How many times have you stopped and started an exercise program or schedule? It’s the beginning of a new year and with it often comes the setting of New Year’s resolutions. Many times these resolutions include some type of fitness and exercise goal. Setting the goal is one thing, but actually taking action and starting the fitness or exercise program can be challenging. Then staying motivated and keeping up with it can be another challenge. So how do we set ourselves up for success?
Setting Your Goal
Make your goal realistic. If you haven’t been exercising and you want to start, look at your personality and decide what would best support you. Do you prefer the comfort of your home and not being around others? If so, there are many online exercise classes on Youtube. You can take anything from spin, yoga, weight training, HIIT workouts and more. Basically anything you want, you can find. Also look into the many fitness and exercise apps offered.
Maybe you prefer being out in nature? If so, look into your area and check out the skiing, hikes, walks, etc., where you have the opportunity to move your body while enjoying nature at the same time. If you would rather be social while you exercise and are out in nature, you can find different meetup groups to do these things with other people who have the same interest.
If you need more structure, consider looking into fitness apps that provide you with training programs and help you track your progress. Other times, you might do your best in groups and classes that are lead, so look into classes offered at your local YMCA, YWCA, fitness gyms, and yoga studios.
Decide what your goal is. Write it down. Write down why it is important to you to achieve this goal. Are you doing it to create healthier habits, have more energy, to have a challenge, feel more fit, manage your weight, to feel better overall? Answer the questions – How will your life be different by achieving this? How will you feel, look, dress? What activities will you be able to do? If you don’t reach this goal, how will you feel? How might it affect your life?
Choose the forms of exercise you want, where, and how you want to do it, then GET STARTED!
Starting
We have all done it and know that starting can be the hardest thing. I call this “Busting through the Crust.” You know that really good fresh baked bread that is hard and a bit crunchy on the outside, but soft on the inside? We have to get through that hard crunchy bit first, and once through, you get to enjoy the soft yummy part.
Finding a form of exercise that brings you joy, makes you feel good and gets your body moving makes starting a lot easier. And honestly, you just have to start. The first couple or even few times might have you wondering what the heck you have gotten yourself into…and in those moments you have to remember what your goal is, and why you are doing it. Look at those often.
Staying Motivated
Then you have to stay motivated. Recently I went to swim laps in the ocean at a place called Baby Beach. It’s called this because it is protected by a reef, making it a calm area to swim and play, so you don’t have to worry about big waves or crazy riptides. It’s probably about the length of a football field, and at one end it opens up to the ocean. The other day when I was swimming, the current was flowing pretty strongly toward this open area. I would swim down to the open area, turn around and swim back the other way. I had my eyes set on a spot on the reef that was sticking out, and as I swam, I could see that I was either swimming in place, or actually being pushed backwards. I increased the intensity of my stroke, as well as my stroke rate, to try and get past this spot. Nothing was working. I almost gave up, but all of a sudden the current shifted slightly, and I literally sailed past that spot. It was effortless, smooth and fun.
How often do we feel we are working so hard and we don’t see any changes? We start to let our mind convince us that all this work is for nothing. We’re tired and just about to throw in the towel to give up, but then it happens, the current shifts and we are swimming with it effortlessly, reaching our goal. Remember, the moment you think there is no possible way you could do any more and you want to give up, is when you are most likely just a few steps, strokes, paddles, peddles, yoga poses away from reaching your goal.
Remember why you have set your goal. Get started! Bust through that crust. Stick with it, and swim with the current. You’ve got this! Happy 2023!
Hannah Freed lives in Maui, Hawaii with her two sons. Check out her website at koruintegration.com