How to Successfully Achieve Your New Year’s Resolutions

By Gini Grimsley, Director of Fitness Product, VASA Fitness

At the start of each new year, gyms and fitness centers are flooded with new members who want to make a positive change in their lives by improving their fitness. Over the course of the next few months, those highly motivated gym-goers drop off until the gym returns to its normal hum of activity.

Make this year different! Setting a goal of getting in shape isn’t enough. A goal without a plan is just a dream. This is the year to create a concrete plan to improve your fitness and make physical activity a part of the rest of your life.

There is never a bad time to start a new fitness routine, and there is an easy rule of thumb to follow as you begin to tackle it: add to your routine before you take away from it. For example, drink more water, walk an extra five minutes a day, or stretch while you’re watching a show. All of these will improve your energy and fitness without feeling restrictive.

Often, the first, most common step when beginning a new fitness routine is to restrict certain foods, television, sugary drinks, and many other things. Removing things you enjoy, like fruit, coffee, and bread creates the feeling of scarcity, so when you’re tempted to “indulge” in the restricted food or drink, the ability to avoid these items becomes immensely challenging.

Breaking a promise to yourself to avoid dessert after dinner can derail your entire fitness program if you let it. So why not start off your new regimen with steps that add to your routine or replace a habit rather than take away or restrict it. Activities or habits to add into your routine can be as simple as:

• Going for a 10-minute walk after each meal.

• Drinking a glass of water before your morning cup of coffee.

• Completing 10 squats or push-ups during commercial breaks.

• Taking a sip of water between bites of a meal.

The activity or habit doesn’t have to be overly complex, but it needs to be done consistently. Figuring out what activities and habits to include in your routine is as simple as figuring out what goal you want to achieve.

Before starting out on your journey to a healthier, fitter you, take some time to make a plan. Creating specific, measurable, attainable, relative, and time-based (SMART) goals is a great way to begin. For example, “I want to climb the Red Reef Trail in less than two hours during spring break.” This is a tangible goal you can base all your new habits and activities around to help you prepare for it.

Once the goal is set, establishing behaviors and activities that support achieving the goal is the most important step. List the skills and abilities you’ll need to develop over the next few months to help you. For the hiking example, one skill to work on would be improving cardiovascular endurance so you are capable of hiking for two hours. Adding cardio and HIIT-based workouts to your weekly exercise routine instead of removing something from your daily life is a great way to prepare for your goal in a positive way.

To successfully achieve your resolution, make a plan, list the steps needed to be successful, and don’t lose sight of the end goal even when things may not go as planned! Progress is still progress, no matter how fast or slow it happens. And don’t forget, the slower the progress, the better the habit and the longer the result will last!

There is never a bad time to start a new fitness routine, and there is an easy rule of thumb to follow as you begin to tackle it: add to your routine before you take away from it.

About the Author

Gini Grimsley

Gini Grimsley is the Director of Fitness Product for VASA Fitness where she creates cutting-edge fitness programming for VASA’s clubs across eight states.