Happy New Year, Warriors! If you are new around these parts, welcome, click around, learn about who I am, and check out some of the great resources I have. If you are a returning reader, thanks for joining me again in 2023 and you probably won’t be super shocked at the topic I’m tackling here in this first week of January: consistency.
It’s a theme for me and I like to make a point of addressing it early in the new year most years. At this point in my career, I’ve been around for enough resolution seasons that I know how this story usually plays out. You’ve got exercise, fitness, or wellness goals and you’ve got the plans and expectations to match.
And trainers the world over hear the phrase, “go big or go home,” on repeat. There is certainly nothing wrong with a gung-ho attitude, but what happens when that motivation flags? Because it will. Probably a lot sooner than you expect.
According to research and numbers, which I love, resolution attrition starts in February. That’s a fancy way of saying that most people who start the New Year with a resolution to go to the gym, lose weight, or otherwise improve their Physical Health, fall off a fitness cliff by Valentine’s Day.
The real problem isn’t you or your resolution. It’s your reliance on motivation and the “go big or go home” mentality. It should really be deemed, “go big AND go home.” I can personally attest after years of working with clients and students that the ones who pack it in the earliest are usually the ones who go the biggest the fastest.
First and foremost, going big when you haven’t in awhile is a good way to get hurt. Not the best way to start working towards whatever your wellness goals happen to be. The point of exercise and movement is to give your body a new stimulus that it has to learn to adapt to. But if you give your body more than it can handle, well, it will let you know.
Secondly, relying on the all or nothing mentality to keep you motivated has worked for nobody, ever. All the “go big or go home,” mantra gives you is the space to label what you are doing as big or good enough. And if you aren’t doing those things, then why bother?
So, if you’ve got exercise, fitness, weight loss, or any other wellness-related New Year’s goals what do you do? You have taken the time to make a resolution, what is the best way to be resolute about it? The best advice I can give you is to stop thinking about your goals as an on/off switch and start thinking about them like a dimmer.
See, if you choose to look at exercise and movement like an on/off switch then there are only two possible outcomes. The light is on and you perceive that you are moving towards your goal. Or, the light is off and you perceive that you aren’t going anywhere. Just as labeling food as good/bad is problematic, thinking of exercise in black and white terms only serves to set you up for disappointment and failure. In an on/off world, there is no room for options.
As I am sure you have realized in the living of your own full and busy life, on/off isn’t always (or usually) possible. We need a dimmer switch. Something that allows us to adjust the level of brightness to what we can handle at any given moment.
Some days you get out of bed well rested, you grab a big glass of water, everybody gets where they need to be and things truck along. Those are the days that you can turn the dimmer up a bit. Plan a longer or more intense workout. Actually go to the gym and get after it.
Other days, sleep sucked and your energy levels (and caffeine intake) lets you know it. Or childcare fell through. Or, well, pick the individual poison that your life might throw at you; point is, we all know and have those days. So instead of giving up, just turn the dimmer down. Do a resistance band workout from home. Or a quick yoga video on YouTube.
And another reason that thinking of exercise and movement as a dimmer switch is helpful is that it naturally encourages you to be in tune with your body’s needs. Again, typical January sees the gym bursting at the seams because if three days is good, five must be better. If 30 minutes is good, an hour is better. If four HIIT circuits are good… you get the idea.
But sometimes more is just more. Remember, the point of exercise is to provide stress that your body must adapt to. News flash: the body adapts during periods of rest. And the majority of new exercisers do not listen to their body’s need for recovery come January first. Which leads directly to that attrition and burnout I talked about before. The body will take rest if it is denied long enough.
Do yourself, and your resolutions a favor this year: think of your movement plans on a dimmer switch sliding scale. Make sure you have options for both bright and dim days in your plans so that you can put them into action when you need. And just because your body tells you it needs a dimmer day doesn’t mean you aren’t making progress. Small steps forward are still steps forward.
Until next time, be well, friends!
