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I hate the term New Year’s Resolution because history tells us that most people forget about their resolution before the calendar turns to March. The global gym industry is designed to take advantage of this and if you’ve ever been a member at one for a number of years, you know the deal.
This year, I didn’t make a resolution. I set a huge goal, threw it out on social media, and I am still going after it and on track to hit my goal after one month.
My goal is to go after what I call 350+150. My goal for 2017 is to eat according to my diet plan for at least 350 days and to workout at least 150 days.
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My goal this year wasn’t tied to a number on the scale. But, if I hit my goal, I will like the number on the scale at the end of the year. My goal this year wasn’t about giving something up. But, I will have to give some stuff up to hit my goal.
My goal is to go after what I call 350+150. My goal for 2017 is to eat according to my diet plan for at least 350 days and to workout at least 150 days.
But, let me back up. When I graduated college in 1996, I was around 300 lbs. A couple of years later, I decided to switch my lifestyle from drinking and partying to eating better and working out. I joined the Y and stopped drinking. I eventually got down to around 185 lbs at my lowest.
Then I married my first wife and promptly went up to around 240 lbs. Over the years, I was still working out at the Y regularly and following a variety of workouts from books, the web, magazines, and other places. Stuff from guys like Eric Cressey, Dan John, Joe DeFranco, Alwyn Cosgrove and people like that.
I also read about CrossFit, subscribed to the Journal, did some WODs (Workout of the Day) on my own, but never spent the money to join a box.
Then in the fall of 2012, my world imploded, my wife filed for divorce, and I was kicked out of my home and moved in with my dad, step-mom, and half-brother. They also lived down the road from the oldest CrossFit box in town that had the only CrossFit-Level 4 trainer for miles around. So, in the midst of my mid-life crisis, I went for the intro class. Then I signed up for fundamentals. And then I signed up for three classes a week. I’ve been doing that for four plus years.
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My diet has gotten better over the years. The first big thing was my coach yelling at me to stop eating candy and me cutting that out for the most part. Then we did various challenges and like most people, I would be good for the duration of the challenge, and then the line would slip afterward.
By in large, the quality of food I consumed in 2015 was far better on average than before I found CrossFit.
The next big change occurred late last year when we had a 12 week Fall Commitment Challenge where the diet portion was 6 weeks of Paleo followed by 6 weeks of Zone (I was prescribed 16 blocks). I am very competitive and I was determined to not have a cheat day for all 12 weeks. I was successful and helped lead my team to victory. Midway through the challenge, I decided to take the mindset of that challenge and expand it to cover all of 2017.
I stay on track in part because of the challenge at my gym.
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So, here we are after one month of 2017. I ate on diet every day of January and I lost over 10 lbs. We are in the middle of another commitment challenge. This time it is 7 weeks and you get 1 point per day for Paleo, 2 pts per day for Zone, and 4 pts per day for Paleo+Zone. You also get a 20 point bonus per week if you followed Zone or Paleo (or in my case Paleo+Zone) every day in a week.
I’ve been doing Paleo+Zone (16 blocks)+Intermittent Fasting so I only need to prepare 2 meals a day. It has gone much easier than I thought it would.
My diet target for February is to get at least one diet point every day of the challenge and then Paleo the rest of the month afterward. My guess is that my first diet vacation day won’t come until March. I need to save some of those days up for when we get to Thanksgiving and Christmas.
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So, that is how I have taken on what many would call a resolution in 2017. I stay on track in part because of the challenge at my gym. But, I post pictures of my daily check-ins on Instagram and in my facebook page for 350+150. I blog about things on the topic of health, wellness, diet, and exercise. Plenty of people know this is my goal for 2017 and that helps me stay focused, as well.
But, I also think that breaking things up into daily and monthly chunks helps, too.
If you want some help trying to make changes, please reach out to me. I’d love to help.
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Photo credit: Getty Images