The parties are finally over and now it is time to face those resolutions to get fit and get skinny. You've faced them before and just like before you plan to join that new gym, do lots of stomach crunches, lift weights, eat lots of fruits and vegetables to clean out all the bad stuff, and finally become good friends with the bathroom scale. Right?

Problem is, all the times before all that lasted a couple of weeks, and sometimes a month, but then it fizzled with the realities of life and your normal schedule. So what are you going to do this year that will make things turn out different?

The Secret To Successful Fitness and Weight Loss

Just about all of the diet and exercise books, gyms, and programs emphasize some kind of quick results. The thing to keep in mind is that they are out to make money first and get you fit and thin second. The crazy thing is that they make the most money when you fail and buy again, then fail and buy again; and they know it. On the other hand, there is a basic reality in all types of endeavors. You don't get extraordinary results by making brief extraordinary efforts. Sure, sometimes someone really lucks out and wins the lottery, but that is very rare. Extraordinary results are actually achieved by small efforts done on a continuing basis.

If you are serious about weight loss and physical fitness then you must get that idea into your head. You must look for a strategy that is something you can do on a long term basis. That immediately eliminates any diet that requires special foods or extraordinary ways of eating. All protein diets, cabbage soup diets, and lemon juice fasts simply cannot be sustained. Your body cannot live that way very long. TV diets with special foods that you order will only work as long as you eat their food, and after you order the foods you discover they really taste lousy. Who wants to live on powdered eggs? Plus, when you stop eating the special foods the weight just comes back on.

When it comes to exercise, anything that requires significant changes to your normal schedule is not likely to last. A one hour trip to the gym every other day is not likely to last if it conflicts with picking the kids up from school or taking them to their soccer game. In fact, the typical pattern for new exercise programs is to start them and keep them going for a while. Then something happens. It might be a scheduling problem. It might be a hurt or sprain from trying to do something beyond your fitness level. It might be coming down with the flu. Whatever the cause, the result is that something gets in the way of continuing the program. Somehow that makes the whole program fizzle. You get back into your old patterns and you just can't seem to get back that hour every other day. Sound familiar?

The Solution To Dieting

The solution for losing weight with long term lasting results is to never ever go on a diet. Instead, you must learn how to eat because if you are overweight you really don't know the right way to eat. What you have to learn is really simple. You need to know about proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. You need to learn how to distinguish high glycemic carbohydrates from lower glycemic carbohydrates. You need to learn how proteins, fat, and carbs impact your blood glucose, and you need to learn reasonable, easily measured portion sizes of proteins, fats, and carbs for losing weight and for maintaining weight. Then you just need to get in the habit of doing a quick mental check on your meal just before you eat. If you learn these few simple things, you will have the right knowledge for a long term successful eating program.

Then, to put what you know into effect you need to learn how to ensure that you will always have the right food in front of you when you need it. That means having a good protein snack ready instead of going to the snack vending machine. It also means learning how to cook effectively in your own kitchen so that you really can have the right foods without taking a lot of time to cook every day. Then armed with the knowledge and the implementation techniques set a goal to eat the right way 80% of the time. You are not likely to be perfect, so set your goals realistically.

The Solution To Fitness

The first step to successful fitness is to be clear what fitness really means to you. Does it mean washboard abs? Does it mean bulging muscles? Does it mean being able to run a marathon? For most people, the answers are no, no, and no. It does mean to be able to move easily and without pain. It does mean reasonable cardiovascular conditioning so that you can walk up the stairs without becoming short winded. It does mean having enough strength, flexibility, and range of motion to do the things you need to do in life and to play in the yard with the children or grand children.

Next, you have to find movements that are simple to learn and easy to do. An easy fitness program is the best approach. Complicated yoga postures are probably not the best place to start. The secret is that if you just cannot do the movements easily, then those are probably not the movements for you. If it has been a while since you exercise look for workouts for beginners that can adapt to higer fitness levels as you get more fit. It is very important to understand that any exercise you do is better than no exercise at all. Plus, the research clearly shows that strenuous exercise is not as effective as moderate exercise. Do you realize that means that ideas like no pain no gain, working up a sweat is important, and getting the heart up to a certain heartbeat are simply not true. It really is possible to gradually develop fitness by consistent easy to do movements that almost seem like they are doing nothing, but they are.

Third, whatever movements you chose to do, they must fit into your daily schedule. Usually that means a home exercise program of some type. The key way this can happen is for them to easily fit into what you are already doing instead of requiring a special place or a special amount of time. That means you can do them while watching TV. You can do them at the office. You can do them at the grocery store. You can do them getting in and out of the car. You can do them getting in and out of bed. You do them a minute here and a minute there throughout the day. These small efforts done consistently throughout the day will produce extraordinary results in a relatively small time. And this type of exercise program will actually cause you to reduce stress rather than adding the stress of how to get the exercises in.

The Long Term Approach

If you want to be genuinely successful in weight loss and fitness you want it to last, right? The fact is that it took you time to put on weight and become unfit and it will take some time to lose weight and restore fitness. Be patient and consistent. Look for an easy fitness home exercise program. Do things that are based on scientific research and not gym or diet mythology and do things that you can do easily. This is not about doing difficult things. It is about doing things that you really can accomplish and doing them consistently.