5 Tips to Stay Focused with Your New Year's Exercise Plan

Posted on December 23, 2011 Julie Chang, L.Ac.

2012 is right around the corner, and this is the time when many people think about setting resolutions for the New Year.

Making time for regular exercise is essential to your overall health and fitness plan. But, many people find it difficult to stay on track with their program once the initial enthusiasm of the New Year has faded. Developing an exercise and fitness habit is not an easy thing. If it was, there wouldn’t be so many broken New Year’s resolutions.

So, how can you stay on track in 2012? Here are 5 tips you can take to improve your chances of success.

1. Choose an exercise you enjoy

This seems obvious, but you may be so locked on losing those extra pounds that you overlook the fact that it needs to be done consistently in order to achieve the results you’re striving for. The only way you will be able to stick with any exercise regime is to do something you enjoy or can learn to enjoy. Have an open mind and try different activities. When you choose an exercise you enjoy, it won’t feel so much like hard work.. It doesn’t matter what type of exercise you do, as long as you do it consistently.

2. Find an exercise partner

It’s easier to skip an exercise session when the only one you’re accountable to is yourself. But when you know your friend is waiting for you, there’s little chance you’ll flake out and use the “I’m too busy or tired” excuse. Having a commitment to others not only makes us more likely to stick with it, it also makes it much more fun.

3. Go at your own pace

Start small. If you haven’t exercised regularly for a long time, it would be foolhardy to start by trying an hour of brisk jogging. Instead, start with 20 minutes of walking and work up from there.

Remember, the benefits of exercise come from following a consistent program. Start at a pace that is a little challenging, but not so much that you dread doing the same thing again tomorrow. Exercise shouldn’t be a form of punishment or torture, it should leave you feeling pleasantly tired and invigorated.

4. Set goals for your program

Set a reward and celebrate the achievement of your goals. Then keep your promise to yourself and indulge in your reward. Doing so will help maintain the momentum to keep exercising. Once you’ve achieved each goal, set your sights slightly higher and begin again. This is the only way to keep progressing.

The process of setting goals and achieving them, not only gives you a meaningful path of progress, it helps build your confidence and self esteem, as you begin to see that you can achieve things you may not have thought possible with consistent, disciplined effort.

5. Write it down.

Prioritize your workouts as you would any other meeting or appointment and write them down in your calendar, or make your own workout log. Having a written schedule is one of the best ways to keep the guesswork out of what we’re going to do that day and holds us visibly accountable. Furthermore, by keeping a log of what we’ve done (or haven’t), we can track progress or make up for weeks where we didn’t do as much as planned.

Here’s to a happy and healthy 2012 for all of us!