Submitted by ACE (American Council on Exercise) –
It is the time of year to resolve to do more, to do better. Did you know that 97 percent of Americans fail to follow-through on their resolutions every year? This year can be different, thanks to neuroscience.
Our struggle with sticking to healthy lifestyle changes is costing our health care system about $2.9 trillion per year.
The American Council on Exercise (ACE) decided to address the problem at its root: our brains.
As the word’s largest health and fitness nonprofit, ACE gathered an Ocean’s Eleven-esque team of the world’s top specialists in neuroscience, psychology and motivation to figure out why so many health resolutions fail and how to solve the problem. They did.
Their findings created a curriculum that’s training health and fitness professionals how to not only give recommendations for healthy changes, but also engineer those changes so people actually stick to them, the key to solving our healthcare crisis.
The top graduate is Jonathan Ross, an already nationally recognized expert on fitness and personal training who is now an ACE-certified Behavior Change Specialist. He has the most scientifically-advanced tips for your readers who want commit to their resolutions and make them last for the long haul.
Here’s his advice for 2016:
- “The secret to lasting health isn’t in avoiding the unhealthy, it’s in pursuing what you love. If you don’t like a food, don’t eat it. If you don’t like jogging, don’t do it. Every food you eat and activity you do towards health, needs to make your heart sing, or else you’re brain will rebel and you’re likely to fail.”
- “Removing negative behaviors takes work. Adding positive ones is much easier, and will soon squeeze out your unhealthy habits. Ditch you’re To-Don’t list.”
- “Each day, commit to making just one of those three a positive, powerful, enjoyable experience for yourself: movement, meal, mindset.”
Jonathan Ross is an ACE-certified Behavior Change Specialist and personal trainer and American Council on Exercise Senior Consultant on Personal Training. He has received numerous national awards including ACE Personal Trainer of the Year Personal Training Director of the Year by Personal Fitness Professional Magazine. He’s hosted the Discovery Health series, “Everyday Fitness,” is author of “Abs Revealed” and owner of Aion Fitness near Washington D.C.
