It’s that time of year again.

Time to celebrate the start of a whole New Year. Folks have practiced this for thousands of years. For the western world, it started back in Roman times. In fact, the word January was actually derived from the word Janus. Janus was the mythical Roman god of beginnings and endings.

Today, come January, millions vow to finally lose that extra weight and get in shape. Although this custom is nothing new, most don’t succeed to the degree they’d like, because they don’t have the proper plan. As the old adage goes, “people don’t plan to fail, they fail to plan.” I’m going to help you with that.

The first thing to remember is that you can succeed. I’ve had clients lose 50, 65, 72, even 108 lbs. The thing is, we first came up with the proper fitness/diet strategy. When clients first come to me, I require they keep a food journal. Even before they start recording their eating habits, I tell them that in the front of their journal, I want them to write an entire page of what it will cost them in the near and distant future in terms of health, money, relationships, self esteem and anything else they can think of, if they don’t make the health changes they need to their body.