Well, it's two weeks into a New Year and everything has changed, just like we dreamed!
Okay, well...nothing has really changed, but still. Perhaps you made a New Year's resolution, so maybe you changed. Maybe you started getting in early morning workouts, or eating less, or cutting out sugar. Maybe this year, you've resolved to get your health in check.
Then again, this is right about the time when people start to falter on those lofty resolutions, especially when it comes to new fitness goals.
Stats say that less than 10 percent of people ever follow through with their New Year's resolutions. Much of the problem is that people lose their motivation very quickly. It's not enough to want to be fit.
You have to change your life for it. Fitness is a lifestyle, not just a New Year resolution.
Your goal to "lose weight" is not enough. I'm not saying "losing weight" is a bad goal. I'm saying that it is not enough to look at the scale, decide your ideal weight, work hard and then be done with it once you reach that number.
In truth, roughly 80-90% of people gain back the weight they lose within a very short period of time.
I think making and keeping a resolution is a great start, and I am not knocking them. Being a goal-oriented person myself, I completely buy into the appeal and usefulness of a resolution. It can be a powerful way to keep yourself accountable. You obviously need to start somewhere.
However, you cannot think of fitness as just a "goal." How many of us know that person who used to be super fit, but let themselves go in the last few years? How many of us ARE that person?
Being fit and healthy means making it your life. I know it can be tempting to think of health as just one aspect. While you are relatively young and unencumbered with pressing health issues, you might even think of it as the one part of your life that can be ignored for other, more important things - school, job, kids.
It cannot, because health impacts every aspect of your life, whether you think of it or not. Nutrition and fitness will never not have a place in how you go about your day, from how well you can focus on tasks, how you relate to others, how you feel about yourself, all the way to how you sleep at night.
If you're resolving to improve your health, you need to think of it as a lifestyle.
Here are five ways you can tailor your resolutions for this new lifestyle.
1. Ease into it. I'm all for having big goals, but the difficulty of your goal makes no difference if you don't meet it. If your eating habits have been poor and you decide to go cold turkey on all your favorite snacks, the withdrawal alone will be enough to draw you off your goals. Start slow. Take out soda first, or resolve not to eat sugar after a certain time in the evening. Your "new resolution" honeymoon phase might get you through for a while, but feeling deprived is an amazingly strong deterrent to longterm healthy habits. Don't deprive - resolve to find fulfillment in healthier options.
2. Add to something you're already doing. Suddenly deciding to get up two hours earlier than you normally do to start a daily workout regimen is tough. I love the gym, and that sounds like a nightmare even to me. This is exactly why people fail at resolutions - you tried to do something that you don't normally do, and it's incredibly easy to just...not. If you don't already have a regular workout routine, try just adding a mini-workout to your normally sedentary activities. For example, I like to do a couple rounds of push-ups or kettlebell swings while watching TV. Improve from there and look for other ways to make fitness part of your life.
3. Make it easier on yourself. Put your workout clothes out where they are visible and easily accessible. If you don't already work out, resolve to work out for twenty to thirty minutes instead of an entire hour. Believe me, you can have a very effective workout in that amount of time. Prep your meals ahead of time so you aren't scrambling at the last minute and eating whatever's lying around instead. If your income allows it, throw money at it - hire a trainer, subscribe to a workout channel, buy new workout clothes that make you feel good, bribe someone to be your workout friend...whatever floats your boat.
4. Find something that you enjoy. My tagline for this blog is that you were made to move. Your body is not meant to be sedentary, moving from bed to car to desk to couch and back again. Even if the thought of the gym repels you and listening to people talk about running sickens you, you were still made to move, and, therefore, enjoy movement. You don't have to do a march of death on the treadmill or spend hours in a weight room if you don't want to. I'm not saying it won't require some hard work, of course. But you can find physical activity that, for you, reminds you of how to enjoy using your body. They have leagues and groups for everything nowadays, from soccer to Spikeball (if you don't know what that is, look up a YouTube video. It's awesome.)
And finally...
5. Remember that perfection is not the goal. The healthiest fitspo influencer on Instagram is not doing two-hour, two-a-day workouts and eating only plain chicken breast and steamed broccoli. If they are, then they are boring as heck and you don't want to be like them, anyway. Okay, I'm kidding, but you get my drift. They are disciplined, for sure. But they are not perfect. You have to give yourself grace. You only fail if you don't keep trying. Remember that it's not about the last pound of fat or 25-inch biceps (that's HUGE, by the way).
It's about the lifestyle.