It's fairly common in the new year for people to make loads of self-improvement type new years resolutions. And most of the time, the results fall far short of the expectation.
The reasons for this are usually simple; there's no plan, no clear and emotionally driven reason for the goal, and usually no real changes to the day to day routine.
When it comes to tightening your waistline, it's partly about exercise, partly about nutrition (eating and snacking habits), partly about sleep, and partly about mindset.
Mindset
Expecting massive results quickly is the biggest mistake most people make. It takes time to change your body, and it takes time to change your habits. Setting goals that only involve adding things into your day (additive goals) will almost never succeed, because most of us are already busy, and value the little time we have to relax. Every additive goal needs to be balanced with a subtractive goal(where you spend less time doing something). A good example is committing to doing a 30 minute workout 2 times per week, by spending 10 minutes less time each day on social media (for example). Otherwise where will the time for working out come from?
Sleep
Getting enough good quality sleep each nigh has a huge effect on our ability to achieve ANY goals. Lack of good quality sleep affects our food choices, our mindset, our energy levels, our ability to respond to stress, and has many effects on the body's hormonal systems. These all add up, making it more difficult to shed pounds.
Nutrition
You are what you eat. Every muscle, every cell, every drop of blood, every hormone and neurotransmitter are all made from the foods you eat and the liquids you drink. How you eat influences your health, your performance and your mood. Where you eat and who you eat with influence what you eat. Watching TV, reading, playing video games, or scrolling through social media leads to eating bigger portion sizes and feeling less satisfied after a meal. When you are eating, just be eating; no distractions.
Exercise
If you love exercise, then i'm surprised you're still reading! For most of us, exercise is a means to an end; we exercise when we need to, so that we get to do the things we enjoy. You may have heard it said that the best kind of exercise is the one you enjoy, because you'll do it more regularly, and thats generally true. However, if the only exercise you enjoy is walking, but you want to get stronger, then you are going to have to do some kind of activity that's not as much fun for you.
The best way of getting the job done in the minimum time especially is by doing interval training workouts. These involve working at a level that challenges you, then easing off the intensity and repeating the process.
I've linked here to an 8 week series of interval training workouts that are each 25 minutes long in total, and each workout is divided into blocks of 5 minutes. No equipment needed, these workouts include a mixture of standing and floor exercises, and if you're not comfortable going to the floor, those exercises can be usually be done on a sofa or bed instead.
Try the first 5 or 10 minutes and see how you feel. After that, each round gets more challenging, so work with where you are starting from: if you're fitness is low, you're better off to start small, and gradually work your way up to doing a full workout.
For best results, do each workout 2 - 3 times over a week with a days rest in between workouts. If you really want to accelerate your fitness, do one of the HIIT for runners and joggers workouts as well/instead of 1 of the core workouts, so that you are doing no more than 3 full HIIT workouts each week.
(This content also appears on my blog on Publish0x).