Only 8% of people who make resolutions are actually successful! With New Year’s just around the corner, I know some of you may be thinking of creating some.

On on one hand I think New Year’s resolutions are awesome because they give us something to strive towards, an ideal that we can be a better version of ourselves. Somehow when we achieve this resolution our slate will wiped clean. My challenge with New Year’s resolutions is they are made purely out of tradition rather than with intent to actually make a change.

Now I’m not being negative Nelly, so I want to make sure that you don’t let yourself fall victim to the “diet” pitfall when setting your New Year’s resolution!
When you decide to make a healthy lifestyle change you should be going into it with a lot of thought about what you want to change and how you’re going to do it. Just deciding at the spur of the moment that you’re going to be healthier as the clock counts down doesn’t really give you much of a chance to do the research and planning you need to make healthy, informed decisions. It’s good to make the choice to become healthier, but it should really be something that you think hard on rather than something that just happens to come to mind.
Here is where I advise my clients to set 2 week sprints. Take your overall healthy living goal and break it down into what will you accomplish in the next 2 weeks. This gives you short term targets to hit and when you hit them you’ll feel far more accomplished. When you feel accomplished guess what you’ll want to do more!!
Most people approach getting healthy as this all or nothing thing. They go ALL in and then get burnt out. They are trying to change way too much to fast. Some find that they are unable to sustain that change and they fall off the “wagon”. If you’re planning to “get healthy” or “lose weight” for the New Year, make sure that you’re planning on doing it in a stable way that you’re going to stick with until you reach your goals.
Don’t let yourself be tripped up before you even start with a temporary frame of mind that doesn’t have much thought or planning behind it.
I’d like to help you get a jumpstart on your holiday resolution. I’ve asked 12 fitness professionals to give their best tips on how they get through the holiday season stress and weight gain free. Each day you’ll get one simple fitness tip, recipe, or workout that can be done anywhere. Want in” Grab it right it right here.

We are standing at the beginning of the crazy holiday season. Let’s prep for any awesome season without all the craziness. I want to help you stay on track this holiday season by giving you 14 tips for healthier holiday parties. It’s too easy this time of year to indulge, all the excitement has our energy levels sky high and we’ll probably be attending multiple parties with food and booze. In this episode I talk about how to remain mindful of your physical and mental health while still enjoying the season with moderation. After all, when the holiday season has been and gone we’ll be left to pick up the pieces and the less pieces there are to pick up, the easier it will be for us to get back on track for the start of the New Year.

Grab your list of 14 ways to stay calm right here.

Show replay

I believe that losing weight can be one of the simplest things that you can do. I really mean it!!
No I won’t have you tracking calories. If you are shaking your head because you’ve tried everything under the sun and have all but completely given up, here are mind-blowing tips that deliver results.
GET A FIT BIT
Yes, it may sound a little hokey but I love it. It makes me more mindful about moving. Until I got one I never noticed the days I wasn’t moving and the day I was running around like a jumping bean.
I love my fitbit because it also tells me go to bed, tells me how long I slept and it reminds me when I sit too long.
EAT VEGGIES TILL THEY COME OUT OF YOUR EARS
Sure French fries hit the sweet spot in your stomach, but aren’t the veggies I’m talking about =) Veggies are extremely filling.
And the best part’
You can basically eat veggies to your pleasure- eat as much as you like without the guilt. Serve with some lean protein and you’ve got a major weight loss partner.
TURN OFF YOUR BEAST MODE!
Yes, you should watch what you eat, but you do need to MOVE!! Do you need to spend hours at the gym NO. Do you need to lift Buick, NO. That is a recipe for failure, you will burn out both physically and mentally.
Pick something that you like to do and do it!!! Move at least 15-30 minutes/day. Need some quick simple easy ideas grab 10 right here. 
SLOW DOWN
This is one I’m working on. It’s so easy to get caught in writing a FB post or a blog post, a sales page, a workout for a client and just chomp down my food and without thinking.
Take your time, chew your food and focus on what you are eating.
The reason why I believe that anyone can lose weight is that when you break down your goals into SMALL manageable achievable goals you’ll feel start to add up your wins. When you add up your wins, you’ll want to keep going. Think like a game of monopoly, how many of us want to keep passing go and collecting $200 to buy more houses and build more hotels.
What sounds like the easiest thing you can do right now’ Leave me a comment below.

This isn’t said to discourage you, but to make sure you go in with realistic expectations. Soon every channel will bombard us with weight loss commercials. We’ve all seen the ones where it says “Use Our ABC Exercise Program and in Only 3 Minutes a Day You Will Be a Fat-Free, Musclebound God or Goddess in Just 1 Month.”

If you have been inactive for a while and have had a rather sedentary lifestyle, this is awesome news! I don’t need to tell you that exercise can improve your mind and body substantially.

However, you shouldn’t expect miracles when you just start out.

Break it back to a young kids. Kids don’t come out of the womb sprinting. They crawl, then walk and then you’re chasing them all over your house. A week after you first started swimming you were probably not going to challenge Michael Phleps to a race. Nor should you expect working out after long periods of being sedentary to deliver immediate results. It’s going to take time, but the good news is, you will start to feel better quickly.

Just don’t fall victim to the ridiculous promises made by some TV pitchmen and Internet sales pages.

A consistent and repetitive exercise program will eventually deliver the health benefits you are trying to achieve. Just keep at it. You probably know you should start off slow in the beginning. This keeps you from becoming injured, and ditching your exercise program all together.

Flash back to your fairytales of the story of the hare and the tortoise. Slow and steady wins the race, to help stay with a healthy living program. Stick to it, week after week, month after month, and you will eventually achieve the results you’re looking for.

Looking to get started before the new year’ Grab these 10 workouts, that can be done at home, gym or hotel room with little no equipment

As a solo entrepreneur, I need all of the positive mindset I can get. If I let self doubt and negativity creep in, it can cause me to panic and reverse course
– stopping me from ever achieving my dreams.

We all have seeds of negativity that are constantly being sewn in our lives, and it’s up to us to spot and weed them out as soon as they take root. If you leave these influences to flourish, it will someday feel out of control and you won’t know how to get back to a place that’s manageable. 

Sure we all have outside influences, but one of the biggest negative factors comes from our own mindset. It can be as simple as trashing decisions and never giving ourselves a chance to succeed.

We do this is self-preservation. We want to be smart. If we predict failure, and it comes true – then we were smart and we didn’t fail. If we don’t get our hope up then we can’t have high expectations.

What’s Your Negative Self Talk’ 

You might say things like, “I can never lose weight, every time I’ve tried I’ve lost a little but it always come back and brings friends!” Raise your hand if you stand in the mirror wishing you reflection looked different’ Maybe you don’t even look in the mirror any more cause you just can’t stand what you see.

Maybe you are trying to workout and you skip a workout or two and every time you miss one , you beat yourself up brutally, calling yourself stupid.

Do you have negative people in your life’

Does your negativity come from other people’ Do you play the comparison game’ Looking at other’s social media feeds and seeing where they are in their journeys’ compared to yours’ Maybe you have people in your life who don’t think you can be successful with getting healthy. They aren’t there support your healthy journey.

If you want to overcome this negativity you have to first be honest about how negative you are. Start to recognize if you call yourself names (or other who are having the success that you want’).

Do you say, “Ugh! I’m so stupid for not _________,” How about you turn it around and say, “Actually, I’m giving it everything I’ve got, so I’m still proud of myself for trying, even if I screwed up this time.

Replace the negative with the positive. Practice positive affirmations if you want to, you can search the Internet for them, but I want them to sound like you so make sure you edit them to sound like you

I’ve mentioned that some of the negativity in our lives comes from outside sources. Your family can wreak havoc on your success just by being negative about your efforts – or about life in general.

It’s hard to wake up positive and motivated every day when you’re around someone who drags you down in life. It’s worse when they direct their negativity toward you.

A parent might say, “You still haven’t lose any weight’” Your spouse might say, “Not another diet’” You might have aunts, uncles, and cousins who chime in on where you are in your journey.

I’ve in the place where I haven’t felt fully supported and it sucks out loud!! – especially if it’s your loved ones. These are the people who should be cheering you on. There’s really nothing that can stop that pain. You can decide whether or not you’ll put up with it and let it affect your progress.

Their negativity isn’t about you. Some people are just negative nellies– always complaining about the weather, their job, the traffic, and so on.

It can very toxic being around negative people on a regular basis.

Why do people who are supposed to have your back try to cripple your progress’ Sometimes, like your family, they mean well – and they think they’re saving you from making a big mistake.

Other times, it’s a jealousy issue with friends. Maybe they have tried and failed multiple times trying to lose weight. Maybe they see how successful you are and may lose you to this healthier lifestyle.

So what comes out of their mouths isn’t supportive and well-meaning. It’s a cheap shot, aimed at defeating your mindset so that you’ll get on par with everyone else and they won’t have to feel bad about their own decisions. We’ve all heard this you can have just one or are you too good for us. Anything to make you feel like shit for trying to take bigger steps toward helps.

To win with these folks you need to set firm boundaries. Let them know that you’re proud of what it is that you’re doing and if they can’t be supportive, then the issue will be off the table for further discussions.

Don’t try to explain every element of your journey to someone who puts it down. They won’t understand because they don’t want to. You’ll be wasting your time and end up frustrated.

Instead, set boundaries, and if they continue invading your space about the issue, make a decision about whether or not you need to have this person staying in your life any longer.

You may think that as long as you keep yourself and those closest to you in real life, you’ll be well on your way to a positive mindset. Unfortunately, we often rely on our online support network to achieve success.

Is it time to straight up block some people’

If your network is filled with Negative Nellies you gotta flip the script or you won’t ever be successful.

These means unfollowing someone on Facebook, this step may help you to set yourself free from the sadness and anger they like to spew about how they feel mistreated.

As you begin weeding out your negative influences – in real life and online – you have to replace it with something that will benefit you. The first thing you want to do is make positivity a way of life for you.

That means in your parenting, in your relationship, in your finances, in your life overall – everywhere. Not just when it comes to your health. If you try to only stay positive in your when it comes to your health, it will be hard to stay afloat because the rest of your world feels like it’s crumbling.

This weeding of toxic influences should happen regularly. The more aware you become of how other people affect your own mindset; you can easily make a plan of action to handle them.

Will they simply be tuned out whenever you encounter them’ Will you set boundaries and keep them at arm’s length’ Or is the influence so troubling that it’s in your best interest to close the door completely’

Aside from stopping yourself from saying negative things and replacing them with good thoughts, work on other ways to continually let go of negativity and find the silver lining in every moment.

What are you thankful for’ 

The best way I’ve found to start thinking in a positive way is to start a gratitude journal. I started with writing 3 things that I am grateful for. It doesn’t have to be huge thing. I can be simply that you re thankful that you got a parking spot. Now the key is to say why you are thankful it. So I’d write thank you for the amazing parking spot. By getting this spot it helped me to get to class on time without stressing. When I go to class unstressed I’m better at supporting my students.

You can buy a plain journal anywhere or you can start with the 5-minute journal. I have some great quotes and prompts if that’s what you need. Journaling can happen in the morning or evening whatever works for you.

Do things that promote positive energy, like laughing. Watch comedies or find videos on You Tube that crack you up. . For me it’s videos of people scaring each other or motivational videos by Eric Thomas. Turn off the news. It can be depressing and make you feel like everything’s going wrong, all of the time. This includes the alerts!

Try to meditate, do some yoga, use guided visual imagery or other practices that can help you chill.

I know this may seem like a lot but cleaning up the negativity in your life will be an on-going process that doesn’t happen overnight. But once you’re able to spot people who aren’t good for you, you’ll begin to see that you achieve more and enjoy your career more than ever before

Back in the day I was so guilty of this. I NEVER took a rest day. I always had to spend at least 30-45 minutes in the gym. I thought that if I took time off, my results would go away! When I traveled I’d scour the Internet to find
a place to workout. I was a tad obsessive. I was constantly worrying about the hours of missed workouts and it literally sucked all the fun of being in new surroundings.

I’m here to tell you that take rest could just be what your body needs. This is because if you’ve been training on
a consistent basis, taking some time off from intense workouts can be quite beneficial to your overall fitness and well-being.

One of the worst fears of fitness enthusiasts is that missing several workouts in a row will lead to significant muscle loss or an increase in body fat. Despite know that this wasn’t possible I was stuck in the mindset for years. Sure there may be some fitness related loses, but they do not happen overnight, nor do they happen in
2-3 days. Research proves that it takes up to 3 weeks of complete inactivity for the first signs of muscle loss. Now this means you aren’t doing anything thing straight up bed ridden! If you are pretty fit it will longer it will take to go completely out of shape than you think.

Rest does a body good. I’m hear to tell you that regular beast mode workouts r will take a toll on the body.
I know you’ll say to me that I’ve always worked out like that and it has never effective me before. I wasn’t a rest day person and I killed my metabolism and my adrenals.””

When I was first told to chill and not lift more than 2x/week and do leisure walking I was pissed and frustrated, but it was what my body needed to recover and increase my body’s energy levels.

Now rest and restoration is a primary focus. I need to at least 2 days where I do nothing but rest. I may go for a nice long walk around the Charles but I’m in complete chill mode. I do lift but my workout last no more than 30 minutes and combine strength and cardio.

A few years ago I traveled for 30 days. During that time I worked out I’d say about 2 times a week. During that time I walked a shit ton. I only put 2 pounds!!! ”” During this time, I didn’t diet. I focused solely on eating mindfully and working out when I had the opportunity. Each hotel didn’t have a place to workout and if it did I went for a long walk. I started each day with a good breakfast with fruits and proteins.

Without being stressed out about getting in my workout I was able to truly relax and enjoy this trip of a lifetime.

In November I will be kicking off what I can new 10 day success series where I help you Reboot and Refocus This program helps change how we think about food and exercise so that you can –to enjoy life without guilt or regret! Hop on the waitlist so you are the first to know.

I’m here to tell you. When you are trying to lead a healthy lifestyle it won’t happen overnight. If you are like me, you have the patience of a gnat. In my mind once I think it, it should just happen. Right. Well. Not so much. Think of it like this you don’t just have sex one night then have a baby the next night. Good things take time. How do you wait it out without losing your stuff’

1. Ask yourself what is the rush. Do you feel if you don’t get it right away you are never going to get there’
2. Where is your focus’ Are you thinking about of the things you don’t have or are you looking forward to where you journey is going to take you. The law of attraction says what you focus expands so why not focus on the good.
3. I am enough. Our inner critic starts talking to us, feeding our thoughts of our worth. You start looking around at everyone who has what you want and say to yourself am I enough. Will I ever get what I need’ You inner critic is right there is say no you aren’t. You need to stay where you are it’s say here. When I start to feel like I’m not enough I go to what I call my highlight reel. I watch motivational YouTube videos and read affirmations. When you get down what will you do’
4. Consistency. Wanna hit your goals, you must take action every single day. Simple actions every day will help build momentum that you can sustain
5. Move your feet! Success will not happen overnight. Many times we think we need to buy a program or follow a guru to get results. That’s not the solution. You need to make a plan and take daily action! You will get there, but it takes time. You are not alone you have support.

You must stay the course on your journey. This is where you have to say to yourself the universe has your back. Trust in yourself know that time will pass and you could pass time working on your goals or sitting around thinking about what you don’t have.
Patience is the real key to success. Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success. Napoleon Hill

Watch Now! On this episode my good friend 1 Fit Foodie joins me to talk about how to clean eating doesn’t have to be boring. We’ll talk about ingredient swaps, healthier options and more!  Grab your FREE recipes that we talked about right here!!!

I’m honored to have been selected as one of the coaches in this amazing event. If you are local to Boston and could use a little “free” coaching be sure to register for this awesome event.

Both top corporate executives and successful entrepreneurs attest to the important contribution that coaches have made to their success. The guidance of coaches can support your personal and professional growth and change, and on January 5th you can enjoy an evening of business networking plus “taste test” the tremendous value of coaches – Business, Career Transition, Marketing, Wellness, Executive, Style – and MORE!

Women and men entrepreneurs, business owners, corporate and independent professionals, and those in career (or LIFE!) transition – all are invited to attend!

The program will include:

• Informal business networking over complimentary light food.
• Coach Panel Discussion – Introduction to the Benefits of Coaches and Coaching
• Cook-off Begins! You select and sign-up for 2 to 3 timed coaching sessions
• Structured Business Networking, plus our Networking “Cheat Sheet” ensures you will make business connections.

When: Tuesday, January 5; [5:00] to [8:00]
Where: Constant Contact HQ
1601 Trapelo Rd. Great Room Waltham, MA 02451
Fee: Members – $20; Non members $25 until 12/27; $30 thereafter.

Register here

I asked 12 fitness pros how they manage to stay on track during the holidays. Listen to what my girl, Lisa Mustard has to say.

Just because there are holiday treats a plenty doesn’t mean I sacrifice my goals for a buffet:-) if I see somethingI really want I will work it into my nutrition plan for the day or week.

I’ve tried the white knuckle approach in the past (avoiding parties due to food temptations) and I’ve done the willy nilly approach (free for all!! Taste everything!) — neither worked out well–

Deciding ahead of time to stay compliant allows me flexibility and I feel better about my choices because I’m aware of them and why I choose what I choose.

I’ve evolved in to this approach for sure — I get a little bit better at it each yr:-)

Want 12 more”

This holiday season I asked 12 fitness pros how they survived the holidays. Here’s how my good friend Lori Harder survives the holiday.

Stick to a budget. Before you go gift and food shopping, decide how much money you can afford to spend. Then stick to your budget. Don’t try to buy your joy with gifts and food.

This season is all about the moments in between our busy lives to connect with our loved ones.

Try these alternatives:

► Donate to a charity in someone’s name.
► Give homemade gifts such as a sugars scrub or your favorite oatmeal recipe in a cute jar!
► Start a family gift exchange.

Want 12 more ideas‘

I asked 12 fitness pros, how they get through holidays. Carol Donahue shared this tip.

My stay sane trick is to write down 3 things that I am grateful or each night before bed.  It’s helps take the edge off of feeling so overwhelmed and takes me from the place of “not enough” (time, money, etc) to a place of plenty.  It’s really a simple but beautiful practice.

Wanna learn 12 more‘