Hello YMCA members and the greater community! I’m back once again for the first time in 2016 to talk about fitness, physical activity, and exercise, and how to continue maintaining those programs throughout your 2016 year. How many of you set New Year’s fitness and exercise resolutions every year that seem to start out as a very important priority, but as the weeks pass by, they tend to lose their original intent and significance? Before you know it, your new year’s resolutions have become a mere figment of your imagination and no longer a reality, right? Well, I’m here to tell you that it’s happened to us all. Therefore, I would like to help clarify what tends to happen to all our motives and aspirations to reach those goals for the new year, and give a few pointers on how to maintain the New Year’s resolutions you set out to accomplish for 2016.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with setting new years resolutions. In fact, by the 11th or 12th month of the year, we sometimes lose sight of the important things we sought out to do earlier in the year, and need to refresh and regroup by the time January rolls around. We tend to lose sight of the goals we set (as New Year’s Resolutions) when we have several things going on at once that distract us from the time necessary to fulfill those fitness requirements.
One reason for New Year resolution busts, is not putting them higher on your priority list and allowing the sufficient time necessary out of each day to exercise. So if your plan is to exercise 3-4 times a week, then presume that you will need one and a half hours per workout to accomplish your weekly exercise plan– that way, it becomes a part of your daily schedule, as opposed to making resolutions by “wingin’ it”, and seeing how things go. These declarations are merely conscious thoughts, seldom planned out, and usually become recipes to failed resolutions! Again, make your new year’s fitness resolutions a part of your weekly schedule.
Secondly, it is very important to set realistic goals, and be specific about what you wish to accomplish as a resolution. Make your New Year’s resolutions practical and not ones that are impossible to maintain. Sure, we all feel by the end of the year like we need to make up for lost time by setting huge standards for our new years fitness plans, when in fact, we may never have the time nor energy to live up to them– all to inevitably find ourselves making them again 11 months later. Pretty classic huh? Also when making a determination about your fitness goals for the new year, be specific about what you want to accomplish. Do not merely say, “I need to get fit in 2016,”… “I need to go to the Y this year and put my membership to good use,”… or “My New Year’s resolution is to lose weight this year.” These conclusions, though very plausible, are too vague to have any meaning and direction, and should be more detailed like a “road map” to get us to where we want to be. For example, if your New Year’s exercise resolution is to lose weight, be specific about how much you wish to lose in a given period of time, and set a practical daily goal for what that would entail, in order to get to your destination in the specified amount of time. If my resolution for 2016 was to lose 30 lbs, it would not be very practical for me to expect to accomplish such a goal in 1 or even 2 months with a busy schedule. Instead, plan to lose 30 lbs in 3 months, therefore expecting to lose 10 lbs each month. These type of goals are practical, and more likely to become a success because it was customized to what was realistic for you. So I would certainly urge you to make your goals conducive to what your time and schedule permits, and make it a priority to make it to your exercise class(es) or whatever fitness plan you have in place. Otherwise, chances are that setting expectations too high will cause added stress and ultimately discourage progress.
Lastly, consider your New Year’s resolutions as a lifestyle, and not just a temporary profession only. In other words, turn your fitness resolutions into a life style change, and this will eliminate a need for fitness resolutions and most likely result in successful progresses throughout the year. Leaving your fitness programs for the months of January and February, not only makes getting started again each year harder, but loses any fitness benefits that you might have gained at the beginning of the year. The take-home message here is that exercise and fitness results are much more likely to succeed when considered as a life style, as opposed to succumbing to the drawbacks and effects of making them yearly fitness resolutions only.
Once again, thanks for tuning in on all my exercise and fitness talk here at the Y, and I hope that your New Year’s fitness resolutions are fulfilled, and become a gratifying lifestyle change for you all throughout the 2016 year. God bless, and Happy New Year!