Why New Year's Resolutions Don't Work

If you are like most people who made a resolution for the New Year, you have resolved to lose weight. Unfortunately, if you are like most people, you will fail to keep your resolution. The statistics are pretty dismal.

• In the first week of the year, 25% will bail on their resolution.
• After the first month, that number will increase to 36%.
• After six months, more than half of everyone who resolved to lose weight, or 54%, will have bailed on their resolution.

So, how many people keep their resolutions? Only about 8% of us.

Does this mean it's hopeless and you shouldn't even try? No! It simply means that setting a resolution is not the best way to go about trying to achieve weight loss.

If you ask a room full of people how many of them have gone on a diet, most of them will raise their hands. If you ask them how many of them lost weight on their diet, again, most will raise their hands. If you ask them how many of them kept the weight off, virtually every hand will lower. In fact, most people gain back more than they lost.

New Year's resolutions are actually pretty powerless. We often make them without a lot of thought. We make them because it's what you do at this time of the year. Our resolutions are usually based on what we think we "should" do - or even worse, what someone else thinks we "should" do! They are almost never based on what we truly want.

If you resolved to lose weight this year (which is the number one resolution made, by the way), I'm sorry to say, you probably won't. But, if your goal is: "I weigh 135 pounds by March 31, 2014". You are far more likely to succeed.

Want to power that up a bit more? Throw in a "why". Is the number on the scale what's truly important to you, or is it being able to fit into those size 6 pants again? Is it being able to fit into those size 6 pants, or is it the way you'll feel when you are fit and healthy? Is it the way you'll feel, or is it the fact that you will be better able to take care of your family if you are fit and healthy?

You get the idea.

Don't set a vague resolution that has no power to motivate you when the going gets tough. Set a specific, measurable goal that has a really powerful "why" attached to it. Just make sure that it's YOUR why and not someone else's why.

We live in a nation where being overweight has become the new normal. But, it comes with a very high cost. More people die of obesity-related disease than any other reason in the United States. With the big gulps and super-sized portions, we have lost all concept of what a "healthy" meal is. And our modern conveniences have made us soft and lazy.

You can reshape your body. You can succeed. You can turn your ordinary life into something extraordinary. You just have to decide what you want and why. It sounds so simple, and it is. But, it isn't easy. But, you can do this. I believe in you.