Fitness Together Brecksville: Tips for Sticking to your Resolution

Trainer Tuesdays

Welcome back to the weekly edition on Trainer Tuesdays. Make sure to check in at our blog every Tuesday evening to learn the expertise of our great staff. Aside from being fantastic exercise coaches, they are also extremely knowledgeable in many aspects of health and fitness; so, it's time that you get to know them a little better! Each week, we will post a frequently asked, or sometimes just a fun fitness related question followed by the answers of each of the trainers at Fitness Together Brecksville.

What are Some Good Tips to Setting a Realistic Resolution?

Adam Teplitz: With each new year comes the opportunity to form new habits and create new resolutions. Here are a few tips for sticking to your New Years resolutions:

Be realistic. The easiest resolutions to stick to are the ones that start out with realistic expectations. When it comes to fitness, you're most likely to stick to a new fitness routine or commitment if the goals you set are realistic.

Be specific. In conjunction with being realistic, it's important to be specific about what you hope to achieve, as well as how you plan to get there. Break your resolution into smaller, short term goals. This will lead to you feeling more empowered to keep moving forward.

Change it up. There's no harm in changing your goals as needed or even adding new ones. Resolutions aren't written in stone. They're most likely to be accomplished if you modify them along the way to best suit your current situation.

The key is to not give up on yourself and to keep your improved health and fitness as your top priority, no matter how you wind up getting there.

Justin Traft: There is a lot to think about when trying sticking to a goal. A couple tips to keep in mind would be . One never set a goal that's not realistic in a timely fashion. Because then your only setting yourself up for disappointment which can lead to you giving up. Two try to choice or surround yourself with people that support what your trying to accomplish. A positive support system is the key to accomplishing any goal. Three write down on a piece of paper why you want to achieve that goal. Keep that paper with you everyday . This way if you have any doubt you can look at the paper to remind why you are doing this.

Kelly Bailey: Call them what you like...resolutions or goals....most of us fail at keeping them. I can think of two big reasons we tend to fail. The first is that we skip the very important step of goal-setting. This is more than just verbalizing a resolution or goal...it involves sitting down and exploring what you want, why you want it, and details your timeframe and roadmap to success. This should be written down and posted somewhere that you will read it at least once every day, if not twice!

The second reason we don't keep our resolutions is because we try to change everything all at once. A friend of mine recently posted her New Year's resolutions on Facebook and they included: being more organized, growing her business, losing weight and getting healthy, keeping a cleaner house, saving money....and on and on. While those are all noble resolutions, she has set herself up for failure by attempting to change too much. Let's say your most important resolution is to lose weight. Pick one small action to add to your life, do it consistently for about 4 weeks (until it starts to become habit), then build on your newfound habit. For example, if you eat mindlessly (while standing, driving your car, sending emails, etc), start by resolving to be mindful during one meal per day. For this meal, you will be seated at a table with no outside distraction. This type of behavior alone can help you lose weight by being mindful of what and how much you're eating. Once your new habit is established, pick another positive action that builds on the first...maybe you decide to chew slower and really savor your food during this sit-down meal. Either way, these mini-resolutions need to be so easy to perform that it would be silly to NOT keep them.

Amanda Ricci: Now that the New Year has come upon us, there are millions of people around the world who are making New Years resolutions. In fact it may be the same resolution or goal that you had last year that you did not achieve. "This year is going to be different." you tell yourself. As an experienced Personal Trainer, I want to help by providing you with the tools necessary to accomplish that goal and make 2016 your year!!! There are five steps to make sure you have a solid start to making that goal happen.

The first step in achieving that New Year's resolution or goal is to have one, and identify what it is. Once you have done that you need to ask yourself several questions, which include:

Is it Smart?

Is it Measurable?

Is It Attainable?

Is it Realistic?

Is it Timely?

If your answer was NO to any of the above questions you will need to revise or modify that goal so that way you are able to track your progress. Achieving a resolution can be difficult and it will also involve some time and work. The reason is because this is a change, and change is hard. Once you have identified what that goal is, write it down. This is the second step, writing down that goal. Statistics have proven that when you write your goal down you are 80% more likely to achieve that goal. So for example, let's say you want to lose weight as your goal. My goal is to lose 8 Ibs in one month. I go through and ask myself all the questions listed above. Is it Smart? Based on what I know about weight loss and the amount of weight i can loose in a week without putting myself at risk for dehydration I would say yes. I then ask is it measurable? Yes, this goal is measurable. There are several ways to measure my progress, which include the scale and body fat percentage test as well as writing down my workouts and nutrition during the time I take steps to progress toward this goal. Is it attainable? Yes. Is it realistic and timely? Yes.

Step number 2: Once you set a realistic resolution for yourself, you will then need to ask yourself why is this goal important to you?, or What is your motivation for achieving it? If that goal is building muscle or losing weight maybe you formed that goal for yourself because you have a family history of family members passing away at a young age, or you, yourself have a medical condition that is causing you to lose strength or is depleting your energy, or you simply just want to look good and feel better about yourself. Whatever it is keep that motivating factor in the back of your mind and remind yourself of what it is when you start to loose motivation.

The next step, which is step number 3: Identify a game plan as to how you are going to accomplish those goals. This may involve blocking time out of your schedule to make time to work on your goals, or planning an earlier bedtime so that you can be well rested, or going to bed earlier and rising earlier. It often depends on your personality and time, for example whether you are morning person or a night owl. If your a morning person, you may want to consider blocking out time in your schedule in the morning, and if your an evening person then blocking out that time in the evening.

Step number 4, is to monitor your progress towards reaching these goals. Based on what your goal is make a list of the behaviors that you need to monitor about yourself that are either propelling you toward the finish line or ones that are preventing you from continuing your journey.; Start with small changes. For example, Let's say that every time you watch television you grab a bag of Doritos and end up eating the whole bag while watching your favorite show. So a recommendation for change is to buy smaller bags, the snack packs of Doritos and only allow yourself to have one per day. Or stop buying the Doritos from the grocery store and instead buy celery and vegetables and snack on those. However, it is about breaking down that behavior and forming a new habit. You have to start thinking about your triggers, for example: Why do you grab those Doritos? Is it because of the availability, sweet tooth or your in the habit of eating while watching TV? Take the decision making ability away from yourself and you will instead form the habit and not even have to think about it. So right when you go to watch tv, you grab the vegetables instead of the chips. Once you get in the habit of doing this, willpower becomes absent from the equation because you don't have to rely on it anymore.

I then make a plan for achieving these goals. This is the final, and the 5th step. So I decide I will workout 4 days a week. When making this decision to work out this often you must recognize the time your schedule will allow you to work out for and also be realistic with yourself. If you are currently not working out at all, then starting to workout 4 days per week may be to big of a change for you and you may need to start off smaller so that way your able to be consistent. Again, turn this into a habit. Pack your workout bag the night before and right after you get off work you head straight to the gym or if your a morning person, as soon as you get out of bed in the morning you head straight to the gym and then head to work. It has been proven that when you rely on willpower your more likely to fail. "In 2011, 27 percent of Stress in America Survey, respondents reported that lack of willpower was the most significant barrier to change. " If you were one of those athletes that was able to without fail attend practices everyday but are not able to work out consistently now the reason is because working out became a habit to you. You didn't even have to think about it. My first tip for making that change, and making yourself accountable is to sign up for races and other events months in advance, put the date on the calendar. You now know that event is coming up so you force yourself to train for that event with the months you have to train for that event. A few other tips include: make all your appointments 3 months in advance or you can make it a social event such as attending workouts with friends.

So follow all these tips for the best results in achieving your goals and beginning your journey towards success.

Michael Roberto: If you are having trouble setting a realistic resolution for the new year, one thing that may help is to be as specific as possible. Rather than say "I am going to lose 20 pounds", expand on that and see if you can be more detailed. Maybe you can change the 20 pounds goal to "I am going to lose 5 pounds in the next month" or "I am going to exercise three times a week." The more detailed you are in your resolution, the better.

Steven Madden: I find the best way to stick to a goal for a year, is not to plan it for a year, plan it for a week. 3 times a week is a good number of times to work out. So make your goal that. After a few weeks, try projecting it out. Aim to workout 12 times in a month. This is far more digestible than looking at the insurmountable task of trying to do something over the year.

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Tips for Sticking to your Resolution

No comments:

Post a Comment