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In a small town in Pennsylvania, there is a long-standing tradition with a Famous groundhog named Punxsatawney Phil. On February 2nd, the furry little critter crawls out of his den and if he sees his shadow, it means there will be six more weeks of winter. Usually he does, though I always hope otherwise – I would prefer an early spring! Anyway, seeing this amusing American holiday on the news again got me thinking… for most people, fat loss is a lot like groundhog day…
Before I became a full time writer, publisher, and coach online, I used to work in health clubs. For 14 years, I was a trainer and gym manager, and every January, there was a huge influx of new members.
Unfortunately, most of them were gone by February. I swear this is not urban legend or an exaggeration – it’s absolutely true. I used to print out the attendance records to prove it.
The attendance spike in January and the subsequent dip in February were unbelievable. So much for new year’s resolutions.
Did you ever think about what the word “resolution” implies? If you just look at the word (ignoring the actual latin roots), on the surface we see a similarity to “resolve” which means a firm determination, or to set a course of action.
This is probably how resolution got attached to New Years.
What I find ironic is that if you spell it out by syllable, “resolve” sounds like “RE-solve” as in: to solve the same problem again and again, and again and again. Hmmm. That does seem to go right along with New Year Resolutions doesn’t it?
Did you ever see that movie (1993), Groundhog Day with Bill Murray, where he wakes up every morning only to re-live the same day over and over again?
Well, for most people, the beginning of the year is like “Groundhog Day for fat loss” – reliving that same 20 pound weight loss from past years, over and over and over again.
What could be more frustrating?
Isn’t it finally time to stop that madness?
You can make your goals and intentions stick this year – all year – and keep your progress steamrolling forward for life… an unstoppable you. It simply takes a different approach than the way most people are doing it every January.
The old approach:
- Making once a year resolutions
- Fantasizing about a destination
- Winging it
- Tying quick fixes (pills, starvation, zero carbs, prolonged fasting)
- Rigid rules and restrictions
- Training or dieting so hard it’s unsustainable
- Following the crowd on the most popular diet trend
- Excessive or exclusive focus on the scale and losing weight rather than on performance, health, fitness and burning fat
The new approach:
- Continuous goal setting combined with purpose (reason why) and aligned on values
- Enjoying the process
- Meticulously planning the process (down to the weekly and daily habits)
- Long-term time perspective
- Structure with flexible restraint
- Sustainable exercise and eating habits
- Following what fits your goals, lifestyle, schedule and personal preferences
- Focus on burning fat, building muscle, performing better, getting fitter and getting healthier
People know that resolutions usually don’t stick, but rather than learning the art of constantly setting personal, challenging, specific goals which move them step by step along a lifetime path with purpose, they make resolutions again every year anyway.
They pursue the latest, trendiest, newest diet or exercise fad instead of working on the admittedly boring, but effective fundamentals and proven principles (which never change).
They’re focused only on quick results without a long term growth mindset.
And, they’re so caught up in the scale, that all they care about is how much weight they lose, not their body composition (the ratio of muscle to fat), how they perform and how they feel.
Thus, with the old approach:
- You temporarily lose weight and fit in smaller clothes, but you don’t look good out of clothes – you’re just a smaller version of your old self… a “skinny fat person.”
- You start out in a fiery burst of New Year enthusiasm, only to burn out, sometimes in less than a month, and gain back all the weight you lost… Where it sticks on your belly until next January, when you start the cycle of insanity all over again.
Insanity: Continuing to do the same thing over and over again (year after year) while expecting a different result.
If you want to make real health and body changes that stick, it’s time to change to the new approach.
My fat-burning program, Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle is the new approach.
In our Burn the Fat Inner Circle community we sponsor body transformation contests that last 12 weeks. Yet we teach everyone who enters that this three-month period is simply one of many short term goals – just one of many stepping stones along a journey that lasts a lifetime.
After 12 weeks, you don’t stop! You set more short term goals, and you keep going – and you keep getting better and better.
If you haven’t yet reached your long-term body weight goal, you can keep using the program until you do, and then you still keep using the same program to maintain your ideal weight for life. The only difference is you no longer need to eat in a calorie deficit. (You can eat more during the maintenance phase than the fat loss phase)
If you have reached your ideal body weight goal, at that point, you will discover new health, fitness and performance goals to set and you still keep going. The fitness and health journey never ends.
“Go as far as you can see; when you get there, you’ll be able to see farther.” – Thomas Carlyle
To make this happen, you have to change your mindset
Here’s the Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle difference:
- Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle teaches you effective goal-setting skills (the kind you can apply in your business, financial and personal life as well)
- Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle also gives you a lifestyle program. It’s a maintainable and flexible plan designed from day one so you can stick with it. Everything is maintainable. There are no forbidden foods… no crazy types of exercise you must do even if you don’t like them…
- Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle teaches you how to measure and track your body composition – not just how much you weigh, but how much of your weight is muscle and how much is fat.
- Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle is NOT just a 12 week program, or a 28-day workout cycle, it’s a lifestyle. We simply sponsor fun fitness contests throughout the year, to give you some external motivation and social support, and some of them happen to be 12 weeks long.
Do you want the Groundhog day cycle of weight loss and regain to finally stop… to Burn the Fat and keep it off forever? If so, then we have the tools for you…
Not only can you keep reading this Burn the Fat Blog every week for free fat burning and muscle-building tips and advice, you are also invited to enter our fitness or body transformation challenge contests, (also free!)
We have another fitness challenge (the million step and Mt Everest challenge) coming up in April and another 12 week body transformation contest coming up in May. To learn more about the upcoming Burn the Fat Challenges that you can enter, click here to visit the contest calendar page.
The official guidebook to the challenge is Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle book, now available all over the world in print, digital editions and audiobook.
If you want additional support and unlimited access to me, you can also become a part of our members-only community at Burn the Fat Inner Circle, and for a limited time, during this “Groundhog Day Special” if you have not been a member before, or if you haven’t beeb a member in over a year you are eligible to try out the Inner Circle for only $1:
Simply go to: www.burnthefatinnercircle.com/public/Join-For-One-Dollar.cfm
Train Hard and Expect Success!
Tom Venuto,
Author, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle
Founder and CEO, Burn the Fat Inner Circle
Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilding and fat loss expert. Tom is a former competitive bodybuilder and today works as a full-time fitness coach, writer, blogger, and author. In his spare time, he is an avid outdoor enthusiast, hiker and backpacker. His book, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle is an international bestseller, first as an ebook and now as a hardcover and audiobook. The Body Fat Solution, Tom’s book about emotional eating and long-term weight maintenance, was an Oprah Magazine and Men’s Fitness Magazine pick. Tom is also the founder of Burn The Fat Inner Circle – a fitness support community with over 53,000 members worldwide since 2006. Click here for membership details
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