New Year Health and Fitness Resolutions - Goals Set, Goals Abandoned

New Year Resolutions start in January, and for the average person, this usually includes lifestyle, health and fitness goals.  We all want to be fitter, weigh less, eat and sleep better, especially after excesses in December.  Gyms and health clubs are always busiest in January.  But empirical evidence shows that this enthusiasm inevitably tails off.  Habit changes, especially those required to deliver positive change in health and weight are by themselves difficult to sustain.  But when overlaid with the heavy demands of daily or work life, the most ambitious of health and fitness plans starts to flounder.  Gym attendances are deferred, meal exceptions are indulged in, and then the next year rolls along, and you realize you are still at square one. 

Only, you are not. You are actually at square one minus one. Ageing is accompanied with lower metabolism, reduced muscle mass, and a general fall in fitness, especially after 60. I joke that when I was a teenager, no amount of eating appeared to make me put on weight.  At my current age, just breathing makes me put on weight. 

To avoid going through repeated cycles of failure, the following are my Home of Secrets with regard to  health and fitness, learnt over many years:

RULES TO LIVE BY

1.    Go for incremental small step changes.  To form habits, take small steps.  Having monthly successes gives you motivation to gradually ratchet up the targets.  By December, you should then have made 12 incremental changes, and this would have resulted in a step change.   

2.    Schedule activities in bite sizes.   10 to 30 minutes a day on a habit is much more helpful than 90 min executed over three times a week.  It is easy to do an activity for 10 to 30 minutes.  Much easier to forgo 90 minutes when faced with a choice.

3.    Be Strict and Forgiving to yourself.   Consistency is very important in cultivating habits.  Be consistent. Most of us need a "cheat" day.  Have one, but never two in a row.  

FOOD

4.    Eat Better.  It is impossible to exercise away a bad diet.  In short, exercise alone is not going to get you to the promised land. Correcting a bad diet is fundamental.  By and large, we live in a time where our diet is really bad.  

5.    Eat Less and Eat More.  Its no fun to say that I cannot eat this or that.  Much more fun to say that I am going to much less of this and eat more of that.  Less red meat, less fat, less fried. More protein, more fiber, more steamed and boiled.  Less sugar, more savoury.  Through this change, you can gradually move the needle and form a habit.  I am not a fan of intermittent fasting.  The reason is that you can still end up eating crap in the feeding window.  Sure, you can do both - fast and eat well.  But if you have to do one, eat well.  

EXERCISE

On exercise, there are three forms.  All three are important.  To cultivate exercise as a daily habit, I figured that this cannot go longer than 30 - 40 minutes on any single day.  We deprioritize long sessions.  Special sessions - long runs, or when one is training under supervision - are perhaps best done on an evening or a weekend. 

6.    Cardio.  Slow-fast-slow-fast over 20-30 minutes three times a week is a good habit to start with.  Get a good work out, no injuries, no excessive tiredness.   Short and sharp.  

7.    Flexibility.  Dedicating 10-20 minutes a day to stretches is fundamental to keeping limps loose.  If Yoga or Pilates is your thing, go for it.   Morning or evening.

8.    Resistance Training.    30-minute sessions two to three times a week works best.  There are many forms.  Some done with equipment, others without.  I find this the hardest.  

With no cheat days, you'll be doing some exercise seven days a week. With cheats, you are training at least for four.  Its good to have goals for all three types of training, goals that are observable and can be ratcheted up on a monthly basis.  Start humble, end proud.  

WELLNESS

9.    Meditation.  For the uninitiated, this can be daunting.  But it just means quiet time for the mind and body.  If anything, no devices and be just present to stare in space.  15 minutes a day will be good.

WEIGHT

We all like to see the scales show a weight loss, but this obsession can lead to bad outcomes.  With semaglutide and its derivatives, weight loss has been made easier.  But there is a downside. 13% of weight loss from semaglutide come from lean muscle loss.  Also, the data is clear.  Most semaglutide users put back all the weight when they stop using GLP1.  So semaglutide is not a path to permanent weight loss or better health.  The key is to eat better, lose fat and to gain muscle mass.   This requires habit forming of the above.  I think the scales should be set aside.  Just ask if you feel better.  

2025 was a good year. I eat less and better.  But I am clearly not at the promise land.  I clocked 10000 steps as a habit everyday in 2025.  This year, I am back running and want to see if I can do a 21km again before the end of the year.  I do weight training but not as often as I would like.   This is my nemesis.   I need to reflect on how to get into this to increase my lean muscle mass.  I now stretch.  Again, I find this tough and will start with 10 minutes a day. I eventually want to touch my toes.