We’re a month into a new year, having set new goals and made new fitness commitments for ourselves. But now, having not met them, we are thrown into a cycle of self-guilt and punishment that just makes us feel worse about ourselves.
We have all been there at some point. You have good intentions, but maybe you set your sights too high and now you feel like a failure if you can’t meet them. But not anymore.
We’re here to tell you there is a much better way to create fitness resolutions that will improve your health and fitness without throwing you into a spiral. Use these in January, in mid-summer, or any time you need to refocus your fitness journey.
Don’t Make Goals Based On Your Weight
After the holidays, all of us are thinking more about the delicious foods and lack of workouts we had and how that has affected our weight. The problem is that if you put weight loss as your primary goal, you’re putting yourself into an extremely restrictive way of thinking.
Ask yourself, if you lost the holiday weight what would happen next? Would you keep dieting and working out? Relax again?
What if you reframed this goal as wanting to feel stronger? Run farther? If your goal is something with more longevity, it will help fuel you through every weight fluctuation of your life. If you’re worried about diet, resolve to cook at least five nights this week, or to incorporate 4 new vegetables into your meals per week.
Set Small Goals
When we set a big goal, it often feels like we’ll never be able to reach it. Too much effort, too much planning, it takes a lot more out of you than you would think.
But if you set smaller goals, you feel like you are achieving things more often. This makes you excited to meet more small goals and build from there. So instead of aiming to become healthy, try to set a goal of eating vegetables with every meal or doing a 5-minute stretch every day.
Meet Your Body Where You Are At Right Now
Once we’ve spent the Christmas holidays taking a break, we walk into the gym in January thinking we’ll just be able to pick up where we left off. Unfortunately, this usually isn’t the case.
Instead of studying the scale, tape measure, or caliper when you walk into the gym, look at other types of fitness tests. How is your cardio health? How strong is your core? What about endurance? These are the measures you should be focusing on when you are just getting back into the swing of things.
Retest A Month Later
If you set the goals above, like working on your endurance and cardio health, try to work on it for four weeks and then test yourself again.
Say you were doing a test to see how many burpees you can do in a minute. After four weeks of practice and training, you will find that your numbers have improved and it will really push up your confidence in what your body is capable of.
Keep Track Of Your Success
Recording your progress serves several purposes - it helps you to stay accountable, set small goals, and celebrate achieving them. Put them all into the app of your choice or a simple travel notebook, and update it regularly.
This will come in handy when you are feeling low, or like you aren’t progressing fast enough. Now you’ll have real data in your hands that shows that you are moving on up and getting better at the things you want to.
Come To SRQ Health And Fitness Studio
Say goodbye to intimidating group workouts and one-size-fits-all approaches to fitness. Our trainers take a true personal interest in developing relationships with our clients to fully understand their goals and needs, so they can deliver a unique and customized workout program.
Our trainers look at each client as an individual from head to toe. We personally design programs that are custom for you and that take into account your current fitness level, limitations, and long-term goals.
The program designed by your trainer will be unique to you. Programs will include strength and conditioning, functional movement, flexibility, and a little sweat. Our mission is to motivate you to achieve the very best version of yourself that results in lasting changes and overall good health.
Get started with us today by clicking here.