The goal is to keep the goal the goal !

You've joined a fat club that's a household name, you've bought your pedometer and you've downloaded the APP that calculates how many calories you ingest and how many calories you burn for every activity from snow boarding to needlepoint.  You are going to start next Monday (it's always next Monday isn't it?) with a guaranteed fat loss, nutrition plan which consists of a cup of liquid pixie dust every 4 hours that has the RDA of all the vitamins and minerals a healthy body needs.

So what's your actual goal?   Do you know what your goal is??

It could be fat loss or muscle gain or increased energy and better health or stress reduction.  Regardless of what the goal is your behaviour(s) will determine the level of success you attain.  Several empirically researched studies have found that making one habitual change at a time has an 80% success rate.  Double that to two changes attempted simultaneously and the success rates plummets to 35%.  Three or more changes attempted at the same time rates at less than 10%.

I recommend that you read the last paragraph again and all the first paragraph again.  If you want a new habit to stick then the goal is to keep the goal the goal, by changing one step (goal) at a time.  Too many balls in the air can result in broken toes and if something is worth doing, it's worth doing everyday.  Is looking after your health and vitality worth doing everyday?

Takeaway point : Pick a habit you can sustain, at a level you can sustain easily.  When you perform it without thought (unconscious habit), then increase the level or begin a new habit.

New Year, New You?

By Guest Blogger : Jim Etikett

Today's title is a tag line taken from a New Year's marketing campaign for a world wide health club chain.  It could easily have been lifted from the cover of any of the following publications: Cosmopolitan, Zest, Men's Health, Men's Fitness etc.  The list is endless.  As the end of this year rapidly approaches, the festive season looms, with all it's excesses of gluttony, sloth, hangovers, parties and so on.  Is this different from last year?  For most of us, I doubt it.

Many of you will once again be at least flirting with the notion of marching down to your local leisure centre or health club in early January with high hopes and a fistful of your hard earned.  You have my admiration and good wishes, for you will need them.   A mind numbing 98% of us (this is not a typo) will have failed in our quest for a leaner, healthier, happier lifestyle by April Fool's Day (prophetic perhaps?!).  Those in the health and fitness industry know this all too well.  That is why, when New Year boom time arrives, they love you to pay a lump sum for 6 or 12 months membership in advance.  Because they know after March, the statistics show that you won't show! Are they losing sleep over this?  Not likely, as they have their pound of flesh and you will likely be stuck with a few of these yourself.

The present economic downturn has sharpened our focus on how, when and where we spend our currency much more so than in recent times.  I recommend you delay your decision this year until you have visited RetroFit (or somewhere like it).  This place is unique.  "How is it unique?" I hear you ask.  Well firstly there are no membership fees, no enrolment fees and no admin fees: you simply pay as you train. At RetroFit our clients are educated in the necessary skills for a leaner, stronger, healthier you! This is (hopefully) a lifelong endeavour for us all i.e. think twelve months a year, for many many decades, rather than January to March every year.  Bristling, pain free, vital health is beyond value, so I recommend that you invest your time, money and energy wisely. Look beyond the obvious and try a different route to success. 

http://www.retrofit.me.uk/
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