It’s another New Year and like countless other people, you will wake up on January 1 with the intention of losing weight and getting in shape. You are not alone!
On average, only 20% of people actually stick to their New Year’s resolutions with the biggest failures in fitness resolutions.
If you want to be successful with YOUR fitness new year’s resolutions, you need to make lasting changes that work for you through out the year.
Over 66% of adult Americans are considered overweight or obese. Join the 33% that are not. Exercise keeps you healthy and makes you look and feel better. Why not make this year the time to get in shape!
Here are some tips to help you succeed with your fitness resolutions, lose that weight, and get in shape!
- Set realistic fitness goals. Make your fitness goals attainable. If you think that 1 week is enough time to lose 15 pounds or get those nicely toned arms, forget it. Neither of those fitness goals is realistic. There is no instant fix. If you want to lose weight, figure out a healthy weight for your height and frame, then determine a reasonable amount of time to get to your new weight. With exercise, be careful of taking on too much, too fast. It will just exhaust and maybe even injure you. Take it slow and set your fitness goals accordingly.
- Diets don’t work. Diets are temporary fixes to your eating problem. When you finish “the diet”, YOU still have your eating problem. Get on-board with a lifestyle that will keep you healthy for life. The foods you consume on a daily basis affect your healthy everyday. With lifestyle changes, you modify or eliminate bad eating habits and replace them with good ones. Then maintain those good habits.
- Ditch the junk food. Are you still buying junk food at the market and then “trying” not to eat it when you get home? Stop buying the junk food. Eliminate junk food from your life. Forget the processed food and sugar filled foods. That second of joy you think you get from junk foods can lead to health problems, feeling awful, and weight gain. When you start eating healthy foods, you will be amazed at how good you feel!
- Schedule your exercise. So many people say, “I don’t have time to exercise”. What else are you doing? Busy surfing the Internet, watching TV, or doing a whole lot of nothing? Schedule your exercise just like you would any other important meeting or event. It’s important! Do it!
- Create a home gym. Joining a gym can be expensive, so create one at home – it will cost much less. There are many alternatives to a gym like workout DVDs and WII fit programs. It’s also more convenient to work out at home. Click here for some great home fitness DVDs!
- Cook and eat at home. Eating out is expensive and restaurant meals have significantly more calories then sometime healthy you can cook for yourself at home. Restaurants are in business because of their great tasting food which is filled with lots of added sugar, too much sodium, and loads of fat calories.
- Follow a well-rounded fitness program. Do your research before starting any fitness program. If you never run and suddenly decide to start running 6 miles a day, that is not a good choice. In this case, a better plan is to include stretching, walking, and jogging until you work your way up to running.
- Be patient. It took you a long time to get in your current shape. It will take some time to fix it.
- Get support. Find a friend or community that you can turn to for support when you need it! Find out how you can get the support you need at the Team Beachbody community! You can even win money just for working out – now that’s incentive!
If you do nothing else and can not afford a gym membership or home fitness DVDs, go outside and walk – it’s FREE. Just 30 minutes per day of walking can help improve your fitness and contribute to weight loss.