The beginning of a new fitness journey is never easy. If you’re at a point in your life where you have decided to make some major changes in your lifestyle but you’re overwhelmed with the amount of information online, we’re here to help.
Fitness Goal-Setting
By now you already have a general idea of what your fitness goal is. Is it to shed 30 pounds? Perhaps to have a six-pack? Or to fit in your old jeans? Maybe run a marathon?
There’s nothing wrong with setting fitness goals like these. However, they’re a bit vague and tbh, these are big goals for a lot of people to see through.
The best goals are smaller, easy to attain and more precise. Examples:
- Thirty minutes of yoga 3x a week.
- Drink 2 liters of water a day.
- Bring lunch to the office daily.
- Do 2 HIIT workouts each week.
Once you’ve decided on (and listed down) your bite sized goals you want to achieve, you can then proceed to doing the following:
1. Be fully committed to your goal.
A lot of people pay for gym memberships and personal trainers because they think that having someone to guide them will ensure they stick to their goals. But seeing it through is something you need to do on your own. Trainers are there to guide you, create a program for you and assist you with any concerns/questions about your program. But the actual work is all up to you.
2. Keep it simple.
Just like your fitness goals, you need to keep your workout routine simple and completely doable. If you’re starting as a beginner and then you immediately try those 21-day shred programs, you’re in for a major disappointment. You’re going to dread waking up everyday anticipating another exhausting workout. You’ll probably quit in just a few days.
3. Don’t push yourself too hard.
Initially you might have planned to spend an hour a day to workout at Bally Total Fitness. But then life gets in the way and you realize you don’t have an hour to spare. That’s OK. Even squeezing in 10 minutes of weight training is better than not doing any exercise at all. The key is to be able to workout regularly on a long term basis. It doesn’t matter if you can only spare 10 minutes a day. That’s going to add up over time!
4. Practice mindfulness.
A lot of times we are distracted by our thoughts and gadgets that we end up wasting hours being unproductive. Always live in the present and be careful about how you spend your time, where you spend your time and with whom you spend your time with. You might think this has nothing to do with your fitness journey but in actuality, it has a lot to do with it. Your thoughts and actions become your reality. So if you’re always stressing yourself out or spending way too much time on social media, these things will negatively affect your fitness journey. Now start crushing those fitness goals this year!
Here are some ways you can practice mindfulness in your day to day: