Every year, the turn of the calendar brings with it a fresh set of goals. With the stress and caloric indulgences of the holiday season behind you, you might take stock of your overall fitness. However, with many resolutions to become healthy in the New Year abandoned by Valentine’s Day, you might find yourself discouraged from even trying. Luckily, these practical steps can provide attainable goals that you don’t have to be a superwoman to reach.
Set Realistic Goals
Whatever fitness resolutions you decide to make, keep them realistic. Yes, your first goal is to actually keep your other goals in check. One of the biggest killers of fitness resolutions is setting goals too high to reach. You won’t drop 50 pounds in a week or two and nobody should expect you to. But you can increase your endurance and boost your metabolism by the start of spring and better yet, improve your overall fitness level. Reaching for the stars has its place in aspirations, but with fitness, you are better off reaching for more attainable numbers. By pacing yourself, you might discover that you reach those higher numbers over time. However, the key is time. A lifestyle of fitness takes time, and approaching a new fitness regimen with that in mind can help you avoid failure.
Write Down Specific Goals
A study at NPR in 2015 shows that writing down goals increases the possibility of reaching them. However, the goals must be specific, not vague. “Getting healthy” or “losing weight” or even “improve eating habits” are generic and meaningless sentiments. You can easily abandon a New Year’s Resolution, especially regarding fitness, when it’s little more than a motivational cliché. Set a specific and realistic milestone to achieve and then write it down. Keep it somewhere that you will see it and hold yourself accountable. When you have to regularly see your goals day-to-day, you will find you slip up less.
Exercise Close To Home
The convenient location of our women’s fitness boutique helps keep you motivated to stay on track with your exercise plan. You want a facility with friendly faces that’s close to your home so that you come back again and again.
Don’t Miss Chances to Turn Everyday Activities into Exercise
We move a lot more than we realize. Everyday activities can become mini-workouts if you don’t take the easy way out. However, you need to be realistic about your situation. You can’t walk everywhere unless you live in a heavily urban community. Even so, you can park a little bit farther from the door when you arrive at your destination. Take the stairs instead of the elevator in almost any building. At the grocery store, you can carry your bags to your car instead of using the cart. Sometimes even window-shopping at a mall can act as an excuse to get yourself moving.
Let Your Favorite Music Work for You
You might find working out boring, which means you are not as likely to stick with it. Spice up your workout by joining a gym that plays your favorite tunes. Opt for faster beats and high-energy performances. Listen closely to the rhythm and the hooks, the intricacies you might not have noticed before. Then adjust your workout to these beats. If you work out at home, let your favorite songs become the soundtrack to your workout. Don’t be afraid to look a little silly. If you can turn something you didn’t like doing before into something you enjoy, you are more likely to keep it up. Unlike your favorite sugary dessert, this “guilty pleasure” can help you reach your fitness goals.
Connect with a Workout Crew
Another huge mistake that many make when trying to stay fit is going it alone. At Flow Fitness Boutique, you will find a group of supportive women to surround you. Similar to a book club or a poker group, you can build a small workout team and set time to work out together. We don’t let our classes become too large or impersonal but keep class size optimal so that you can get the most out of your work out. At our local women’s gym, you won’t need to worry about finding others to work out with or be stuck in crowded classes. A group of friends to hold you accountable will keep you honest. When you join with others with similar healthy goals, you might find that it’s more realistic to keep your fitness goals.
Reward Yourself for Success
The carrot gets more results than the stick. However, don’t limit your rewards to food as that’s how many fitness plans fail. Instead, find something else you enjoy doing and only do it if you meet a specific benchmark. Treat yourself to a fun new outfit only when you meet your fitness goal whether it be a certain number of minutes of aerobic exercise or a certain number of classes attended within a month. As long as the prize isn’t itself a fitness killer, rewarding yourself for all the hard work you put in will motivate you to press on when you feel discouraged.
None of the seven goals on this list involve anything too radical or extreme or even require you to commit to some rigid activity. Your life is unique. No one article could list all the possible plans that can work for you. You might have specific options available to you that are not available to others. You also likely have different fitness goals than others. The key is to make the decision to start and keep going. Pace yourself with realistic steps. A positive mindset is bigger than any one fitness plan. Once you adopt the proper fitness mentality, you might find that your fitness goals come a lot easier than you ever thought possible.
If you are looking for a way to stay in shape, try one of our fun fitness classes, including Body Sculpt, Tabata, Pound and many more. You can start the New Year off right, meet new people and find support at our gym with childcare. Call us today!