Welcome to afitnewyou! I'm sure I am not the first to do so, but let me wish you a very Happy New Year! This is it! This is the time that most people decide to make a resolution to become the fitter, healthier, overall better versions of themselves. While some may say that it could be looked at as a rather arbitrary time to start on your fitness goals, it is pretty obvious why so many people start as of today. For example, if you had watched any of the New Year's festivities that took place at New York's Time Square you would have easily seen that Planet Fitness makes their brand quite visible. Also, plenty of gyms offer discounts for signing up for memberships and / or training sessions, making it an easier time to get started on your fitness quest. It is also during this time that so much advice is given out on how to meet these goals; so here I am doing that as well. For those of you who read this blog regularly, you know that I like people to make small changes, that can be maintained over the long haul. Small changes are ones that are most likely to be adopted into regular, healthier habits. I find people try to the start the New Year with too many goals, too lofty fitness goals, or very likely a combination of the two. I have no problem with anyone wanting to shoot for the moon, as long as you know and can appreciate that you are however starting at sea level and have some benchmark heights along the way that need to be reached first. I say this because many people often fail at maintaining their resolutions because they become overwhelmed rather than motivated by them. And believe it or not, but a good majority of the time this failure starts right out of the gate. A lot of people have New Year's Day itself off of work and are still wrangling with the idea of returning from the holidays. This could lead to you already missing your start date of Jan. 1 if you haven't quite started on your goals. Maybe you have the idea that you will start as of next Monday, the 7th, which is already a week into this New Year. That is ok, if that is something that you will stick to. But, I rather you make today the day to start. Whether you are reading this late on Jan. 1st, Wednesday January 2nd, or whatever day you ultimately find this, stop what you are doing and make this the day you start working towards a fitter new you!
Again, I understand that starting out the New Year with resolutions is something that so many of us do. But, think about your own resolutions...are any of them similar to those that you made last year or even other previous years? Are you making the same resolutions again because you had failed at them and long forgot about them before the winter was through? Or, are you building on what you had achieved from last year's resolutions? Although I am asking that as a fairly loaded question, because I believe most people make resolutions and then break them, I am sure that there is some bit of positive that you can build off of from what you wanted to achieve last year. Maybe you far surpassed your fitness goals from last year and now you have motivation to accomplish even more in 2019. Or it could be possible that although you didn't fully reach your goals, you were able to recognize where you didn't do so well and more importantly what you need to do in order to do better. Even if you want to plead the fifth about how you progressed at those resolutions of old, you can still use today as your starting point. There is a saying in alternative medicine "The Li proceeds the Qi," meaning that the intent of the treatment is just as important as the treatment itself. This relates to achieving your fitness goals as well, in that you need to have the intention of starting on them before you can accomplish them. So no matter where you are on the success chart from last year, or where you are starting from here at the beginning of 2019, make today the day you start on your goals, simply by dedicating yourself to achieving them.
I can bet that many of the people who want to be healthier (those especially who don't read this blog) will fail within the first two weeks because they don't even know how to start. Like I mentioned before, many people want to start the year off strong but either from being hung over from a New Year's Eve party and/or are still coming off of the holidays, don't act on their fitness goals on Jan. 1st. Then with the 2nd being in the middle of the week, they put off staring on them until the weekend. But then the weekend comes along and they're too tired from just having gone back to work for a couple of days. Before you know it its Monday, and practically already a week into the new year. For many of those who haven't started on their resolutions to be healthier by now, they are already willing to throw in the towel because of a sense of failure. But it isn't too late! You can still start today!
One of the common things I find with people who do a great job at achieving their goals is that they never become overwhelmed by them. They never let what should be motivational, become the thing that holds them down. And I have said before, the easiest way is to reach your goals is to keep them small and achievable. Make your "Day One" something as simple as putting your goals into words. For example, you can make your goals public on social media and / or on a post it note on your fridge or calendar. Or, you can start by doing some simple physical activity like performing just one set of push ups to get a baseline of where you are starting from. Another great way to get started is by "ending" something else. For example, you can use today to remove all of the sweets and snacks left over from the holidays. Usher them out just as we did to 2018. Starting small can be even as simple as stating to yourself what you want to achieve this year. Take one of these small steps, or something of the kind to get you going today. Then use the rest of the year to improve and build upon that first step.
It doesn't matter today how you feel about your fitness goals from last year. If you achieved them, fantastic! Now you know you can accomplish your goals, so build upon them and reach even higher heights! But even if you didn't, you should try to recognize where your shortcomings were and how you can improve during this calendar year. You're certainly not expected to reach them today, but even simply being positive about the possibility of reaching your fitness goals is a great starting point towards achieving them. Start small, but start today in any way possible. How many clichés have your heard that go something like "A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step"? I am here to help you reach your fitness goals, but you need to take that first step on your own volition. Don't wait for a more opportune time. Carpe diem! Making today the day you set out on achieving your fitness goals is the motivating way to reach a fit new you!
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