How do I stick to my New Year fitness resolutions? Here are five tips

 

Lauren Sinfield, Fitness Manager at Basildon Sporting Village, gives her five top tips for sticking to your fitness resolutions throughout January and beyond into 2017.

1. Be realistic about what you can achieve

Be realistic about your goals and you’re more likely to achieve them. This may mean setting yourself slightly smaller goals, but you can reap the rewards once you’ve met them, rather than feeling disheartened because you’ve set yourself an impossible task.

2. Share your plan with a friend or family member

You’re much more likely to stick to your plan if you’ve shared it with someone else. Tell your friends or family members that you’re trying to improve your fitness levels or lose a bit of weight and they’re bound to be supportive.

This will create an extra feeling of motivation because you are now accountable to others.

3. Set yourself measurable goals

Rather than saying ‘I want to lose weight’ or ‘I want to get fit’, say ‘I want to lose a certain amount of weight within the next six weeks’.

Is there a particular item of clothing you’d love to be able to fit into again? Would you like to be able to run 5km without stopping?

Having key milestones to measure your progress against will help to keep you on track.

4. Find something you enjoy

Many people join a gym in January with the best of intentions, but then they lose motivation because they’re not enjoying it. If you don’t enjoy running, you will find it hard to spend hours on the treadmill.

Luckily, there are so many different activities on offer. Find one that you really enjoy, whether it’s spinning, swimming or a dance based cardiovascular workout.

Remember, everyone’s different. What one person enjoys might be another person’s worst nightmare.

5. Don’t give up because you’ve had a small setback

It happens to the best of us. Perhaps we snooze our alarm when we planned to go to the gym before work, or we overindulge when we go out to eat.

Rather than feeling like a failure and giving up, remind yourself that you’re only human. One bad day doesn’t mean you can’t have a great week!

For more information visit www.everyoneactive.com. Everyone Active operates Basildon Sporting Village, Wickford Leisure Centre and Eversley Leisure Centre in partnership with Basildon Council.