First Posted: 11/30/2014

Lifts weights. Work large muscle groups. Do intervals. Eat vegetables, lean proteins, healthy fats and good carbs. Exercise most days of the week and know how to recover. Sleep more than you think you should and drink a lot of water.

There you have it – the bottom line with every fitness and nutrition article ever written.

So, if that’s the bottom line and this information is well known, then why aren’t we all super fit?

Because we are human. Our environment is constantly changing and therefore our willpower changes will it. Arrive at a holiday party hungry and you end up binging on the buffet.

Most weight loss books have the hard tactics you need to succeed but what happens when real life kicks in? We need to be accepting of the fact that nothing is perfect. Our good intentions are often sidelined but instead of getting down on ourselves we need to be better at being flexible and learning how to balance our lives.

And these days balance is hard to achieve. And it frustrates all of us. We work too much, relax to little, we gain five pounds then obsess about the scale until we lose it. We over extend ourselves, put the kids in every sport possible and neglect our relationships. We lose touch with friends and family and stress about the littlest things.

And I’m guilty-as-charged with most of this.

With the new year approaching, let’s try and take a deeper look into our habits that have spun out of control and try fixing the real issues that may have affected our weight and health. Without spending time to focus and restore balance, we will find ourselves experiencing symptoms of stress, dysfunction, relationship friction and burnout.

If you’re out of shape – resolving to hit the gym five days per week may not be practical if the reason you’re out of shape is not having time to exercise. Seek solutions to free up some time before committing to a steep workout schedule.

If you’re sleeping to little -shut off the television and go to bed fifteen minutes earlier every night until you’re logging in a solid 7 to 8 hours per night.

Working a lot may be great for your bottom line, but if work is all you do, and your work hours go up consistently, something has to go down- and it’s probably your social life. If you must, schedule time in your busy calendar so that you can spend time with loved ones.

As we count down the days until 2015, let’s try and focus on all the things that are important to us and to be grateful to all the experiences that helped shaped us.