S.E.T.ing Up For New Year Success

S.E.T.ing Up For New Year Success

By Shane Robert

It’s a new year. Again. Another beginning of lofty goals that will not be accomplished, swept into the dust bin of abandoned goals of years past. Sadly, the goals are often the same year after year. These goals can vary, of course, and fall into innumerable categories — from finances to relationships, from cleanliness to nail biting. No category, it can be argued, gets as much enthusiasm, and eventual disdain, as those related to health and fitness. In fact, the top 7 new year resolutions look like this:

1. Save more money - 21%

2. Eat healthier - 19%

3. Exercise more - 17%

4. Lose Weight - 15%

5. Spend more time with friends/family - 14%

6. Quit smoking - 9%

7. Reduce spending on living expenses  - 9%

It’s pretty clear that improving one’s health, albeit defined in different ways, is a common goal. This list can be consolidated quite easily by combining the “health” categories, which includes quitting smoking because, after all, there is almost nothing better for your health than quitting smoking, into the following:

1. Save more/spend less - 30%

2. Improve health - 55% 

3. Spend time with friends/family - 14%

That paints a little bit of a different picture. And, if we are being honest with ourselves and following the science, mental health is an integral part of overall health. Given that loneliness and lack of connection have been shown to have dramatically negative outcomes on health, with some research indicating that it is nearly as detrimental as smoking, we can further consolidate these goals to:

1. Save more/spend less - 30%

2. Improve overall health - 69% (hold the laughs)

This number is higher even than the 43% who say they create no goals or resolutions! Clearly, people are feeling a lack of health in their lives. 

How to go about goal setting has been covered many times in many different outlets. Goals are great but require specificity, both of the goal itself and the timeline in which it will be accomplished. Something as nebulous as the goals listed - “eat healthier,” ‘exercise more,” “lose weight” - don’t quite fit the specificity. Improving health can have specific goals, for example improving certain blood markers, but also tends to be hard to pin down to specificity. That doesn’t mean it can’t be accomplished. 

There are 4 factors to focus on for general health improvement that, if you can be consistent with them, will yield amazing results. Sleep. Eat. Train. Socialize. S.E.T.S.

SLEEP 

The importance of sleep has been a popular topic over the last handful of years. So much so that people have anxiety related to getting a bad night's sleep. It makes sense as there seem to be some pretty negative physical ramifications associated with poor sleep. Getting anxiety and losing sleep over bad sleep, pun very much intended, only makes the situation worse. 

In an ideal world, it would be simple to give the usual recommendation and say, “You have to get 8-9 hours of sleep per night.” Few people can realistically accomplish this. Instead, aim to get as much sleep as your schedule will allow (if it is regularly less than 6 hours, reevaluate your time management) and commit to going to bed at the same time every night and waking at the same time every morning. It is acceptable to sleep in later, if you can, on non-working days. Catch a nap whenever the opportunity presents itself. Even 10 minutes can make a big difference in perceptions of fatigue.

The modern world places many demands on us. Getting as much sleep as we should may not be possible, but gettingconsistentsleep is the next best thing.

EAT

Eating seems to be one of the hardest things for people to stick to. The perceived difficulty is, in all likelihood, the reason why. That is silly. In this age of technology, it has never been simpler. Consistency, just like with sleeping, when it comes to eating is the key that most people miss. All one needs to do is pick an eating plan and stick to it. 

Go to ChatGPT, or similar, and use this template:

• I am an [age] year old [gender] who is [height] tall and weight [weight]. How many calories should I eat per day to [goal (maintain, lose or gain weight)]? 

It will do all of the calculations for you. From there, you can take that information and ask:

• Can you please create a daily meal plan for [calories from above] calories and [1 gram per pound of bodyweight]?
  

It will then give you a meal plan that you can follow that includes foods, macros and calories. Use a macro tracker, of which there are many free options, and track what you eat. Make substitutions as needed but make sure you match the meal plan. Now that the hard part of creating the plan is done, you can put work into sticking to it. 

TRAIN 

Training is fun. It can be, perhaps, even, should be. It is also the least important in this list. Not the exercise itself. That is important. Rather, what type of training you do or how it is set up really doesn’t matter. Find a program and stick to it. Once again, be consistent with doing it 2-4 days per week. There are literally thousands of free programs to follow online.

Pick the training template and do it for a year. Make changes as needed to keep it interesting and to make progress. Work hard enough (whatever amount of reps you do) that it’s hard but doable by the end of the set. Otherwise, it really doesn’t matter. AI chatbots can also create a program for you. It won’t be perfect, but it will be pretty darn good. 

SOCIALIZE 

Previous generations didn’t need to be told to socialize. It just happened. With the advent of technology that makes it easier than ever to be connected, people are less so than at any other time in history. It has now become truly imperative for our psychological health to create connections with other people. 

Make it a goal to interact, on a friend level (or closer), with at least one person a day and to accumulate 3-5 hours per week of close human contact. This could be meeting up for coffee, going for a walk with someone, joining a knitting group, book club or game night. Whatever tickles your fancy. Talking to the other people at the gym and finding training partners is a no-brainer step that will kill two birds with one stone. You get connection and someone to hold you accountable to consistent training. If you train at home consider starting a training group in your garage. That’s how CrossFit started and, well, look what that turned into. 

Everyone can improve their health by making better choices. It doesn’t have to be hard. Remove the hurdles that tend to block us from accomplishing our goals; find what works, even if it isn’t perfect, and be consistent with sleep, food, training, and relationships. It is shocking what kind of progress can be made in a short 365 days.