Turning A Fitness Resolution Into A Lifestyle

Making the transition from starting your New Year’s Resolution to making it a permanent part of your lifestyle can be a daunting task on paper. Thankfully, it’s not an impossible task to accomplish if you maintain and focused and consistent lifestyle along the way. Let’s show you how to keep your New Year’s Resolution intact to help you live a healthy lifestyle for the foreseeable future.

Be Patient With Your New Lifestyle Changes

If you’ve spent years living a sedentary lifestyle, the exercise of any kind will likely be a major shock to your system. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t see results within the first week or month; results take time. If you feel more tired than you used to, don’t take that as a sign that you need to stop. See it as an opportunity to look deeper into your current routine and find out how you can make it more appropriate for your lifestyle.

Be Specific And Set Deadlines For Your Fitness Goals

If you’re setting out to structure your fitness goals in a way that give your wriggle room to bow out when times get difficult, then you need to restructure your goals. Making your goals more specific when it comes to what you want to accomplish and when you want to accomplish them will make you more accountable and determined to stick to your goals.

Be sure that you also make your New Year’s Resolutions attainable. Can you (and should you) really try to lose 50 pounds before Summer? Is it a good idea to set a goal of running a 6-minute mile when you haven’t run more than 500 feet at once since high school gym class? Probably not. In short, you know your body so take it slow and eventually, you will see results.

Break Your Resolution Up Into Smaller Challenges

If you try to do too much too quickly with your resolutions, you’re setting yourself up for failure. From a psychological standpoint, it’s easier to stomach 5 smaller goals spaced out along your fitness journey than one huge goal that’s 6 months or a year out. Having smaller goals will allow you to celebrate every victory along the way and give you the ability to focus on the progress you’re making, no matter how inconsequential it may seem.

Focus On The Fun Factor

It’s difficult to consistently force yourself to do something you know will probably make you tired and sore in places that you never thought you could be sore in. That’s why when it comes to making long-term change, fun is fundamental. If you’re not big on running then stick to cycling or swimming instead.

If you’re not keen on hitting the gym, then pick up a sport that you enjoyed to play as a kid or always wanted to play but never had the opportunity to give it a shot when you were younger for whatever reason. Do everything you can to make your physical activity enjoyable, because that’s the only way you’re going to want to keep doing it.

Making Your New Year’s Resolution Stick

Overall, making a lifestyle out of a resolution is about forming habits and being mindful of the way you interact with your goals. That’s why it’s best to think of your New Year’s Resolution as making a big picture lifestyle change rather than something that’s more short term.