It's that time of year when everyone lets go of inhibitions, feasts on the bounty of three holidays and echoes the chorus of "New Year, New Me" being sung across the land.

Soon we will see an influx of new members at our gyms, that friend from high school to whom you haven't spoken in years will contact you about a great new product to help you shed those holiday pounds and our social media feeds will be inundated with progress pic after progress pic after progress pic.

To be clear, this is in no way a bad thing. On the contrary, I love seeing people resolving to better themselves and improve their health and well-being. Even if I poke fun at the predictability of it all, it's nevertheless a good thing to see.

The tragedy is that most of these "resolutions" die within a few weeks. Some don't even make it off of the ground. While there exist a myriad of reasons why this happens, I find that there are two main roadblocks along the path to success in achieving one's fitness goals.

The first mistake is that many start too late. Why wait until January 2nd to start working towards that beach bod you've always wanted? If you're trying to look better naked by June, then why not start as soon as you can? The more time you have to work at it, the less you have to do all at once.

Better yet, if you were to start your resolution before the holiday season, it gives you a framework to build off of. You can let the diet be a little more lax or take some extra days off from the gym during that time. It's easier to get back on track than it is to start from scratch.

The gradual changes that you'll make over that longer period of time are much more sustainable than the immediate ones that come from diving in to your resolution head first.

Which leads me to the second problem: doing too much, too fast.

I find that too many people decide to completely invert their lifestyles the second they start working towards their resolution.

Whether it's altering their diets in an extreme way or deciding to work out for two hours a day, every day, it's the drastic changes that are the hardest to maintain.

The best way to see long-term results with which you can keep up, is to take everything one step at a time. Start small and acclimate to a new lifestyle or habit before taking the next step and altering your life in another way.

Maybe you start by working out three times a week, then four. Or maybe you start by drinking less pop, then none at all, etc. Those little, habitual things take time to get used to and the more time you give yourself to develop those habits, the longer they'll stick around.

So in summary: start now and start slow.

Don't wait to make positive changes in your life, but make them at a pace you can manage.

Here's to a new you.