Many people use the beginning of a new year as a chance to reinvent themselves. You may be interested in starting a new phase of your career, improving your personal relationships, or living a more spiritual life. While you’re making your plans for the future, it’s important to remember your health. By making and following the right fitness resolutions, you can maintain the energy and stamina you’ll need to achieve all of your other goals.
Choosing the Right Fitness Resolutions
Each body is unique, and we all have different habits when it comes to our health. So if you’re setting some fitness goals for the new year, you’ll need to think carefully about where you are now and where you’d like to go. Some healthy ideas to consider are:
- Exercising every day at a set time, or at least 2–3 times per week
- Identifying areas of your body that could use some improvement and working on them
- Planning out meals and snacks to make sure you’re getting the nutrients you need instead of junk food
- Cutting back or quitting things like nicotine or excessive caffeine
- Focusing on something you’d like to be able to do by the end of the year, like running a faster mile or increasing how much you can lift
It’s important to strike the right balance with lifestyle changes. If they are too easy, you won’t achieve much, but they should still be realistic. Each person’s goals will be different, so don’t worry about what anyone else is doing. Focus on your personal improvement. If you’re not sure where to get started, a personal trainer or life coach can help you clarify your goals and develop a plan to achieve them.
Sticking to Your Fitness Resolutions
Coming up with a list of changes to make may be difficult for some, but the true challenge lies in following your plan for the rest of the year. Many people become discouraged too quickly, or get so caught up in daily life that they neglect their long term goals. Just remember that taking care of your body is the key to both physical and emotional health, so it should be a high priority for all of us.
If you feel yourself getting frustrated or distracted while trying to reach and maintain your optimum health, here are some important things to keep in mind:
- Progress takes time. You probably won’t see the results you want right away, even when you’re working very hard. Becoming healthier or maintaining excellent health should be viewed as a lifelong goal, not a short term one.
- You deserve to feel better. Don’t need to settle for laziness, poor nutrition, or bad habits. Sticking to your plan of action can make you stronger and healthier. You deserve to be the best version of yourself!
- You won’t achieve anything without hard work and persistence. If you’re putting real effort into your fitness resolutions, there will be challenges. But remember that lasting change isn’t easy. If you want to see results, you’ll have to do the work.
- You don’t have to do it alone. Everything is easier when you have someone to support you through the process. Maybe some of your friends are working on their own health-related challenges, or maybe you’d rather get some advice and encouragement from a professional. Whoever it is, find someone you can share updates with.
- Know what drives you. If you ever feel tempted to give up on your resolutions, it may help to remember why you made them in the first place. Maybe you want to feel better, look better, or be capable of doing more. Be sure you know what your motivation is, because that will help you maintain the focus you need to be successful.
Maybe you already have a healthy lifestyle but see some room for improvement, or maybe you have a lot to learn about exercise and nutrition. No matter where you’re starting out, life is full of opportunities to learn and grow. If you haven’t made any fitness resolutions for this year, now is the time to start thinking about healthy change.