Fitness Friday: Revive Your New Years Resolutions
So it’s 17 days into the new year, and you’ve already deleted -thrown out – erased, all your resolutions so no one see’s how you failed, right? At least that’s what the majority of people have done by now who have made new years resolutions. They say only a mere 8% of people actually achieve their goals by December 31st. Ouch!
Want to pick yourself back up and make it to that 8%? Take these simple steps:
1. Make a realistic goal
I know we’ve all done it – “I am going to lose 100 lbs by summer”, or “I will run a marathon this year”, when we haven’t ran up the stairs since we were kids. Though these all seem attainable if you work hard enough, they aren’t realistic. Set up goals that you can achieve in shorter time periods. Such as lose 5 lbs by March, then lose another 10 lbs by June. Walk a 5k in April, run a 5k in August. You will motivate yourself to continue when you’re able to “CHECK” that goal off your list!
2.Don’t Be Upset by Setbacks
No one is perfect – and no matter how hard you try, sometimes you are going to run into things that set you back from your goal. Some are out of your control, such as sickness, but others , like overeating /binging, or being too lazy/busy are mistakes we all make. I know that I used to get soo upset at myself for messing up at lunch time (company lunch, what are you gonna’ do?) that I continued to eat horrid the rest of the day. Sometimes even the rest of the week with the mentality that “I’ll just start fresh Monday.” DON’T DO IT! Did you eat those cookies hidden in your desk drawer, or finish off the kids french fries from lunch? Brush it off, and promise yourself you will make better decisions, not tomorrow, but right now.
3. Change one Habit at a Time
Sometimes it’s just too much to go cold turkey when it comes to eating, and throwing yourself into the gym for 2 hours a day is going to burn you out. Take a step back and conquer your first challenge, then move onto your next. Taking your time to change the way you think about or do things will help you maintain the habit or behavior long term. This is why so many of us fail at new years resolutions is because we are overwhelmed with how much we have to change about ourselves.
4. PLAN IT
I can’t say this enough – planning ahead of time and being organized is essential and I believe KEY to making changes and keeping long term results. I am sometimes a ‘fly by the seat of your pants’ kinda girl. (ask my kids!) But I will tell you right now planning and organizing your day, your workouts, your meals will make sticking to your resolutions a piece of cake compared to winging it. Meal plan, go to the grocery ahead of time, schedule your work outs and what your going to do during them. Plan it like you would your work day and you will see success!
5. Find Support
Nothing is fun alone – finding a friend who has the same goals can help keep you accountable and gives you someone to lean on when you feel as if you can’t go on. Blogging is a great way to help find others like you, but if you have too much on your plate you can use great fitness apps, like MyFitnessPal app. (Friend me if you’d like and we can help keep each other accountable, and share some great healthy meals and fun exercises!) Share on Facebook, Twitter, you never know who you might meet that will encourage you to find the strength within to move forward. Some of my closest friends are ones that I’ve never even met in person.
Good tips! My only problem is I didn’t make a goal to begin with as a New Year’s resolution. So I’ll have to go do that first. 😛
WELL it’s never too late. . Make some monthly resolutions, they always seem to work out better anyway =)
That is a great list Krissy. Specially not letting set backs set you back…
I told that to the donut I ate yesterday afternoon for my ‘cheat’ day. ha. It actually wasn’t even that tasty!
Great tips Krissy! I live and breathe the find support one, it’s crucial
Having someone or a few someones has really helped keep me focused – not to mention even the strangers on MyFitnessPal watching my every move =)