The New Year's Health Resolutions Success Guide

Using Science To Avoid The Vicious Cycle of Fitness Failure: How To Stick To Your 2014 Fitness Resolutions Is this YEAR'S you? ESOLUTION Slightly over 60% of Americans make New Year's Resolutions. Cosi Wiight Weight loss is the 2.Eat Hialthu #1 New Year's goal The Typical New Year's Failure Cycle This year, I'm going to get 'Ryan Gosling' Abs 1. Everything is Possible January 1st, you're brimming with enthusiasm. 7. Stagnate and weight gain until January 1st, 205 Lather, rinse. 2. Planning Everything But The Kitchen Sink You write down all the possible action steps: Get a gym membership. buy healthy groceries, start jogging before work. try a juice clense, use a fat burner, wake up early, get a multi-vitamin. repeat. I failed. screw this, I quit! 6. The Failure Point Previous unhealthy behaviors return. This baked chicken is really starting to suck 3. One Week In... This Is Hard. Juggling a ton of stuff is hard, but you're doing great. Well.Baked chips aren't so bad, right? 4. “Life" Starts To Happen 5. Slipping & Cheats Begin You go from eating kale and chicken to asking. "This pizza is gluten free, I can have a slice.right?" Things like job deadlines, flat tires and family stress, start to become overwhelming. Why do people become victims to this vicious cycle? Only 8% of people succeed with New Year's Resolutions After 1 week 25% of people have already failed After 1 month 40% of people have already failed The "gym drop-off" happens around February, and up to 60% of gym memberships go unused. It doesn't have to be like this. You can live the healthiest, happiest, and most productive 2014 of your life... ..By learning a few neuroscience hacks, practicing proven methods, and implementing the secret brain psychology behind creating the kind of changes that actually last. Using Neuroscience As A Solution Motivation Myth: Motivation is a fleeting feeling and will help kickstart your 2014 with enthusiasm. But you cannot rely on it alone. It is too fleeting. To succeed you need to understand the change process. And this all comes down to understanding how our brains are hard-wired for New Year's Resolutions. UNDERSTANDING YOUR BRAIN To make a lasting change, there are two components that need to shift: Getting under the hood of our "change brains" and setting the pace for your New Year's resolution change. First we start by dividing our "change" brain into two components: Limbic System The limbic system largely controls our emotions, desire. and motivation for things such as: food, sex, drugs. & rock' n' roll. Prefrontal Cortex: This area of the brain, right behind your forehead controls your willpower and helps control and focus the emotion of the Limbic system. (2 Our emotion & motivation for New Year's health resolutions starts here. An easy way to think about it is The Rider = Prefrontal Cortex with this analogy by John Haidt: He knows where to go, but it very weak compared to the elephant. He must work with the elephant It's called the Elephant, the Rider, & the Path. In order to make a lasting change, you must direct the rider, motivate the elephant, and shape the path. The Elephant = Limbic system Our strong emotional and motivational drive The Path = Where The Pair Want To Go The big goal. The New Year's Resolution. To Successfully Change... We Must Do 3 Things Motivate the Elephant What's the big why behind the change? Why start in the first place? We need to find the deep motivation for change. We need to put emotional fortitude behind the goal! The "Why" Losing weight to get awesome abs to look sexy & confident may be enough for some. But for many, this level of motivation falls short. So we need to dig deeper & Getting healthy so that I don't put more emotion behind the change! so I can look amazing for my wedding have another heart attack SHORT TERM HEALTH GOALS: We also need to set SHORT TERM health goals to keep the elephant hungry. He'll be much more motivated to lose 20 pounds in 8 weeks than to lose 60 in a year. Keep the time frame short to keep motivation high. Direct the Rider What's the clear, SPECIFIC plan? The rider needs to guide the elephant. know exactly where This is where we need to create a specific, measurable, time- sensitive goal with a clear plan to get there. There are millions of different diets & exercise programs out there and a lot of them work. 3 Shape the Path How can we make your New Year's goal as easy and mindlessly simple as possible? Remove Obstacles Trying to eat healthy & love sweets? Don't buy Create Triggers Trying to exercise in the morning? Leave the gym clothes out the night before. Trying to exercise at night? Pack a gym bag & bring it to work. them in the first place. Stack Routines Taking the kids to school? Stop at the gym on the way home. Have a favorite lunch spot? Jog for 20 minutes before stopping by. Create Small Wins Along The Way Our elephants can easily become distracted. We need to reward the elephant to keep him moving forward & rekindle motivation along the way. Each week while on a diet, have a "cheat" meal where you can have whatever you want. Dropped 3 pounds this week? Buy some new shoes. Use a small reward that works for you. Setting the Pace of your New Year's Resolution Change The critical second component of change is to establish the pace of your change. How much are you going to do? How fast? When implementing change, the more you do, the less likely you are to succeed.. 85%) 35% 10% success rate for those who adopt 1 new habit. success rate for those who adopt 2 new habits. success rate for those who adopt 3 new habits. To succeed long term. ..Do one thing at a time. Less Success The More You Do More Success The less likely you are to succeed Less Success The New Approach: To create change that lasts, each of us must become more intentional about forming habits that stick. To sustain your progress, be slow and deliberate. By learning the proper change formation sequence as laid out in this infographic, each of us will be able to become more successful in all important areas of life-whether spending more time with our families, scheduling more time for our favorite hobbies, or working on our spirituality. Best of all? With this new approach, 138 million frustrated people will finally be able to make sustained progress on their New Year Health Resolutions, and, we, as leaders, will become role models for the new community of people who are redefining how simple it can be to make change if we simply understand the proven habit formation process. What to do if you fall off track: 1. Reevaluate your why power 2. Assess the pain of continuing your current behaviors 3. Regain clarity on your goal with specific action steps 4. Take the first step Other success multipliers: Run Cfor the Cüre Use technology to make change fun and engaging, like Jawbone. Find a workout partner for accountability. Support a cause, like a Breast Cancer 5K Run to stay motivated. sickk FITOCRACY. LIVESTRONG puta contractat on YOURSELF! Get a charity com- mitment contract, like those on stickk.com. Join a fitness community, like Fitocracy or Livestrong. Yes, January 1st is an artificial "clean slate." But we believe that everyone can use the magic surrounding January 1st (coupled with cutting- edge strategies) to create vibrant health, lasting change, and a fitter, happier, more productive world for all of us. Now that you've learned how to make lasting change, what will you do? Help catalyze the change, break the vicious cycle of fitness failure and share this infographic with your friends and family. #start2014strong #breakthecycle Learn More at HALFTIME FITNESS www.halftimefit.com SOURCES: http://www.businessinsider.com/new-years-resolution-fitness-data-kiip-2013-2 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/05/gym-guide-january-crowded_n_1181644.html http://www.halftimefit.com/blog/new-year-health-resolutions-fail The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom, Jonathan Haidt, 2006 The Power of Less: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential.in Business and in Life, Leo Babauta, 2009