Keto New Year’s Resolutions – Tips & Tricks
It’s the start of a new year and maybe you want to set yourself some new year’s resolutions. Perhaps you want to lose weight or just get in better shape? Well, keto can help with that! Check out our keto tips & tricks to help you smash your new year’s resolutions!
If you’re here, you probably already know what the keto diet is, so we won’t discuss the basics. However, if you’re after an in-depth overview, then check out this amazing article over at Diet Doctor!
Set realistic resolutions
You might want to set a bunch of goals that you are going to complete by the end of the year. However, if they’re too vague, it can be difficult to stay on track and can eventually lead to quitting early.
Something like 80% of new year’s resolutions fail before the end of February!
In order to stay on track, it’s best to set and focus on one main goal. Make it Realistic and Specific.
For example, a common one is to lose weight. That is quite vague, and has quite a few open-ended questions such as: how much do you want to lose? By when? Do you care about muscle vs. fat? What are the milestones that need to be tracked on the journey?
Answering all these questions before you start, can help to set achievable goals, as you will be able to build a list of ways you can track your progress and tick them off as you smash them!
Going back to the previous example, it may be better to set the following goal:
Lose 10kg in 5 months and be able to run 5km without stopping
Now that goal has a specific measurable outcome (5kg) that can be used to monitor success. Also, it is quite obtainable to lose that amount of weight in the timeframe (5 months).
However, you don’t just want to lose both muscle and fat. So, adding a stretch goal of running a 5k helps to ensure that you’re also focusing on your fitness. Again, this is specific (run without stopping), measurable (distance = 5km) and obtainable within the timeframe (5 months).
Related – check out Couch to 5K for how you can get started running on keto.
Lastly, you’ll need to be in a calorie deficit to lose weight. So you’ll need to set a realistic calorie intake and stick to it. Ruled.me have a great ketogenic calculator that you can use to work out how much of a calorie deficit you need to be in.
Hopefully, that gives you some ideas on how you can go about setting you New Year’s resolutions!
Record and monitor your progress
You’re not going to suddenly wake up one day and be 10kg lighter. It takes time and the progress will be incremental. Admittedly, this can be tiresome and it may zap your motivation to carry on. However, don’t give up! One of the best ways to help ensure you reach your goal is to continually monitor your progress.
We all know that if you’re trying to lose weight then getting on the scales is the easiest way to track your progress. However, there will be times where your weight loss stalls (plateaus) and that can be crushing. It’s important to remember that it’s not a straight line to success, there will be plenty of ups and downs along the way.
To keep motivated, it’s good to record as much information as possible and regularly review it to see how far you’ve come. You may even want to review and update your goal.
For instance, if we take the previous example, then we might want to record the following information at regular intervals (daily or at least weekly):
- Weight – use a scale to record total body mass and even fat percentage (with a smart scale)
- Body measurements – use a tape measure to record as many measurements as possible. The scale may not move but you may have lost some cm’s around the waist. It’s good to keep track of waist, hips, thighs, arms, neck and armpit to armpit.
- Thoughts & feelings – add a little note on how you’re feeling and your general mood. When you look back you can see if there is any correlation.
- Fitness levels – if you’re running, then record how far you get before needing to take a break and how out of breath you were, etc…
- Food – record all the food and drink you’re consuming and keep them under your calorie goal. MyFitnesspal is a great tool for this and I’ve used it for over 1,000 days.
That’s just some of the things you can record, the more, the better! Besides the food tracking, I recommend you keep track of them in a spreadsheet. That way you can easily review previous entries and even chart graphs for weight and body measurements!
Celebrate milestones
It’s a marathon, not a sprint or so the saying goes… If you just focus on the end goal then you might end up unmotivated and failing. To combat this, you should think up a list of smaller goals (milestones) that you can celebrate along your journey,
For example:
- losing the first 1kg
- being able to run 1km without stopping
- losing 1cm around the waist
It’s great to set these little goals and achieve them but it’s doubly important to celebrate them. That way, you can reflect on how far you’ve come and have something to look forward to.
So what do we mean by celebrating? Well, if you’re losing weight then a big celebratory meal is probably not a good idea. But maybe, some dark chocolate as treat could be good? Or perhaps, buying a new piece of clothing now that you fit in it?
It’s ok to fail 🙂
Finally, it’s ok if you fail. I honestly, couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve failed a new year’s resolution. In the past, I would just give up, call it a day and return to my old habits.
Obviously, that’s not a good way to go about it. Everyone has bad days (even weeks, months), we’re only human! It’s essential to not be too harsh on yourself and just go with the flow. Just draw a line under a bad day and start again the next day.
Further reading
Are you now brimming with ideas for your keto new year’s resolutions? Awesome! Why not take a look at the below articles for more ideas:
