Creating New Year's Resolutions That Stick

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Creating New Year's Resolutions That Stick"

Podcast: Stronger with Don Saladino
Host: Don Saladino
Date: December 23, 2025
Episode Type: Mini Episode (~10 minutes)

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Overview:

This special, shorter episode of Stronger is Don Saladino’s guide to crafting New Year’s resolutions that actually last. Drawing on 27 years of fitness experience, Don shares why most resolutions fail and offers practical, real-world strategies to create habits that stick well beyond January.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Why Most Resolutions Fail

• Overreaching and Overloading:
  Most people “are biting off more than we can chew.” (01:27)
  Setting too many or overly ambitious resolutions leads to burnout.

• Start Slow, Build Micro Momentum:
  “Consistency trumps intensity.” (03:04)
  Jumping into an intense exercise/diet regime creates fatigue, soreness, and discouragement.

• Statistics on Resolution Failure:

  • “Within two weeks, 88% of the people fail their resolutions.” (01:29)
  • “By mid February, 80% of people abandon their resolutions...I always think of it as Quitters Day.” (05:33-05:55)

Crafting Attainable Resolutions

• Moderation Over Elimination:
  Instead of quitting dessert forever, allow it once a week.
  “Maybe we need to quit having it every single day. But allowing yourself to have a dessert maybe once a week, is that the worst thing? Absolutely not.” (02:16-02:24)

• Practical Implementation:
  Don advocates for building habits you can maintain:

  • Start walking 10 minutes after each meal (accumulates to 30 minutes/mile+ per day—05:00)
  • “This exercise snacking mentality and breaking things up ... can be really beneficial and it could keep you from burning out.” (05:20)

Embrace Micro Wins

• Personalize Your Path:
  “Recognize the things that we don’t like and allow ourselves to get into an environment that’s going to enable us to be successful.” (04:10)
  Possible approaches: find a partner, use a step tracker, try different exercise modalities.

• The Power of Little Steps
  Story of a 400 lb man who ran an ultramarathon by building micro-momentum (10:36-12:44):

  “After I heard you speak, I went home and I got in front of my computer and I searched for sneakers. ... Every day he added this little win.” (11:30-12:06)
  This exemplifies the value of small, incremental progress over time.

Rethinking Measurement of Success

• Look Beyond the Scale:
  “That’s a massive non scale victory ... If you start improving your process, then all these other things with body composition are going to end up improving.” (07:03)
  Don shares a client story:
  “She gained 8 pounds of muscle and lost 9 pounds of fat...But she only lost a pound. Technically, if you look at the scale, it’s like, oh, I’m only down a pound. So most people are going to get incredibly depressed about that. ... She literally exchanged fat with muscle.” (07:40-08:15)

• Non-Scale Victories (NSV):
  Focusing on process improvements (diet, activity, mindset) yields meaningful results—sometimes invisible on the scale.

How to Structure Habits for Success

• Staggering New Habits:
  “Why don’t we start with hydration in month one and make some mistakes but get really good at that...Then month two, we start with some exercise...We take six months to make six massive changes.” (08:59-09:28)
  Rather than implement all changes at once, phase in habits for sustainable results.

• Sustainability Above All:
  If a diet or routine isn’t sustainable, it won’t work long-term:

  “They’re like, well, the diet worked for me, but I put the weight back on. I’m like, well, it didn’t work.” (10:00-10:06)
  Reflect on past failures, understand triggers, and build better systems.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "Consistency trumps intensity.” (03:04)
• “Most of you out there are losing motivation because you’re living and dying by the scale. ... NSV—Non Scale Victory.” (07:03)
• “By the end of the year, only 6% of resolutions last longer than the year. 6%!” (13:43)
• “Rather than turning around and putting yourself on this training program that is just insanity...get out of the gym in 20 to 30 minutes. Build this consistency.” (13:19-13:25)
• “Make the resolution about just being consistent. 95% of the time, and if you do that, that’s going to be a massive improvement from what you probably did last year.” (14:00-14:04)
• “The goal is to maintain this resolution because we want to feel better, we want to look better, and we want to be happier.” (14:20)

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Actionable Takeaways

• Start Small: Tackle one habit at a time, allow for gradual build-up and slip-ups.
• Be Flexible: Adjust goals as needed; don’t chase perfection.
• Celebrate Micro Wins: Focus on little victories and progress markers.
• Track Non-Scale Successes: Pay attention to energy, mood, sleep, and healthy routines—not just weight.
• Plan for Sustainability: Build habits you can reasonably maintain year-round.

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [01:25] – The reason for failing resolutions: overcommitting.
• [02:16] – Moderation vs. abstinence in dietary changes.
• [03:04] – “Consistency trumps intensity.”
• [05:33] – "Quitters Day" and resolution abandonment stats.
• [07:03] – The importance of non-scale victories.
• [10:00] – Why unsustainable diets and routines backfire.
• [11:30-12:44] – The micro-momentum method: inspiring story of transformation.
• [13:43] – Only 6% of resolutions last—rethinking your approach.
• [14:00] – The ultimate advice for lasting change: consistency over perfection.

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Final Thought and Closing Tone

Don finishes with a challenge and encouragement:
“Let’s go into this new year with a positive mindset. ... Make the resolution about just being consistent. ... The whole goal is to try and maintain this resolution because we want to feel better, we want to look better, and we want to be happier and none of us are happy when we discontinue habits that we really want to continue. Happy New Year’s everyone.” (13:54–14:37)

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Listen to this episode of Stronger for realistic, motivating, and actionable advice on building genuine, lasting strength—not just in your body, but in your habits and mindset for the year to come.

Transcript

[A]

You hear that?

[B]

That's not just a Toyota truck. That's the sound of no crowds, no alerts, no distractions, and no telling what you'll find next. You know, like a detour. So why would you ever take a tour? And you could take a detour. Toyota trucks.

[C]

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[A]

Welcome to Stronger. This is my first episode where this.

[D]

Is somewhat of a mini episode, right, Eric?

[A]

We're doing about 10 minute episode here.

[D]

And I wanted to leave everyone going.

[A]

Into the New Year's with a good thought process in their head. I mean, we brought in some incredible guests this year. Doctors, actors, mindset coaches.

[D]

And you know, there's a, there's a common theme, right? This, this micro momentum, common theme into.

[A]

Establishing new habits are so important. And I feel like that every year.

[D]

Come the New Year's, we are biting.

[A]

Off more than we can chew.

[D]

Now, giving you some interesting statistics. Within two weeks, 88% of the people fail their resolutions. Think about that. 88%. That's, that's over three quarters of the people who start their resolutions January 1st.

[A]

They can't make it past two weeks.

[D]

And I've been in this industry now.

[A]

For, you know, 27 years and there's a common theme. Why? What are people doing that's incorrect? Why are 88 of those people incorrect with their approach? And, and I have a theory on this. I really believe that we're biting off more than we can chew.

[D]

And I think when we're setting these resolutions, we're setting too many, we're setting too much, we're setting the bar too high.

[A]

Where someone wants to quit desserts, why do you have to quit them, you know, indefinitely?

[D]

Desserts are something that maybe you've enjoyed, right?

[A]

Why are we trying to quit something that we love like dessert? Maybe we need to quit having it every single day. But allowing yourself to have a dessert maybe once a week, is that the worst thing? Absolutely not. Right now, exercise, same thing. We want to implement something in. Well, same thing, but a little bit different. We want to implement something in that's good for us. We're not trying to remove something that's maybe holding us down. We want to implement something in that's good for us.

[D]

Why are we going to train or.

[A]

Exercise seven days a week or why are we going to start our first few workouts with being in the gym two, three hours?

[D]

What's that doing?

[A]

We're now burning ourselves out, right? Where if you maybe left the gym just after 30 minutes or 40 minutes or doing something to where you tell.

[D]

Yourself, hey, I wanted to keep going.

[A]

But I'm not because the goal is to come back tomorrow and hit it again. Consistency trumps intensity. And I believe that a lot of us are diving into the gym or new memberships, you know, on January 1, Jan, 2, and we're just throwing in all this frivolous exercise and we haven't done it in a while and then what happens? We feel like shit. Our bodies are too sore, they're not recovering, we're a little bit irritable and you're just like, this is too hard, I don't want to be doing this. And then we start backing off. So again, this micro momentum approach I think is so important to where recognize what are the issues here? If you hate lifting weights now, I find it incredibly valuable. If you hate lifting weights, why do you hate it? Do you hate it because the amount of time you've been spending, do you hate it because you just don't like grabbing the iron? Like, maybe there's a way around that. Maybe we can use bands or maybe we can use cables, or maybe we could start with some bodyweight training or maybe we could throw a weighted vest on and go for a walk or start something that's going to instill a really good, high quality habit. And then in time we could start adding in other things. A lot of this comes down to comparison, right? We're exposed to so many people out there and they're, you know, telling you what works for them. They're going out and doing that 90 minute workout and they enjoy it. And you feel like that you need to enjoy it too or you need to follow that exact same path. And that couldn't be any further from the truth. So I think the first thing we got to really do is recognizing the things that we don't like and allowing ourselves to get into an environment that's going to enable us to be successful. Maybe finding a training partner or a walking partner, maybe it's just turning around and buying some sort of a step tracker. Like I've got my OURA ring on. I can view steps using an Oura ring or I can view steps using an Apple watch. And maybe it's wearing that and gamifying it a bit and figuring out a way to increase steps. You know, every week, maybe it's throwing in 10 minutes of walking after each meal. If you throw in 10 minutes of walking after every meal, I don't care if it's in your house, you're going to accumulate another 30 minutes of walking a day. That's probably going to come out to about a mile to a mile and a half of additional walking, depending on your speed. That's a lot of steps. You're really going to improve things.

[D]

So these are great ways to be.

[A]

Able to add in extra work without feeling like you got to do it all at once. So I think this exercise snacking mentality and breaking things up and doing things at different times during the day can be really beneficial and it could keep.

[D]

You from burning out. Giving you some other statistics, by mid February, 80% of people abandoned their resolutions. By the second week of February, when we're looking at the first statistic there, it's at 88% of the people fail.

[A]

That doesn't mean they necessarily abandon their resolutions.

[D]

But by mid February, that's what I always think of as quitters Day.

[A]

That's where I always thought of it.

[D]

They're defining quitters day as the month where people abandon. Abandon their resolutions. Because it's one thing to be able to get off your resolution and jump back on it.

[A]

I don't even think that's a, I don't even think that's quitting from your resolution. I, I truly believe that if you.

[D]

Want to start exercising and you exercise.

[A]

Four days a week and it's not.

[D]

Six or seven, like, that's fantastic.

[A]

Like, I really believe that if you want to go without having a cheat.

[D]

Meal and you have it one day in week one, that's great. You know, the, my whole idea is to, you know, cut down on the damage throughout the year. Like, if you went and you had 365 cheat meals last year, one a day, and suddenly now you only have 52, still sounds like a big number in your head. But what a, what a, what a reduction in that, right? You just went from every day to once a week. You think you're not going to see benefit on that?

[A]

Of course you are. You're going to see a decrease in.

[D]

Inflammation, your sleep quality is going to improve, your body composition is going to improve. When you suddenly start feeling better and looking better, motivation starts increasing.

[A]

That's, that's a big part of the, part of the problem is that most of you out there are losing motivation because you're Living and dying by the scale. And that's where I always like to coin this phrase. Non scale victory NSV. That's an NSV. When I mentioned going from 365 cheat meals last year to 52, that's a massive non scale victory. It's actually going to show up on the sc. But if you start improving your process, then all these other things with body composition are going to end up improving. Body composition isn't only quantified by the scale. All right, I had a woman a few years ago that started my challenge.

[D]

And she gained 8 pounds of muscle and lost.

[A]

9 pounds of fat.

[D]

She put in all this work, but.

[A]

But when you weigh.

[D]

That's a 17 pound swing.

[A]

Think about that.

[D]

But she only lost a pound. Technically, if you look at the scale, it's like, oh, I'm only down a pound. So most people are going to get incredibly depressed about that. I did all this work, spent all this money and I only lost a pound.

[A]

Where the reality was is she completely changed her body composition. She completely changed the way that she moved. And she literally exchanged fat with muscle.

[D]

She put on muscle and she removed.

[A]

Fat from her body.

[D]

It's literally how I like to put it. Imagine this. Imagine by the new year in your.

[A]

Head, you're thinking about making six changes.

[D]

Let's just say, let's just say you're like, I'm gonna. Changes could mean that you're removing something or adding something. I'm gonna start getting 10,000 steps a day. I'm gonna start eating more protein. I'm gonna start exercising. I'm gonna start getting to sleep at a reasonable hour. And I'm gonna start drinking more water. These are very, like, very common things.

[A]

That I think a lot of people.

[D]

Come New Year's are gonna wanna start implementing. Was that five? I gave you five. Well, there'd be one more. We could throw one more out there. Well, one more. Eat more vegetables. I'm just throwing this in, right? Rather than throwing everything in at once.

[A]

Where I'd be very happy if you were able to accomplish that all at once.

[D]

But most of us can. Why don't we start with hydration in month one and make some mistakes but get really good at that month one and then instill that as a habit.

[A]

Then month two, we start with some.

[D]

Exercise in month three, in no specific order. I'm making up this order right. Right now. Month three, we start working on sleep quality. And month four, we start working on vegetables. And month we start working on protein. Month six, we start implementing in more steps, we take six months to make six massive changes. Now that's just a number I'm kind of pulling out of my ass in the air right now. It doesn't, it could be one a week. It could be, you know, one every three months. It could be one a day. I don't care. It's, you've got to wreck, you've got to recognize where your triggers are and what's going to allow you to be successful. Because if you throw anything in and it doesn't stick, it, it hasn't worked, right? So when someone comes to me and they say, I got on this diet and I lost 20 pounds and I'm like, okay, you lost 20 pounds, but you just said you had to lose 20 pounds. They're like, well, I, the diet worked.

[A]

For me, but I put the weight back on.

[D]

I'm like, well, it didn't work. It didn't work. Like, unless it's for a movie role and you're like specifically trying to lose weight for that role. Like then, then it worked and then your, your priorities change and then you put the weight back on. But for most people coming to me, they're saying, you know, know what?

[A]

I tried to make this change and I did this. I incorporated this new diet in and.

[D]

I was miserable for six weeks. But I lost all this weight and.

[A]

I put weight back on that.

[D]

It probably wasn't a good approach. Why did you put that weight back on?

[A]

Well, the diet wasn't sustainable. Well, I didn't feel good. Well, I, I, I, I couldn't access this type of food all year long.

[D]

Like there's so many answers to these questions. So I think there is this self reflection period where you got to assess what have you been doing in the past? And how do I set someone up for success? Like Rich Devini, former Navy seal, he gave me one of the best examples of micro momentum. He ran into an individual. Did I ever tell you the story talking to Eric over here? But he met an individual that weighed, I think it was over 400 pounds. And this person went to this former Navy Seal named Rich and said, hey Rich, I'm going to run a marathon. Rich is looking at this guy like, okay, like good luck, like best, best.

[A]

Of luck to you.

[D]

And then Rich didn't see this, this gentleman for 18 months. This person went home and started the process, ran into Rich 18 months later and he ran an ultra marathon and was like 160, 170 pounds right around that range. Rich was like, holy shit, what happened?

[A]

And he's like, it was amazing. After I heard you speak, I went home and I got in front of my computer and I searched for sneakers.

[D]

I took a whole day. I just searched for sneakers.

[A]

I didn't buy anything.

[D]

The next day, I woke up, I bought the sneakers. A few days later, the sneakers arrived. I took them out of the box. I looked at them. The day after I put the sneakers on.

[A]

The day after that, I put them.

[D]

On, I laced them up. I walked to my door. The day after I put them on, I laced them up, I walked to my mailbox. And every day he added this little win. It was just this win. And obviously the mailbox might have become a mile, which became five miles, which.

[A]

Became more and more and more, where.

[D]

If this gentleman turned around and threw his sneakers on and went out and ran six or eight miles, he could get hurt. He could be so sore that he could be discouraged to where he can't go and repeat. And the whole goal right now is consistency. Well, the brilliance of this individual and what he took away from Rich was that he was able to incorporate these small wins in. And he knew every day he was just turning up the volume a little bit.

[A]

A little bit.

[D]

A little bit. And in the begin. Is that the hardest thing to do when you have small wins? No, but it becomes infectious because you start developing habits and you start developing discipline, and you start developing a pattern.

[A]

So I think my main takeaway on.

[D]

This is going into this New Year's.

[A]

Map out your plan, but maybe take a different approach and try and spread it out over time and give yourself little escapes.

[D]

Give yourself moments to go back and.

[A]

Enjoy the things that you may really enjoy. It might not be the worst thing. So rather than removing the chocolate cake all the time, indefinitely, throw it in once a week.

[D]

It'll be better than every day. You know, rather than turning around and.

[A]

Putting yourself on this training program, that is just insanity. And you're going to be in the gym two, three hours a day, which.

[D]

Is impractical in the long run for most of you. Get out of the gym in 20 to 30 minutes. Build this consistency.

[A]

Leave that fitness session saying to yourself, I can't wait to show up the next day. And when you have a day off, take it. Don't overload yourself. So take some time to sharpen the ax and come back and rinse and repeat.

[D]

And that's really what I want this main takeaway to be for everyone. By the end of the year, only.

[A]

6% of resolutions last longer than the year. 6% so I think most of you out there you're taking the wrong approach.

[D]

So let's, let's go into this new.

[A]

Year with a positive mindset.

[D]

Let's write down our goals, let's write.

[A]

Down where we want to be.

[D]

Make the resolution about just being consistent.

[A]

95% of the time and if you do that that's going to be a massive improvement from what you probably did last year and give yourself little checkpoints and little breaks to where you can let your hair down and relax. At the end of the day. The whole goal is to try and maintain this resolution because we want to feel better, we want to look better and we want to be happier and none of us are happy when we discontinue habits that we really want to continue. Happy New Year's everyone.

[E]

The views, information or opinions expressed in the series are solely those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily represent those of Chip and Joanna Gaines. By no audio nor Magnolia.