Keep your fitness New Year’s resolution- train and eat smart

January 1st, we all feel renewed, determined, ready to walk into the gym and burn those calories. Oftentimes, however, after a few weeks or even a few days in, the motivation fades away. How do you get past it?

I asked Anwar Parrish, owner and head trainer at Burn Bootcamp, in Surprise. He tells me a good way to approach it is to think beyond a month or even a year-out goal. Where do you see yourself in five years? Are you willing to put in the work now, for a healthy and fulfilling life? Or suffer the consequences of a bad diet and sedentary lifestyle?

Parrish trains women of all ages, occupations and lifestyles. Though his gym opens its doors to men at certain times and days, the focus of Burn Bootcamp is to build a community around women who want to live a healthier life. Once you change your mindset of your goals, he says, you have to start your journey with a pair of convictions: improve your eating habits, and work hard. He calls it the left hook and right upper cut. The left hook is your fitness, the right uppercut is your nutrition. You can’t do one without the other, he says. It’s about giving up instant gratification of foods and diets that will fade after a short while, and focusing on the discipline that will trickle down and motivate you as you exercise and you go along your daily life. Parrish says the rest will follow and will carry over into other parts of your life besides health and fitness.

As health and fitness experts will tell you, the first step is to identify a goal, and find a way to conquer it. Parrish takes it one step further. You can’t out-train a crappy diet. You have to get started and stick to it.

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