Search trends for the term "diet" over the last 5 years
Browsing through Google trends yesterday, it was interesting being able to visualize the search trends of the word “diet” over the years. Of course there's always a big surge on January 1st coming from all the people starting on their New Year's resolution diets. After that initial spike, there is another small jump generally between late February and early April. These are the people who are thinking “Crap! Summer is coming and I only have a few more months to look decent!” Then search interest gradually trends downwards until the end of the holiday season comes and everyone is getting drunk and sloppy.
Don't be one of those people that gets stuck in a cycle of always wanting to make a change but never seeing it through! If you're waiting until 2017 to get started, that's your first mistake. If something is truly a priority, by the very definition of the word it has to come BEFORE everything else, not after the holidays! I know it sucks to miss out on Holiday parties, drinking with friends, overindulging in baked goods, but those exact same things will be there for you next year and the year after that. On the other hand, you only have so much time to make a change in yourself.
The way I see it, those holiday parties and treats are for those who are already satisfied with their physique and/or their rate of progress and can therefore afford to indulge a few times during the holidays without having it make a significant impact. If you are one of those people, congrats, but I think most of them stopped reading after the first paragraph! On the other hand, if you are sitting here thinking “I'm still just as fat as I was last year (or worse), and my last New Year's resolution failed miserably,” you need to decide if finally getting lean is even something you really care about. If not, great! Enjoy your life and spend your time and energy focusing on what makes YOU happy. Forget what you think other people's perceptions of you are. You shouldn't aim to change your physique in order to feel validated by others. That may be a side effect, but if you don't have some type of internal motivation driving your desire to make a physical transformation, you are destined to fail in the long run and you'll also be miserable along the way.
If, however, you have decided that shedding body fat is something that's important to you, start now! If you put it off and wait until New Years, you're programming your mind to not treat it as a priority and you'll be much less likely to maintain the necessary lifestyle in the long run. There are still 20 days left in the year and you can either do a lot of damage in that time or make a lot of progress. You can get 2-3% leaner than you are now by the end of the year and start 2017 with some positive momentum, or you can set yourself back even further and make your chances of adhering to a plan long term slim to none. What's it gonna be?