With New Year's coming, it's time for resolutions.

You've been slacking off. Putting your fitness on the back-burner.

But it's mid-December, you can't possibly start a transformation now. 

You have to wait with the rest of the pack until after the holidays are over because you can't resist the cookies and eggnog.

I get it.  I do. But I also know you have more in you. Much more. And I know you don't need to wait until January 1 to start. But if you're going to wait then let's talk about what you should do when you do start up again.

You want to lose weight and you want to lose it fast! Burn it off, melt it away, torch it, yadda yadda fill in with another hot word that shows how bad you want to get rid of fat on your belly, love handles, chest, low back..

You're going to join a gym right? Start doing cardio every day for an hour. Sweat a lot. When you go shopping you're going to stock up on chicken breasts, tuna, egg whites, broccoli and apples. No more junk! No more eating out! 

From now on you're bringing your healthy lunch in a brown bag or little cooler and carrying around a jug of water. You're giving up the daily starbucks habit and drinking only green tea.

Hold on. Let's rewind a minute.

You went from working out rarely ever, eating mostly crap while sitting on the couch watching tv after work (where you sit at a desk all day) and getting drunk a few times a week and now you're going to revamp your entire lifestyle and change all those bad habits overnight.  Old habits that are ingrained in you. All because it's a new year. New you..

This all-or-nothing approach rarely works.

Now let's take a smarter approach. One that's actually sustainable.

You start with breakfast. Just that one meal. Pick a protein source you like, a fruit you enjoy and have a big glass or two of water. You can still have coffee or tea, just reduce the size and if you add sugar/cream you reduce that as well. Don't go cold turkey. Just reduce it, or cut it in half.  That's it for nutrition. Do this for 1 week. Don't worry about anything else.

Now for the exercise.

You will walk every day and stretch. It doesn't matter where. Just walk every day for 20 minutes. First thing in the morning, on lunch, at night. Doesn't matter when, just get it done. For the stretching, find a few stretches online and do them after the walk. 5-10 minutes is fine. Pick one or two for the pecs/shoulders, one or two for the hips, hamstrings and also the calves.

Do that for 1 week.

That's it.

The next week you will add 1 new element to the diet and 1 new element to the exercise plan.

Build a foundation of healthy habits. Day by day. Then you master that level and move on to another level.

Eventually you will be lifting weights 3-5 times a week, doing 3-5 days cardio, eating on target 80-90% of the time and making huge progress.

Do it right. Don't be another statistic. Too many guys jump in with a vengeance, only to burn out in a month and still have that gym membership to pay for.