It takes three months for a change in habits to stick, whether it’s to quit smoking, eating junk food, start exercising, quit drinking alcohol and so forth. At this point you have hopefully kept with your new years resolutions after the first month. The time between 1-3 months is the most crucial. It is the time when you are most likely to fall back into your old habits that you have been trying to quit. Once you get past the initial three months it gets much easier to keep with your intended resolutions.

So what is going to help you with these new changes? Accountability not only to yourself, but to someone else as well. A friend, significant other, or relative can help support you and keep you on the right track to kicking bad habits and creating new positive ones. So how can they keep you accountable? You can call them when you feel you are going to relapse, you can schedule exercise sessions with them, turn in food diaries, check in with them at certain times of the day. They are your support system for getting you through these challenging times.

As a San Diego personal trainer my clients are held accountable to me for many reasons. 1) they are required to show up to their sessions to train with me, they don’t show they lose a session (= $); 2) they are expected to do cardio homework when they are not with me, and I do call, email, or text them to make sure they are; 3) they turn in a food diary to me every week (this will minimize their bad eating habits). Read my post on how to hire a personal trainer as well. You can easily set up this same relationship with a friend to keep you accountable (ie. a workout buddy.) You can hold each other to a workout and eating program.

Hope these little tips help. And good luck with your resolutions!!!