Remember those resolutions you made exactly a year ago? Yeah me neither…🙄
While made with the best of intentions, why is it that nearly all New Year’s resolutions seem to fall flat come February?

What if I told you that the way you create and define your goals is crucial to your success?

Often resolutions are never followed through with because they’re too vague, unrealistic, and have no actionable plan behind them.

While there are many different ways to go about defining your goal, I like to use the SMART formula to ensure that your goal is as clearly defined as possible, thus setting you up for the greatest success! Here’s how it works:

Despite my disdain for cold weather, the holidays are one of my favourite times of the year… That being said, it can be one of the most stressful times of the year if you’re trying to get into shape, or even just maintain a healthy lifestyle. Temptation is all around in the form of pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes and reduced gym hours. For many people, while they go into the holiday season with good intentions to be healthy, after a few small indulgences they reach the point of no return where they give up on their healthy aspirations for the year and decide to start fresh in January instead.

This “Holiday Downward Spiral”, as I like to call it, is usually caused by an all-or-nothing attitude- You think that you need to be 100% healthy, and as soon as you make one slip up you feel like a failure and conclude there’s no point in trying anymore. That, in combination with feeling like our dietary decisions are out of our control (especially true if you are visiting family), makes this time of year one of the hardest to navigate.

Here are 6 strategies to successfully navigate the holidays without throwing your health goals out the window:

There’s nothing more exciting than deciding to take a leap of faith a pursue your fitness goal. Whether it be to lose 10lbs, fit back in your old skinny jeans, or just improve your overall fitness, deciding to take on this challenge is a BIG DEAL. I really want to acknowledge this because, especially for beginners, this is a huge step in the right direction.

All that being said, so many people resolve to make big changes, only to fall flat after just a couple of weeks… What gives?

“Everything in moderation”.  I’ve pretty much been living off of these words for the past 10 years. Or trying to at least. But more often than not, a “moderate” decision to get a burger and half-fries-half-salad turns into saying yes to dessert, and then going out for cocktails. Which turns into a lazy next-day of binge-watching Netflix while hugging a tub of Ben and Jerry’s, and then ordering takeout cause I’m too lazy to cook (is it just me? 😅).

While I’m sure some people are able to do the whole “moderation” thing, I’ve come to the realization that I’m just not. It’s all or nothing with me – I either eat 100% clean, or am super relaxed and allow myself treats whenever I want. Neither of these are ideal. The former creates too many restrictions, and when you finally do allow yourself some slack, most people tend to go overboard on all the things they’ve been missing. The latter, on other hand, has no rules and it’s far too easy to let things get out of control.

So if moderation doesn’t work, and strict-dieting is not realistic (or healthy for that matter), what’s the solution? I’ve been pondering this for a while, and I’ve come up with a solution that I think just might work: STRUCTURED MODERATION.

When trying to lose weight, it can be so hard not to obsess about the numbers on the scale. This however, can often detract from so many other aspects that we’ve made progress in! Non-scale victories, are positive changes that have occurred due to healthy lifestyle changes. They don’t necessarily directly relate to how much you weigh, and can often be so much more impactful! Focusing on these, rather than a number, can help us stay motivated longer, ensuring our overall success in reaching our fitness goals! Here are 11 to keep your eye out for:

There’s something about the first 2 weeks of January that’s almost magical. A certain energy in the air. Everyone has made their New Year’s resolutions, and is feeling more motivated than ever. Instagram has exploded with a slew of new fitness accounts: people looking to change their lives. People who are finally going to do it this time.  And it’s really quite amazing. I want each and every one of these people to succeed. But come February, a large portion of these people have dropped of the map… But why?

Have you ever felt like you weren’t good enough simply because you don’t look a certain way? So have millions of other women all around the world, myself included.

As women, we have constantly been bombarded with images of what the “ideal” body should look like, starting from a very young age. Whether we like it or not, this helps inform how we think about fitness, health and our bodies.

This is something I’ve struggled with a lot. Growing up, I was very self-conscious about my body. Despite being relatively active and naturally athletic, my genetics gave me a little extra padding around the belly. Was I ever fat? No. But as an impressionable young woman, I saw pictures of fitness models, compared them with myself, and came to the conclusion that, “I don’t look like that, therefore I must not be fit.”