The 30 Day Detox Fad

Imagine your dream holiday destination. Perhaps it’s palm trees, cold beers and Mai Tais, or sunrise on the African Savannah. Whatever your dream, one thing is for sure: if you want to get somewhere easily, quickly and without any planning or expense, you are probably not going to end up at your dream holiday location.

The same is true for fitness goals. Starting at your least fit today and expecting to be in great shape in 30 days is like hopping on the Number 1 bus at Elephant and Castle and expecting to arrive in Cancun.

Quick fixes quickly unravel

‍‘Consistent work over time’ is not a very popular message, especially this time of year. The industry thrives on selling quick fixes; fad workouts, products and diets.

Quick and easy might sell but it just doesn’t work. The quick fix will often feel like it works at first, usually getting rapid, unsustainable results, before you regress and end up in a worse place than when you started. You’ll probably blame yourself too, but it’s not your fault it didn’t work

Whilst it’s not popular to say that your goals will probably take six months or more to achieve, it’s true. But don’t let that timeframe put you off. Six months might feel like a really long time, but here are two key things to remember:

1. That time will fly by. Think of how quickly the last year has gone and think where you would be today if you’d started six months ago. The best time was then, the second-best time is now.
2. Human bodies are highly programmable but also very complex. Long-lasting change should take time.‍

All great achievements are just a series of small steps

My intention is not to put you off at all- it’s the opposite. I want to help manage your expectations so you stay the course and hit your most desired goals. Lasting lifestyle changes will likely take 6-12 months of good, consistent work. Not going crazy, not doing anything unsustainable; still enjoying life whilst getting closer every week to achieving what you want.

Knowing this, you’re now equipped to smash your year. You can take a breath and know that you can approach this one step at a time, and that there’s even margin for error along the way. The road to big, lasting progress is long and undulating, so you’ll need to take your time and hold a sustainable pace.

Remember this when you’re tempted to go for the quick fix, because I guarantee that you will end up back where you started or even worse off than before. Six months is nothing. Twelve months is nothing! The time will pass anyway, you may as well spend it working towards your dreams. You’ll enjoy the process too, and progress will come every week and every month, making it easier to stay the course.

Like many of you, I have my goals that I want to achieve this year. I know I won’t achieve them in the next few months, but I’ll get closer and I’ll make progress that I’ll be happy with. I’ll enjoy my training and everything else it brings to my life, including the mental benefits. The journey taking a long time is not a bad thing, because it’s a good way to spend the time, and it brings more to my life than just physical results. I’m less stressed, more productive, happier. I don’t really want this journey to end, so I’ll keep adding goals and knocking them off, year after year.

Over the next six weeks we’ll be looking at how to gradually implement the behaviours I talked about in last week’s blog (sleep, steps, fruit & veg, food tracking, meal prep) with articles from other health & fitness experts at Another Round. We are levelling up and it’s going to be a great year. I’m so happy you’re on the journey with us. Let’s do this.‍