Make it Work!

Time for New Year’s Res­o­lu­tions! Since you’re here, you prob­a­bly made some fitness-based res­o­lu­tions. We think that’s fan­tas­tic and we want to help you stick with them!

Here are some tips to help you stay on track:

1. Don’t rely on your level of moti­va­tion or emo­tions. Just do it!

EXPLANATION:

Action is gen­er­ally the pre­req­ui­site for moti­va­tion, not the other way around. If you think you need to wait for some inspi­ra­tion before you start your new exer­cise rou­tine and/or nutri­tional plan, you could be wait­ing for a long time.  Many sources sug­gest that new habits take a min­i­mum of three con­sis­tent weeks to form, and some­times longer.

2. Aim low to begin with.

EXPLANATION:

Many New Year’s res­o­lu­tions aim to change way too much, way too soon – and are soon com­pletely aban­doned due to unre­al­is­tic com­mit­ments and goals, as well as due to insuf­fi­cient ‘how-to’ infor­ma­tion. Instead of declar­ing that your goal is to lose 40 pounds, or to triple your strength – start with a tar­get that’s more rea­son­able, like los­ing 3 to 5 pounds in the first month, or per­haps lift­ing weights that are 10 to 20% heav­ier than nor­mal, then pro­ceed from there.

3. If you can’t resist temp­ta­tion, take it out of the kitchen!

EXPLANATION:

Even ath­letes are human beings, and are influ­enced by the five senses – touch, taste, smell, sound, and sight! Prac­ti­cal Fit­ness Tips rec­om­mends remov­ing all ‘bad temp­ta­tions’ from your home – or, if liv­ing with oth­ers, at least remov­ing as much as pos­si­ble from sight. This includes all junk foods, sug­ary snacks, choco­late, alco­hol, ice cream and other sim­i­lar items.

Obvi­ously, if you know in advance that you will be enter­tain­ing guests on a cer­tain evening, there is noth­ing wrong with pur­chas­ing a few items on that day – and a quan­tity suit­able for that evening only – no pur­chas­ing ‘Buy 3, Get 1 Free’ items! If you have noth­ing to ‘tempt’ you in the house in the first place, you can save your­self hun­dreds of calo­ries per week.

4. Don’t be a perfectionist.

EXPLANATION:

Don’t beat your­self up over the occa­sional slip – whether it involved miss­ing a few too many work­outs, or ‘giv­ing in’ to your diet on a Fri­day night while out with friends. An ‘all-or-nothing’ approach can be deter­mi­nan­tal, as life doesn’t gen­er­ally fol­low a con­sis­tent and pre­dictable path – includ­ing in the New Year. Expect to slip-up from time to time, and when it hap­pens, just get right back on track imme­di­ately after­wards. If it makes you feel bet­ter, if you ate or drank too much at a par­tic­u­lar meal (or entire week­end!), sim­ply increase the inten­sity level of exer­cise and con­sume slightly fewer calo­ries dur­ing the next few days – no prob­lem! Focus on your weekly calo­rie con­sump­tion, not just daily.

5. Tell your fam­ily, friends and colleagues.

EXPLANATION:

Speak­ing of ‘giv­ing in’ on a Fri­day night, one way to min­imise such occur­rences is to share your goals with every­body you know. A room­mate or fam­ily mem­ber will be less likely to offer you a slice of cake if they know you’re try­ing hard to reduce your calo­rie intake!

Find some­body with a sim­i­lar goal, and keep one another account­able by check­ing in with each other reg­u­larly to make sure you’re both on-track.

How do you plan to stick to your res­o­lu­tions? Share your advice here!

Source: Adapted from Prac­ti­cal Fit­ness Tips.