It’s this time of year that most of us start to think about goals and plans for the year ahead and start making some resolutions for the months to come.
One of the big areas of focus for many people is their health and fitness.
And whether this means you want to start working out more, lose weight, reach a certain running distance goal, or just make it to the gym 4 days per week, here’s 8 tips to help you make your goal a success:
- Find a buddy – Just ask around the office, and you’re almost guaranteed to find somebody else with a similar new year’s resolution and who is looking to get fit, lose weight and be healthier. Set up to enter the new year and tackle your goals together, organizing to be workout buddies, offer motivation and be the one on call when the other is falling off track. Having someone you are accountable will go a long way in helping you reach your goals! Here are some tips on how to find a workout buddy.
- Do what you love – Go with the workout type that you love he most and are going to stick to, not the one you think you should be doing or that is the latest fad. This could be anything from running, to bootcamp classes to yoga to Barre. Whatever the case, if you enjoy it, you will be more likely to stick with it.
- Go shopping – There’s nothing like a good bit of retail therapy to get you motivated. Throw out your old gym clothes and shoes that have been sitting in the closet for the last year, and start fresh. You’ll feel good about yourself in clothes that fit you properly, and you’ll want to workout so that you can wear them!
- Buy a gym bag and leave it in the car – Get a bag that is to be used solely for the gym and leave it packed and ready in your car. This means there is never an excuse that you don’t have your gym stuff with you, and you can never forget something in your other bag, since this is the dedicated gym bag!
- Start small – If you start out saying you will do an hour of gym and 30 minutes of running every day, you will get tired, discouraged and sore pretty quickly, and wont likely stick with your plan. Instead, start with a small goal, such as walk 30 minutes 4-5 times per week, and build up from there. The accomplishment and completion will be far more motivating than the failures when you were too ambitious with your plans!
- Fix your attitude – Negativity breeds negativity, and the more you say negative things to yourself like “I’m so fat,” or “I need to lose a lot of weight,” or “I am really ugly,” the more your mind will start ot believe in it and you will fall into the trap of always putting yourself down. This does not bode well for your success or your motivation, so fix your attitude towards yourself and channel positive energy!
- Set a measureable goal – It’s fine to say “I want to lose weight,” but without being more specific, you aren’t going to feel like you accomplished what you wanted. Change it to something like “I want to lose 10 lbs in two months,” or “I want to lose 3 inches off my waist by the end of February.” These goals are measureable, both in terms of you seeing if you achieve them, and you seeing the actual results.
- Take on a challenge – If part of the reason you stopped working out in the first place was because it got boring and repetitive, don’t set yourself up for the same thing; don’t just start back up in your exercise routine with the same routine that you left off with. Instead, challenge yourself with a new type of workout, a new time or distance goal for your running or a new strength goal at the gym. When you have a challenge you are trying to achieve, you will be more motivated to stay on track!
By: Laura Peill – (Check out her blog Viand Nutrition & Facebook)
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