The 5 biggest #newyearnewme mistakes we see
It’s January and everyone is thinking about goal setting and resolutions. Sometimes it is helpful to start a fresh page, wipe the slate clean, and set some new targets. We love the enthusiasm for self improvement that we see this month. However, year in year out we see the same mistakes being made by women trying to reach their health and fitness goals. Here are the 5 biggest mistakes we see…
Only ever dieting. Ladies, January doesn’t inherently mean you have to diet… there are other goals! A lot of the time we work with women who have been on and off dieting and never EVER focussed on other areas such as strength or muscle building. However, we can guarantee that for 99% of womens’ body goals, muscle mass is required. Whether you want to look super strong or just a little ‘toned’, both require time away from dieting and building muscle, just to different degrees. When someone only ever diets, not only does it have negative health impacts, but also worsens someone’s relationship with their food and body too. Serial dieters, due to their lack of muscle and strength, combined with bouts of poor nutrition due to fad diets, tend to suffer from things like: poor posture, brittle hair and nails, dull skin, digestive upset, erratic periods, and a self inflicted ‘slow’ metabolism. This is when girls report on feeling ‘skinny fat’. Mentally, they are forever concerned with needing to be smaller, watching calories, and fearing scale weight increases which is no way to live! How about this year you break the mould, and focus on building your body up rather than trying to make it smaller. Your body will thank you for it, trust us!
Following on from serial dieting, the second biggest mistake is dieting unhealthily! By this we mean taking a very aggressive approach with very low calories, high cardio and even cutting out certain foods all together. We totally understand not feeling good in yourself and wanting to change that ASAP. But, you have to do things the right way if you want the best results. This means not cutting corners, and thinking of your long term happiness instead of short term satisfaction. When we work with our clients focussing on simple habit changes and consistency i exercise and nutrition, they still see results in the first 8 weeks. You don’t need to go to extremes to start feeling better in yourself… because who is even feeling better in themselves trying to follow some zero carb BS and running everyday? So, what is the ‘best’ diet? It’s the approach which you can adhere to for the longterm and that you enjoy. This generally means a diet inclusive of all foods, but ensuring portion sizes are controlled and calories tracked in order to ensure you’re in a calorie deficit. Diet smart, diet sustainably, and reap the results for the longterm.
Only doing cardio (insert head in hands emoji here). Girls, girls, GIRLS. Those influencers you follow on instagram who are your ‘body goals’ did not get their physiques from just cardio. They spent a lot of time lifting weights, in whatever form. Even if your goal is to run a marathon this year, it is still important to incorporate some resistance training into your plan (we recommend 1-2 full body sessions for a runner, focussing primarily on the posterior chain). Running and hyrox is certainly ‘in’ right now, but please remember that these cardio based sports are not fat loss programs nor do they form a well a balanced fitness regime when done alone. Besides, clients who enter these sports require more calories because performance is the focus here, not fat loss.
Going from 0 to 100. If you’ve got a new burst of motivation this January that is awesome, but please remember that your body will require time to adjust to your new training. If you’ve never been a runner, suddenly doing 4-5 runs a week is asking for knee pain. If you’ve never done crossfit before and now you’re smashing out 5 WODs a week, you’re asking for muscle soreness so bad you won’t be able to sit on the loo. Take it slow and steady. Start off on 2-3 sessions a week and slowly build it up according to how your body responds and adjusts. Progress, be it fat loss or muscle building or strength, will be more sustainable this way. On the note of not jumping in balls deep, remember that you don’t ‘have’ to have a massive goal this year. Just because a lot of people you may follow are doing ultras, triathlons or bodybuilding competitions doesn’t mean anything less isn’t an ‘impressive’ enough goal. These are serious, extreme sports and require a lot of sacrifices. The only person you need to impress is yourself, and if your goal is to run your first 5k, drop your first 5kg or squat your first 50kg… they are all equally valid goals. Be very cautious of entering any of these extreme sports, and absolutely seek professional guidance if you are going to.
Having no plan. If you’re looking to increase your strength, lose fat or build muscle, you will always yield the best results when you have a training plan. Going in and winging it off a workout an influencer posted is not a strategy for success. You need to have a plan tailored to your goal, your lifestyle and your body. The main thing that a program offers is consistency, because you won’t get stronger at something or build muscle if you’re not actually doing the exercises on a weekly basis. Never written your own plan before? Here’s how…
Decide how many times you can train consistently per week and work backwards from there. Split those number of training sessions to work the whole body every week, whether that’s 3 full body workouts, 2 x upper and lower workouts, or a 5 day bro split.
Pick 2-3 compounds and 2-3 accessories per session. Select these according to what your training priority is, for example “I want to be able to do a pull up” or “I want to grow my glutes”. Be mindful that a well balanced program won’t neglect entire muscle groups, but will simply have more exercises for areas of more importance.
If you’re still unsure but you can’t afford a coach, we do have a downloadable strength training plan which you can buy for a small one off purchase here.
We hope this gives you some pointers and what NOT to do in order to get the best results this 2025! To continue increasing your knowledge and gain support, we suggest you join our Femme Society. It’s a totally free forum space where you can find more resources and access to our coaches!