By Geo Chang, personal trainer and nutritionist

With January off to a fantastic start, many have fitness goals in mind as their main New Year’s resolution. Year after year, have I seen people resolve to get in shape come January, only to give up after a few short weeks.

If you think you can get away with only going to the gym a handful of times and expect excellent results, you are setting yourself up for failure. Instead, focus on making a small incremental changes to your daily lifestyle so that it becomes feasible and sustainable. You can increase your weekly exercise as well as limiting the amount of times you eat out to once or twice a week.

Grab a friend, or hire a trainer to keep you motivated and accountable to being consistent. Having vigor and passion is fantastic, but if you’re not consistent it is difficult to push forward to reach your goals. As a trainer and nutritionist, I believe in the importance of creating an organized, feasible, regimented meal plan or dietary modifications in order to persistently reach your goals.

There’s no better time to start than the beginning of the new year!