Whether you’re a fitness beginner or a fitness fanatic, you’ll most likely have a goal in mind; the reason why you’re willing to push yourself outside of your comfort zone.
But sometimes, life gets busy, and we let our fitness goals fall to the wayside to focus on other ‘more important’ things. Don’t beat yourself up… we all do it!
So, when it’s time to start fresh again, here are a few key steps that you can put in place to ensure you can reach and maintain your fitness goals.
#1 - Make a Plan (& Stick to It)
This is particularly important if you’re someone who already leads an extremely busy lifestyle. You schedule dates with your family and friends, so why not schedule a date with your fitness goals?
Plan your week in advance by nailing down when you will train, who you’ll train with and what you’ll train. Write it down! Get your workout clothes ready each night, and stick to your plan.
#2 - Enlist Support
Whether you have a training buddy, or a friend who may not be able to train with you, but is willing to keep you accountable to your fitness goals; enlist their help!
Be open and honest about your fitness goals, and the timeframe you’d like to achieve them in. Before long, you’ll find they become the little voice in your head at 5am when you really just want to hit snooze on your Friday morning workout.
However, with this being said, if you don’t have any fitness friends, don’t be afraid to start alone! There are tons of fitness apps out there that you can use to keep yourself accountable to your goals.
#3 - Incorporate Resistance Based Training
If your goal is fat loss, don’t be tempted to dig straight into a zillion hours of cardio. While cardio is excellent for heart health, it shouldn’t be the sole focus of your exercise regime.
Lifting weights will not only help you become fitter and stronger, it will also put your body in a calorie burning state, long after your workout is over.
The best part is, you don’t have to absolutely kill yourself on every workout to know weight training is working.
#4 - Don’t Forget About Nutrition
Ever heard the expression, ‘You can’t out train a bad diet’... well, if you’re anything like the rest of us, you’ve probably tried to.
Nutrition is arguably equally, if not more, as important as exercise, in reaching and maintaining your fitness goals.
Eating adequate protein, drinking lots of water, and tracking your calories and macros will help you to keep your nutrition on point, and fuel your body for all the training you’re doing.
#5 - Build a Life You Love
It may sound cheesy, but if you don’t build a fitness regime that is going to work for you and your goals, you won’t be able to maintain the grind you need to reach them.
If you’re only just beginning, try out different types of training and different exercises, to see which ones you like the most. Don’t listen to what others tell you. Everybody is different, and your body may thrive under different training to theirs.
By focusing on exercises you love, your fitness regime can be really enjoyable, rather than just another chore you have to tick off.
To Sum It Up…
Reaching and maintaining your fitness goals does require consistency, dedication and a lot of patience. You have to be willing to work!
But if you enlist these five steps, you’ll make your fitness journey a lot easier and more enjoyable!