2810: Why January Fitness Resolutions Fail

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1:58Adam Schafer:You just found the most downloaded fitness, health, and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump. In today's episode, we're going to talk about why most January transformations fail. We're going to break it all down for you and help you improve your odds of long-term success. By the way, we have a guide that helps people with nutrition, and it's three phases. It's three steps. It's called the MAPS Transformation Diet Guide. So it's mapstransformationdiet.com. Go there, get the guide. It'll take you all the way through all three phases to help you build muscle and burn body fat. This episode is brought to you by our sponsor, Troscriptions.

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3:41Adam Schafer:You had a goal in January. You started along the path towards that goal. Guess what? Your fail rate, 95%. That's what the data shows. We're going to talk about why most of these January transformations fail and what you could do to not be one of those statistics. Don't be a failure.

3:59Sal Di Stefano:We're coming around the corner, or maybe we've just passed actually that statistic as far as the time in the year. Yeah. I believe it's right around right now. Yeah. This is when everybody stops. Yeah. Most people, first of all, I think - Yeah, they get burned out. They don't, this is on average. Obviously, I'm overgeneralizing. They start the membership about mid-January. They either purchase it beginning or middle. These are gym statistics. Yeah, and they get going. And they really don't start going until about February. Make it through February, some of March, if not start to fall off by March, end of March.

4:36Sal Di Stefano:Yep.

4:37Adam Schafer:April. And then by May, everybody's pretty much going. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. By the way, this is just, this is just, this is like consistent. Yeah. Gym industry figures. You see like a. You can bank on it. Like a 30 to 50 % in some cases, sometimes more, but 30 to 50 % increase in membership enrollments in January and February. You'll see this as well. So, and it just explodes. and then they come and they show up and they work out and then they stop. And it's very predictable and a very small percentage of them stick around and even smaller percentage of them use the gym. So what I mean by that is there's still a small percentage that keep their membership.

5:19Adam Schafer:They just don't cancel. They're not coming. Yeah. And the ones that do keep it and show up are even smaller. Then if you look at larger, broader data on weight loss, for example, which we have the best statistics on, a good 90 % of people fail or gain the weight back, I should say, within a year. And that's dismal. That's dismal, you guys. In other words, if you, and by the way, if you're listening to this, you've probably done this yourself. If you're trying to lose weight, you've probably lost weight in the past and gained it back. That's the odds. So the real problem here that we need to solve is not the weight loss goal.

5:58Adam Schafer:That's not the problem. That's not the challenge. The problem is maintaining and staying consistent. That's the real challenge. It's the adherence. Because a much larger percentage actually succeed in losing the weight, even though it's not a huge percentage. It's still much larger than the amount of people that actually keep it off. So what we have to do is look at this problem properly. And a good trainer and a good coach understands this. We see the real problem. What's that saying? A problem well-defined is half solved. And so to really define the problem, it's how do we maintain this? Because success isn't losing weight.

6:34Adam Schafer:Success is keeping it off for the rest of your life. That's how we have to define this. And so I think it's important we talk about the main reasons. As coaches and trainers, we saw that why people failed. What was it that people did that led to this terrible success rate or this super high fail rate? And then how can we fix this? So I'll start with number one. And this one, it sounds simple, but actually makes a big difference. People set the wrong goal. So I'm not talking about it's too big of a goal or they're doing more that they bite off more than they can chew. We'll get there because that's part of it.

7:09Adam Schafer:What I mean is someone says, my goal is to lose 30 pounds rather than my goal is to just work out two days a week or three days a week. In other words, if you set the goal on the actions, the results are more likely to follow than if I just set the goal as the result and then try to scramble along the way.

7:31Sal Di Stefano:Yeah. Another way to say that, too, is that they're focused on the outcome versus the root cause. Right. Like a lot of people show up and they say things like, I'm 30 pounds overweight or I'm 50 pounds overweight. That's the problem. That's the issue. And it's like, that's not the root cause. And so I think you have to understand the root cause that got there to then first set the proper plan in place. That's right. Because if you focus just on the 30 to 50 pounds that I need to lose, then a lot of the things that you take action towards end up setting you in the wrong direction completely or cause things like burnout or it's just a terrible plan.

8:11Sal Di Stefano:It's a terrible strategy.

8:12Adam Schafer:So to give you an example, just to make it kind of basic and simple and clear, you could have one person that says my goal is to lose 30 pounds you could have another person who says my goal is to strength train two days a week and make sure that i get uh at least a 30 minute walk five days a week there's no no results goal it's just the goal is i'm going to strength train twice a week that's all i'm gonna be consistent with that and i'm gonna go for a 30 minute walk five days to enjoy the process they are far more likely to actually accomplish the the 30 pound weight loss and the person who says my goal is to lose 30 pounds.

8:45Adam Schafer:Far more likely. So it's about the process. So this is where you set your goals. Because remember, the process is what leads to the goal that you're after or the results that you're after. The results don't lead to the proper process. In fact, if we focus too heavily on the result, then what ends up happening with the process is we go all over the place with it. And we change it up when the result isn't happening fast enough. We overcorrect or we do things that aren't going to get us to where we want to go or we do things that are not sustainable. And so it's the process. This is where you should set your goal.

9:21Adam Schafer:And then don't worry about the result. It takes care of it.

9:24Sal Di Stefano:Well, not to mention the result can be very misleading sometimes. We just had an example of this right now. I'm coaching Corinne. And if we were just focused on the result of we're just looking at body fat percentage or we're just looking at muscle that we gain. and we get back a test that isn't ideal or doesn't show us this amazing results, then easily could throw up our arms and go like, we're doing the wrong thing, or F it, just give up, or course correct really hard. And it just doesn't work that way. So many times focusing on the result sends you in the wrong direction. And it's not as simple as the scale and how we look all the time.

10:02Sal Di Stefano:Those aren't the best indicators or signals that you're doing the right things. So you're far better off from out the gate not having a goal that is focused on that and having a goal more like, I'm going to become a person this year who works out twice a week, always. I'm going to be like... That's the goal. My goal is at the end of this show, here I am at the beginning of the year, in December come Christmas time, I'm still a person who all year long lifted weights twice a week. That's right. And I just didn't miss. That was my thing. I made sure I lifted weights.

10:30Justin Andrews:find a way in those workouts to really start to enjoy working out. I enjoy lifting weights. How can I get there? I have to mentally tell myself and really like reiterate how, what I enjoyed from that session.

10:45Adam Schafer:That's right. So, so to go deeper with that, if the goal is I'm going to lift weights twice a week, let's just say, and I know this is what I want to be consistent doing. So the goal is to do that. What ends up happening is you start to find ways to do it in a way to where you enjoy it. You're not even thinking about the destination. You're just like, I got, if I'm going to do this for the rest of the year, twice a week, and that's the goal and the result, I'm not worried about. I don't probably take care of myself. I'm not worried about that. Then what's going to happen with my workout is it's going to change appropriately to fit what I enjoy.

11:16Adam Schafer:Because again, what's the problem? The problem is consistency. The problem isn't losing the weight. It's consistency. That's the problem we need to tackle.

11:23Sal Di Stefano:The other thing that's really important about letting go of the result and just focusing on that is that's the first step. And you being able to connect the dots to the other things that are so powerful totally so if you're just so focused on on the weight on the scale or how i look in the mirror then a lot of times you ignore all these other benefits that are happening it's like well if i'm if i let go of the result and i go okay i'm just gonna just do be the person works out then it starts to open my eyes to the other things that these workouts start to give me it's like oh wow more energy i've got yeah i've got more energy throughout my day or, oh, wow, I'm much stronger or, oh, wow, I'm sleeping better.

11:59Sal Di Stefano:Oh, wow, I'm less irritable. Oh, wow, I'm more productive. All of a sudden, it starts to broaden your perspective on all the other things that becoming a person who lifts weights two days a week gives you besides just how much better you may look in the mirror down the road or how much weight you might lose on the scale. It gives you all these. And that makes this far easier to make it a sustainable thing that you do for the rest of your life you can't do that until you let go of the result piece so much and then start to open your eyes to the other things right the

12:28Adam Schafer:person who loves working out is going to work out forever versus the person who just loves the result um all right so next up is people will start in an unsustainable way and this is this is very innocent and i don't think people even think that they're starting in an unsustainable way. It's the motivated brain. That's right. So, you know, January comes around and you've got this state of mind, this hyper-motivated. You just come out of the holidays. You know, you maybe gain some weight, like cool new year, new me. And whenever you make, whenever you set a plan in a motivated state of mind, it's always assuming, even if you don't think of this, you're assuming that this is going to be your state of mind always.

13:10Adam Schafer:We've all done this.

13:15Adam Schafer:We've fell out of motivation, which will happen. Suddenly it seems unsustainable. Like, man, I know I was hyped to work out five days a week, but I'm just not feeling it right now. And so we have to understand is a motivated state of mind is a temporary state of mind. There's nobody is always hyper motivated or to put it differently. It's very rare that you find someone that's super hyper motivated all the time. I never had to get in. I never had to convince somebody to exercise and eat right. When they were motivated, it was always when they were feeling unmotivated. So whenever you take a step, you have to ask yourself, is this something that I will do even when I don't feel nearly as motivated?

13:54Adam Schafer:When I feel unmotivated, is this something I'm going to stick to? And if the answer is no, take a smaller step. Take the step that you know you can maintain for the rest of your life. Start there. By the way, when you do that, and if you're able to stay consistent with that, which if you do this right, your odds are pretty high, then what happens naturally is you'll want to take another step moving forward. And it just happened naturally. I'm consistent. I said 10 minute walks a day. That's what I thought I could do consistently. Next thing you know, it's like a part of my life and I'm like, cool, I want to add one day at the gym.

14:25Adam Schafer:I think I can maintain that. And then you do that. And then you end up building momentum. And by the way, this is a great part of this, that motivated state of mind occurs more frequently when you do this right. So if you love feeling motivated, which we all do, you'll actually get more of that more often if you start the way that we're saying. But if you bite off way more than you can chew right out the gates, you're setting yourself up for failure. And the data shows us, and we've experienced this, if you fail enough times, if you lose weight and gain it back enough times, there's a number that you'll stop at and eventually give up.

14:56Justin Andrews:Yeah. Well, then it's truly adopting this as a lifestyle change, which I think is thrown out there a lot. Like people say, like, you know, I'm going to change my lifestyle. I'm going to work out. But really they're in it to fix a problem and it i think that it's very short-term thinking of weight wise or body fat wise or aesthetic wise like they want to achieve this thing and then get there and then be like okay and i can come back to you know how i was living whereas if i'm taking this methodically this is one thing i know that i can repeat consistently going here on out and then build upon that it's it's all this like maybe it's slow in the beginning but it's it's it's definitely a long-term trajectory of like going forward and progressing that's right versus looking back well

15:45Sal Di Stefano:this is the difference between the person that we said goes you know i'm going to become this person who works out twice a week uh for the whole year you know every single week versus the person who's like i'm going to train seven days a week like and you're you're both these people are coming off the previous year of not doing anything or very little or never staying consistent with anything and to over commit yourself to something like seven days a week is very unrealistic in fact you committing to two days a week for the entire year consistently would be more consistent and more than you have ever done yet it's so so the goal is set yourself up that is going to stretch you beyond what you're currently doing which is pretty much anything because you're not doing anything, you know, prior to this and go, I'm going to build on that.

16:32Sal Di Stefano:So like, just because you have the availability or maybe you even start with, you know, five days, you know, you're going to the gym and stuff like that because you are in that state of mind. So, but you didn't commit to that. You said, I'm going to at least go to, so I've seen this where you go, I'm going to do at least that. And Hey, this week is the beginning and you're motivated. So you show up there five times or you, whatever the next week after that, you know, two is the minimum, right? You tell yourself this is the minimum and so set the set the bar that is stretching your capacity that it's more than what you've done in the past but not so much more that it's unrealistic that you can do this even when you're not motivated even when you have a hard week even when you have some setbacks even when maybe you get sick and so set it to where it's like okay i know that even in a bad week and when i'm traveling for work and i'm doing this thing i could still get to the gym two times

17:18Adam Schafer:When we think of transformation in this context, people typically visualize themselves in a physical transformation. I'm going to transform into a leaner, stronger version of myself. But that's not the right mentality. What you're trying to transform into is somebody who likes to exercise and someone who likes to eat healthy. That's a transformation. How do I transform myself into somebody that values exercise and likes it and values eating healthy and likes it? By the way, what's the side effect of that, right? Somebody who likes exercise, somebody who enjoys eating healthy, what does that person look like?

18:01Adam Schafer:Well, that's the person that you're trying to physically transform into. So rather than focusing on the result or the end of the equation, focus on what happens in the beginning. So that's why it's a slower process. because when I try to convey this message to people, oftentimes I get impatient. Like, but I want to do this now. Like, what are you talking about? It's going to take a long time. I get that and I get the excitement around it, but you're going to fail. If instead you say, okay, I need to turn myself into somebody that values this and enjoys doing it a few days a week, that values eating healthier.

18:36Adam Schafer:What does that look like? Well, like any real transformation takes a little bit of time. So you take that first step that's challenging, like Adam said, but not something that isn't sustainable and start there. And it will build upon itself. It does every single time. By the way, the other option is a 100 % fail. So there isn't fast, a fast option and a slow option. There's a one that works and one that doesn't. The next thing is there's no plan, right? You don't have any plan. It's just go move. And I guess I'll just eat less, you know, type of deal. Structure it out. Give yourself a little bit of a plan when it comes to your workout, Okay, this day and this day at this time, these are the blocks in my schedule.

19:17Adam Schafer:I'm going to go exercise on those days. What about your diet? Start very slow and give yourself a bit of a plan. Like a plan is a big deal here, everybody. Having no plan with this, boy, here's what will happen if you don't have a plan. You tend to just do a lot of everything. And either A, you see some progress initially and then you plateau. or you see some progress and you want to accelerate that progress, but because you're already doing so many other things, well, which one do I add more of? And I don't really like doing this and this isn't sustainable. And you end up failing. Just like they say in business, right?

19:52Adam Schafer:Where they say failing to plan is planning to fail. It's so true with this as well.