As Todd has described it to me, when you enact a significantly positive lifestyle change (new fitness practice, breaking off a toxic relationship, taking a new job), your brain temporarily floods your body with feel-good neurotransmitters, such as serotonin and dopamine. It’s your brain’s way of giving you a high five.

The happy-drugs start flowing, fueling your good intentions with seemingly boundless energy. Your commitments seem effortless. This is going to be easier than you thought. You’ve so got this covered.

And then, in a cruel-but-necessary act of nature, the party train grinds to a halt. Your neurotransmitters collapse back to their normal output levels (and thank goodness, because otherwise you would go crazy, in a literal, clinical sense). And like a rushing river that dries up to a trickle, the ra-ra ferocity dissipates. You know the progression.

“It goes like this,” Todd explains. “Day one, you’ve got all this energy and drive behind you and you’re excited. You go to the gym. You work out. You feel great about it. Day two comes along. You’ve got the wheels of the train moving forward. Go again. Day three, a little bit of resistance. The tension starts to build up and you go but you’re not feeling as great about it. Day four, it’s even harder. You don’t go on day five. And then…no more working out. That’s why by the second week of January, the gyms are empty.”

At this point, your new, healthy habits are asking your cells to literally alter their shape. And to you, this feels like a major drag. But in actuality, your cells are LOVING it! They’re vibrating and shifting, doing their own form of yoga. They’re transforming to accommodate your recalibrated levels of positive mood endorphins. They just need a l-i-t-t-l-e more time to reshape themselves.