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I don’t have any statistics in front of me, but I’d be willing to bet a large sum of money that weight loss is the single largest New Year’s resolution each and every year.  Because of this (and because most people royally screw this up) I’ve decided to mention two major things you’ll need to do if you want your resolution to stick.

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1.  Skip the Severity

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Let’s be honest.  You’ve done this before (or you know someone who has).  It doesn’t stick.  Every year tens of thousand of people join gyms or initiate ridiculous diet programs only to fall off before February.  The fitness and diet industry love these people because they know they’ll be back next year spending more money on the same stupid things.  Do not be one of these people.  And most importantly, don’t delude yourself into thinking that you won’t be one of the ones that fall off course if you take on something severe.  It happens…but it is unlikely for most.  You are probably part of the “most”.

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Instead, I always advise my clients to pick a long term goal and picture themselves where they could realistically expect to see themselves in one year from now.  Yes, I said one year.  After all, nobody ever says “man…I’d sure like to lose some weight, look great, and then gain it all back so I can look like a fat tub of sh*t in three months from now”.

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Oh…and just so you know – Fitness and internet marketers create programs that they know you WANT not necessarily the programs that they know you need.  After all, it is easier to sell a program that says “Look your best in 7 days” than one that says “Go slow, work hard, keep it off in one year”.  Most understand that slower is better, but understand that the money is in selling quick fixes.

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My recommendation?  Save your money.  Think long term.  Plan long term.  The changes are more likely to stick.

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2.  Don’t overestimate the power of exercse.

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Over the years I’ve watched many of my Facebook friends try everything from hitting the gym 5-7 days per week, to P90X, to (God forbid) Jillian Michaels’ “30 Day Shred” program only to end up sadly disappointed.  Many are taking on programs that are far above their fitness level, but more importantly, I think many of them have expectations from exercise that are far above what is likely or even possible.

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While training regularly at the gym, P90X, or even a Jillian Michaels DVD might elicit some weight loss, it is usually far less than most rookie exercisers might expect.  If you want to lose an average of 1-2 pounds per week (which I find is optimal for long term weight loss) you’re going to need to make some dietary changes.  If you’re expecting more than that you’re probably going to be out of luck.

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Of course, it would be unfair of me not to acknowledge the fact that exercise spares muscle and improves body composition, but any major change in appearance is likely going to warrant some change in your intake.  My suggestion is to do the minimal amount of exercise required to get the results you want (2 times per week is a good start) and focus on moderately reducing calorie intake.

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Have a safe and happy New Years!  See you in 2011.

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PS: Even if the above information doesn’t apply to you, chances are it applies to someone you know.  Please share this with those who need to hear it.

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Let me preface this post by saying thank you to everyone for following my idle ramblings and often sharing your own thoughts with me through email, comments, Facebook, and Twitter.    I feel privilaged to share and interact with every one of you and I hope you’ll continue to connect more as the years go by.

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I also want to say a sincere thank all of the great folks who contributed the incredible free swag so that I could offer such great stuff for my Christmas giveaways.  Since I’d just done the drawing for the final free stuff I can officially announce that Evan scored himself a copy of The Single Leg Solution and Ernie will be pleased to know he is now the proud owner of Assess and Correct.  Congratulations to you both!  And to everyone who participated in the comments, please keep interacting.  It has been great to hear from you all!  I never imagined so many people really cared about what I write.

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Finally, I want to share with you a story about Christmas.

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In 1986 my family’s home had a terrible fire on December 23rd caused by our dog knocking a lamp onto a couch.  Thankfully, nobody was hurt, but we really didn’t know the extent of the damage except that we could see that the house was black with smoke damage, windows were smashed out, and everything in the basment and kitchen was either burnt, melted, or flooded (from the firefighters putting out the fire).    We only had the clothes on our backs, whatever presents my parents were able to salvage, and were going to move in with my grandfather for a couple of months while our house was rebuilt from the inside out.

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The following afternoon my father was outside our boarded up, melted, flooded house leaning up against the fence  and probably wondering what he could do to salvage Chirstmas for our family when a man he’d never met came up to him and asked “Is this your house?”.  My dad replied that it was.  The man extended his hand to shake my father’s hand and wished him a Merry Christmas.  As the man pulled his hand away my dad was left with $500 in his palm.  Of course, my father said “I can’t accept this”.  The man replied “You need it more than I do.  Merry Christmas!”  and he walked away.  We never saw that man again, but he was the embodiment of what I think the Christmas season should be. 

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While I might not have nearly as much influence as many of the bigger names in this industry, my wish for this year is that everyone who reads this blog will step out of their comfort zone and do something for someone they don’t know and make that someone’s day.  Whether you hand money to the homeless guy you pass every day (that you might normally ignore), help an old lady carry her bags across the street, or just let someone in when you’re stuck in traffic trying to escape the mall after purchasing your last minute gifts I think it all makes a difference.  I know it did to my family.

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Have a very Merry Christmas!

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This is just a quick heads up to thank everyone for the comments the other day and to let you know that Bobbi scored herself a free copy of Nick Tumminello’s Strength Training for Fat Loss DVD so that drawing in closed.  I want to offer my sincere thanks to Nick for donating the DVD.

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However, since it is Wednesday and there are only a few days left until Christmas I thought I’d finish off with a bang today and give away TWO free things.  Yeah…how awesome is that?

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So today I’m giving away a copy of Mike Robertson’s Single Leg Solution and a copy of Mike Robertson, Eric Cressey, and Bill Hartman’s Assess and Correct DVDs courtesy of Mike himself. 

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Both of these resources are fantastic and I can’t recommend either one of them enough.  I totally changed the order of my single leg progressions after reading the Single Leg Solution (true story) and A&C very much resembles many of the assessments I use.  After watching it and swiping a few more assessments my assessment skills got even better.

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To score one of these items just drop me a comment below and let me know which you want (or just tell me you’ll take either because that increases your chances of winning).  Each will be awarded to a separate person so you have TWO chances to win!  I’ll do the draw on Friday morning so make sure to comment so you don’t miss out.

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Have a great rest of the week!

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Yesterday I posted a link to an article that talked about many of the psychosocial elements that play into the success or failure of a weight loss program with obese clients. 

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In the comments below, another Canadian fitness professional named Kyle Grieve asked what I think is a very important question:

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“For people in the fitness industry, how will we ever be able to treat the physiological, psychological, or sociological issues they have?  It’s way out of my scope of practice.”

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To me, rather than being a limitation, perhaps this is an opportunity for those fitness professionals working with obese clients to add another approach to their paradigm.  Many private fitness studios have physiotherapists and massage therapists to with with things that are beyond the scope of most strength coaches and trainers.  Why not add a social worker to the team and offer counselling as well?

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The studios that do this would invariably set themselves miles apart from those that don’t and, as I said before, I think this is going to be the future of weight management.  Dealing with client nutrition and training is going to be futile in the long run unless you deal with their barriers in the first place.

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From a business standpoint (because you can’t run a business without making money) it is another service that can be billed for.   Since group classes often work well in this regard, the cost to clients could be low and the facility owner could make a tidy profit.  This is a win for the client and the owner of the facility. 

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The other point to be taken home is that those not trained to deal with the psychosocial elements in weight management should step back and leave it to those who are or refer out for such counselling to run parallel to their training/nutrition efforts.  If a client got injured you’d refer out right?  Why not here?

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And finally, I’ll state again that I think that addressing barriers to fat loss should not only be limited to morbidly obese clients, but to anyone who needs a lifestyle change whether pursuing fat loss or muscle gain.  If you think about it, do your clients struggle because they don’t know what to eat or how to train (they should if they’re paying you) or is it because they’re “just not getting it done” for some reason?  If this is the case (and it will be for most people) then this is where extra attention needs to be spent.

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More time hammering home the importance of good nutrition and not missing workouts alone isn’t going to do the trick.  After all, if that worked the number of overweight people in North America wouldn’t be nearly so high would it?

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PS: Don’t forget to leave me a comments on THIS POST to score your free copy of Nick Tumminello’s Strength Training for Fat Loss DVD which I’ll do a draw for tomorrow morning.  Go get it!

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PPS: If this post strikes a chord with you, please consider sharing it.  This is most certainly a topic that I’m very passionate about.

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In some of my previous posts I’ve discussed how I think that the root cause of obesity often has little to do with people’s understanding of nutrition and exercise (although they are still important), but the psychosocial elements that prevent them from actually implementing this understanding.

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Today on Lou Schuler’s blog he posted a link to an article on this exact subject that I think all professionals dealing with clients for fat loss should read.  In fact, if you deal with people for weight loss I’d consider that you’re doing them a disservice if you don’t read it. 

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Obesity: Problem, Solution, or Both? <— Read the Article

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In the case of this article, the causes of obesity mentioned are quite dramatic and possibly not as relevant to the average fat loss client who has only a few pounds to lose.  However, I think the point to be made is that obesity and excess body weight are only signs of events (either physiological, psychological, or sociological) and that simply getting someone to train hard and eat less is a poor model for long term weight loss.

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I firmly believe that the inclusion of psychosocial elements is this is the future of the weight loss industry.

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PS:  Today I did a draw and awarded the Fitness Research Review from last Friday to Zach.  Today I’m throwing down a copy of Strength Training for Fat Loss and Conditioning courtesy of my friend Nick Tumminello.

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Drop a comment below and let me know why you deserve this DVD and I’ll enter you in a drawing that will take place on Wednesday.

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