New Years Resolutions & How to Stick to Them

Every year, millions of Brits make New Year resolutions and in 2023, over 50% of those are vowing to improve their health & fitness. ‘Doing more exercise or improving my fitness’, ‘losing weight’ & ‘improving my diet’ are the top 3 resolutions created in Britain this year. Exercise based resolutions are most popular with women; a whopping 57% of those who are dedicating themselves to doing more exercise in 2023 are women. However, the success rates of said resolutions can leave a lot to be desired. After 1 week, 25% of people are likely to give up on their newly made decisions and that rises to 36% by the end of January. 6 months in, 54% of Brits have either given up or forgotten about their resolutions all together. It’s easy to start your year expecting big things whilst telling yourself that you mean it this year and this is a brand new you but those bigger goals are sometimes too broad to even know where to start. A gym subscription is a great place to start, but here are some tips to keep going when everyone else stops.

1) Make it Small
Having a broad goal makes things more complicated than they need to be as you won’t sure of where you’re heading or how to get there. ‘Doing more exercise’ or ‘improving my fitness’ are quite vague when it comes to doing it. To help make your new goals a success, you need to break it down into bite size chunks; are you going to focus on cardio or strength training? Is there a particular part of the body you want to work on the most? Once you reach you smaller goal, you can make new ones and seeing how your body changes over time will help you know where to go next. You’ll also feel more successful as you can tick off lots of smaller resolutions rather than feeling like you’re constantly working towards something so far away.

2) Make it Measurable
For example, if you’re going to improve your diet you may be thinking about cutting out a certain food or drink but it’s best not to go cold turkey like you may be planning to. If you have a high consumption of a certain food, you’re going to be best slowly removing the item from your diet but allowing yourself a small amount until you feel like you no longer crave said food. If you’re planning on starting your fitness journey, you need to think about how long you’re going to spend running or in the gym until you feel like you can push yourself that little bit further. Start with 30 minute sessions every other day and you’ll find yourself wanting to stay longer and go more often.
You may want to think about getting a diary and writing down your goals so you can see how you’re going to work towards it.

3) Make it Realistic
This one is pretty self explanatory; if it’s not realistic, you simply won’t achieve it. It’s great that you want to be go out for a cycle for 2 hours a day, 365 days of the year but if this is the start of your journey, then it’s unlikely that that’s going to happen for multiple reasons. Ease yourself into everything and try sticking to one resolution at a time. Those small chunks we spoke about at the beginning will help with making your goal more achievable; the more specific you can be, the more realistic your target(s) will be.

4) Make a Plan
So, you’ve broken your resolution down to a manageable goal, you’ve thought about how you’re going to make it measurable & achievable and now, you’re looking to see how you’re going to get there. It’s time to make a plan. The diary that we recommended getting for measuring your progress is going to come in handy here. When it comes to your fitness objectives, you may be focusing on your glutes for example but you’re still going to need a mix of exercises to get there; write it all down before you go. If you find a routine on social media or through a PT, make sure it’s on paper and planned out, that way you’ll know what your plan is when you get to the gym. From here, you can make note of what you found easy or difficult and change accordingly. Over time, you’ll find the right routine for your level and monitoring your measurments and weight will also let you know what is keeping you on track for your end goal.

5) Keep it Positive
A good attitude is the best way to keep yourself motivated. One way to keep yourself positive is to try new resolutions; if you keep making the same promises to yourself that you don’t/can’t keep, this is going to have a negative effect on how you feel about the process. Keep things new and exciting to stay motivated. You can also ask for help and support from your loved ones. It’s been statistically proven that doing exercise with a friend or partner helps with how long you spend doing exercise & how often so if you know someone who already goes to the gym or has the same goals as you, then go together. It’s common for people to lose their positive mindset once things get hard (or sore in this case) but keep reminding yourself of why you’re doing what you’re doing. As you adjust to your new lifestyle and routine, things will become easier and it’ll all be worth it for that end goal.

Remember, falling off the metaphorical horse is not the end of the world and it’s never too late to start! If you’re still not too sure of where you should start, we’ve just launched our Fit in 30 Challenge which you can do at home or in the gym, with basic equipment meaning you can adjust it to fit your fitness level. The best thing about it? Once you’re done, you can start all over again making it more difficult as you go.

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