How To Set Realistic Fitness Goals For The New Year

If you want to succeed, you cannot set yourself up to fail.  If you want to get into shape and start leading a healthier lifestyle you need to learn how to set realistic fitness goals for the New Year this year.

Take Advantage of The Entire New Year

Instead of trying to lose a large about of weight or being able to run a five minute mile in a month, plan out your goals over the course of the entire New Year. If you have a certain amount of weight you want to lose or a certain fitness goal that you want to attain, like running a mile in under 10 minutes, plan to achieve these goals over the next 12 months. In that time you can slowly lose the weight and get healthy, giving you a higher success rate without feeling too much pressure. If you accomplish those goals before the allotted time, you can set new ones, and advance even further.

Give Yourself Time

Not everyone can hit the gym for four hours a day, but try to dedicate at least three hours a week to start. If you can't find a solid 30 minute block of time during the day, break it up into 10 minute increments and spread them out. If you exercise for an hour one day but take a break the next day, do not beat yourself up over it. You will soon find out that the more you exercise, the easier it is to find time to do it. If you still have trouble, try to incorporate more exercise into your daily life - as described in the excellent book, "Move a Little, Lose a Lot" - instead of looking at exercise as an exclusive activity. Start with three hours a week and give yourself the entire New Year to work up to six hours a week, or more.

Make It a Game and Keep Score

Create your own personal score board. Keep track of your weight lost and gained, because it is not unusual to gain back a little bit of the weight you have lost during the process. Write down your calories for the day and also subtract the calories to consume for your resting metabolic rate as well as from exercise and even household chores. One pound is worth about 3000 calories, so for every 3000 calories you can cut out of your life, it will be one pound less you are taking off of your body.

The most important part of getting in shape is keeping a positive attitude and learning how to set realistic fitness goals for the New Year. If you do this, you're sure to achieve them!

Why Rest Is Important For Your Exercise Goals

It's that time of year again: Time for New Years Resolutions! It's the time when so many people decide to get healthy, get fit, and set some exercise goals for the year. So it might seem odd that we're starting off the year talking about rest - but it's actually an important factor for achieving success with your fitness regimen this year.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When you get started on a workout routine, you want to keep it going strong, but you have to remember that it is possible to do too much.  Working out as much as you can, for as long as you can, and as hard as you can, is more likely to get you injured than in shape.  Our bodies require regular rest to heal and to function optimally.

Every time you work out, you create damage in your muscles and other tissue.  It’s often too small to really notice, but it’s still there - that's why you get sore after a workout.  Resting your body allows these tiny injuries to heal themselves.  If you don’t get enough rest between workouts, these tiny problems can add up to a larger, more serious injury.  Rest also gives our muscles time to build themselves, so if you never get adequate rest, you won’t see significant improvement.  Not only should you take adequate rests between each individual workout, you should also alternate light and heavy workouts during the week, and have a much lighter week every 6 weeks or so. 

In addition to just “taking a break” between workouts, you need to get adequate sleep at night as well.  Not only does sleep help us rest and relax our brain, it also allows us to relax and repair our bodies.  Not getting enough rest will leave you sluggish, not at your peak performance, and will eventually even make you ill.  While it is recommended to get at least 7 hours of sleep a night, you should remember that each person is different.  Some need only 5 or 6 hours of sleep to function properly, while others may need 9 or 10 to feel refreshed.

Yoga (Photo credit: RelaxingMusic)

One type of rest people don’t usually consider when thinking about a workout is rest from stress.  A workout provides stress to our body, but it’s not the only thing that does. If we are mentally and emotionally stressed throughout the day, it shows physically.  If your body is in a constant state of stress, your muscles won't relax and heal, even when you’re just sitting still.  If you are showing symptoms of fatigue and feel overworked, you should try adding yoga, Pilates, or even meditation to your routine. These will truly relax your body and mind, and allow it to get the rest it needs - at the same time as giving you a nice workout! 

If you don’t rest between workouts, get sleep at night, or take the time to de-stress, you’re not only more at risk for getting hurt, you’re probably also pretty tired.  If you don’t feel like you have the energy to get out of bed in the morning because you’ve worked out too hard, chances are you probably won’t feel like exercising either.  By doing too much too soon, you’re actually likely to decrease how much you work out in the future.

So remember, working harder isn’t always better.  Set a plan to reach your fitness and exercise goals for the year, but remember to add rest time into your program. You'll end up getting more out of your workouts, seeing better results, and finding exercise more fun and enjoyable. Take the time to relax and let your body prepare for its next challenge.   

Keep Your Exercise Resolutions This Year!

Image by Scott Barlow via FlickrNow that you've set some specific and attainable resolutions for getting healthy this year (see previous post), here is a quick article on how to make sure you actually KEEP those resolutions!  Most resolutions tend to go by the wayside before spring even turns to summer, so they don't really do you much good. I prefer the word "goals," but regardless, putting a plan into practice to actually achieve these resolutions is a great help to making sure you actually get to where you want to be.

Check it out, and please feel free to share your own exercise and health resolutions below, as well as your tips for keeping them!

Happy New Year!

Keeping Exercise Resolutions | AstroNutrition
So now that the New Year is officially right around the corner it is certainly time to get into gear and make those resolutions. If you are like many people though, you will probably be making the same ones you've made each year.
Publish Date: 12/28/2010 16:59
http://astronutrition.com/blog/keeping_exercise_resolutions

Related articles on New Year's Resolutions:

• New Years Resolutions (socyberty.com)
• All About New Year's Resolutions (socyberty.com)
• The 2011 Resolutions.....or, Failure Guidelines! (leftofsean.com)