Every January the same promises appear: new diets, intense fitness challenges, dramatic 12-week transformations. For a few weeks they surge in popularity and by spring, most of them are forgotten.
According to coach and behaviour change specialist Alex Neilan, that cycle repeats because the health industry is still built around the wrong idea. “People are taught to think in terms of resets,” he says. “Start again, go harder, be stricter. But real life doesn’t work like that. Lasting progress is almost always small and unremarkable.”
Neilan has spent years helping people unlearn the belief that success depends on extreme effort. Instead, he focuses on something much less glamorous: habits that can survive an ordinary week.
Most health plans are designed as if people have unlimited time, energy and discipline. They assume perfect meal prep, regular gym sessions, and uninterrupted routines.
“Then the first busy week hits and everything falls apart,” Neilan explains. “And people think they’ve failed, when really the plan failed them.”
He believes this all-or-nothing mindset is one of the biggest barriers to long-term wellbeing. If a programme can only be followed under ideal conditions, it is almost guaranteed to collapse under real ones.
Public health guidance consistently points in the opposite direction. Regular walking is recommended rather than drastic short-term diets or punishing exercise regimes.
“That’s the approach we should be normalising,” Neilan says. “Health isn’t built in dramatic bursts. It’s built in ordinary routines.”
A common theme in Neilan’s coaching is that motivation is not a reliable strategy. “Motivation is emotional,” he explains. “It comes and goes. If your progress depends on feeling motivated every day, you’re in trouble.”
Instead, he teaches clients to rely on structure. Simple systems – like preparing easy breakfasts, setting a regular bedtime, or planning short daily walks – remove the need for constant willpower.
This practical approach is backed by growing scientific understanding of human behaviour. Research shows that people who create stable routines are far more likely to maintain healthy habits than those who rely on enthusiasm alone. Even popular trends such as intermittent fasting can be useful for some individuals, but only when they are adapted to personal lifestyles rather than followed rigidly.
“Any approach that demands perfection will eventually break,” Neilan says. “The goal is to make healthy choices the easiest choices.” What makes Neilan’s method different is its emphasis on fitting health around existing responsibilities rather than trying to escape them.
Many of his clients are women balancing work, family, caring roles and unpredictable schedules. For them, traditional fitness advice often feels completely unrealistic. “They’re told to train six days a week, cook elaborate meals, track everything,” he says. “But that ignores the reality of their lives.”
So instead of pushing clients toward rigid targets, Neilan helps them build plans that work within their constraints: shorter workouts, simpler meals, more forgiving expectations. “If someone can only manage ten minutes of movement, we start there,” he explains. “Ten minutes done consistently is far more powerful than an hour done once.”
One of the biggest shifts people experience through Neilan’s coaching is a change in mindset. Rather than seeing health as a series of pass-or-fail tests, they begin to view it as an ongoing process. “A missed workout doesn’t ruin anything,” he says. “A stressful week doesn’t erase your progress. Sustainable change is about what you do most of the time, not what you do perfectly.”
This perspective helps people break free from the guilt and frustration that often surround dieting and exercise. Clients frequently report that the most important result isn’t weight loss at all, but a calmer, more confident relationship with food and their own bodies. “When people stop chasing perfection, they finally start making real progress,” Neilan explains.
Another key element of long-term success, he believes, is connection. Through online communities and coaching programmes, Neilan encourages people to share experiences openly, the good weeks and the difficult ones. “Health change can feel lonely,” he says. “Having a space where people understand what you’re going through makes a huge difference.”
That supportive environment helps replace the shame and comparison often associated with fitness culture with something more constructive: encouragement, accountability and shared learning.
At its core, Neilan’s message is a challenge to the way modern culture measures health. Success, he argues, should not be defined by how quickly someone can change, but by how long they can keep going.
“If you can stick to something for years, not weeks, that’s real achievement,” he says. “It might not look dramatic on social media, but it changes lives.” As more people grow tired of extreme plans and constant restarts, this quieter, steadier approach is gaining traction.
The idea is simple: build habits you don’t need to escape from. “Health should make your life easier,” Neilan says. “Not harder.” And in an industry still obsessed with quick fixes, that might be the most radical message of all.
