One of the most popular New Year’s Resolutions is to get “and stay” fit (regardless of which component or components of fitness one is referring to). People join gyms, buy expensive training clothes and shoes and give up pizza and cake (although I think that giving up pizza and cake is akin to self-torture). Fast forward to the middle of February and you decide to reward yourself with one slice of pizza. That slice of pizza somehow magically turns into an entire family sized pizza, 2 cakes, 4 packs of tortilla chips and an extra large tub of ice cream. So much for that resolution — you’ll try again next year!

Getting motivated to start to change your life for the fitter/healthier is always difficult, but it can be wrapped in any number of excuses; the new year, fitting into a dress/suit for a wedding, looking good for one’s birthday, revenge-body… the list goes on. The real challenge is in staying motivated. Sticking with it is where real, lasting change comes from. So how do you get and stay motivated?

The first thing to do is to pick a reason — as shown above, it doesn’t even have to be a good one. Any reason will do. Once you’ve done that, forget the expensive clothes and shoes. When exercising, comfort is very important. If your feet hurt after 2 minutes of jogging, it is very hard to keep jogging. If you can’t move into and out of exercise movements, you won’t maximise your results and it is easy to get demotivated if you don’t see/feel results.

Next thing to do is find the exercise approach that fits you. Some people love to run and some people love to lift the heaviest weight possible, while others love yoga. There are so many ways to exercise that disliking one thing does not mean you have to give up on exercise altogether.

Make small changes to your diet instead of making big, drastic ones. It’s easier for the body (and therefore, the mind) to adjust to smaller changes gradually and therefore easier to stick to it. Try a 2 week schedule for each new change.

Take note of your progress. Every two weeks, as you make a small lifestyle change, take note of something(s) that help you see how you are moving forward. Check your weight, check your waistline, see how far or fast you can run, see how much you can lift, check to see if you’ve improved in that movement (pushups, for e.g.) that’s been giving you so much trouble, take selfies, look at yourself in a mirror… whatever it takes to let you see and feel the results of your hard work. If you know you’re getting better, it makes you want to keep working.

Finally, if you can afford it, hire a trainer (shameless plug here). Added to the advantage of spending your money up front and not wanting it to go to waste (similar to joining a gym), a good trainer will always check on you, call you, text you, show up at your door or do whatever he/she can, to try to keep you on track for as long as possible.

Now that you have the tools to work with, I wish you the best of luck to finding the fitter, healthier you. May your road to continued greatness be successful. 🙂