that I started a successful, weight loss journey back in 2011 and have not put the weight back on.  What you don’t know is that I estimate that I have lost over 1,000 pounds as an adult.  Most of it in 15-30 pound increments.  I’ve also gained over 1,000 pounds….in 15-30 pound increments.  I did the yo-yo diet thing more than a decade.  And ended it fat.  You know why?  Because I was “dieting” AND because there was always something coming up.  How many times have you said, “I’ll start dieting after (pick something here)”.  Yeah, we procrastinate making life changes when there is something on the schedule.  Holidays.  Vacations.  Budget season at work.  Summer break.  Superbowl.  Spring break.  Seriously, you can find a reason to put it off.

There will be days during the holiday season that you will gain weight.  My mother makes the best Mexican food that I’ve ever had in my life for the holidays.  A buddy of mine drops off a few dozen tamales every year.  I’ll attend at least 3-4 Christmas parties.  We’ll have some candy and cookies in the house.  And hey, I enjoy an occasional stout craft beer this time of the year as well.  I’ll gain weight for a few days here and there.  While I may gain weight, I won’t have a Mexican feast of Christmas parties every night of the week between Thanksgiving and New Years Day.  I’ll eat clean and log extra time working out.  I plan to break even over the holiday season, but if not I’ll have a lot less weight to lose than anyone waiting for January 2.  

But why are you wanting to “diet in the New Year” to begin with?  Don’t call it a diet.  Diets fail.  No one goes on one diet with long term success.  Change your lifestyle.  Eat clean and get active.  New Years Resolutions are for people who hope to do something, not for people who are determined to do something.  Determined people set their goals, write them down and just do it.  Determined people don’t need a calendar to get started, they just start.

What if I told you that I have a goal to be nicer to others, but only for 3-4 months?  What kind of stupid goal would that be?  Wouldn’t I seem like a jerk for open acknowledging that I would be less nice after a short period of time?

Quit being a jerk to your body.  You only have one of them and its yours for the rest of your life.  Santa isn’t bringing you a new one this year…or next year…or any year.  Take care of it for the long term.

Go get it.