New Year Resolutions - Key considerations before you start

Any new health and fitness resolution needs to be backed up by a plan. It is this time of the year I try not to pull my hair out when hearing about all the fad diets, stupid ideas and out right lies the public like you are fed from every source available.

I would highly recommend my Optimal Rugby Performance or my Rugby programmes.

Whatever method you choose, be it a diet book, joining a gym or doing one of the many thousands of courses/methods available ask yourself the following questions:

• Does your method advise the same food plan for every one?

There is no diet that works for everybody. This is because we are all unique. Take a look around, how many people look identical to you? No one? Inside is exactly the same. This explains why your friend may lose weight eating one way but you do not. It is because different people need different foods. Any diet book or course with one recommendation for everyone will not be successful for everyone.

• Does your method address the mind?

If you want to really achieve your goal you have to ensure the mind is tuned and in harmony with your thoughts and actions. It is essential to make sure this New Years resolution does not become like the other ones that you never stuck to. To ensure this does not happen you need to address certain mental aspects firsts. Have you considered this component?

• Have you included exercise as part of an holistic approach?

Exercise is vital to any health goal. Losing weight without exercise is a slow process, if not impossible in many cases. While doing exercise you need to also consider how it could aid your rugby performance.

The key to exercise is how you change it from week to week and month to month. This is done using a concept called Periodization.

You should be slightly wary of any plan that is solely based on exercise because you must address your nutrition if you want to shed some pounds.

• Where does the advice come from? An expert?

All health and fitness goals, including weight loss require a multi faceted approach, if it were not then every one would achieve their goals quite easily. It is essential to be under the guidance of an expert and not someone who does it for a hobby or a team of scientists who no longer are around to deliver the programme and see if it actually works.

• Does your plan look at you and treat you as an individual?

When putting in place the things you need to achieve your weight loss it must be specific to you. As you are unique both physically and mentally a standardized approach will not be any where as near in effectiveness as a personally tailored approach.

You can learn more about applying these principles through my rugby performance course or soon to be released Rugby E-book. Both of these methods which will transform your physique and rugby abilities.