Tips for Sticking to Your New Year’s Fitness Routine

They say it only takes 28 days to form a new habit, which means if you can get to the end of January going to the gym everyday, you’re pretty much on course to have it as part of your daily routine.

And if January’s been a bit tricky, February - with only 28 days in - is the perfect month to get your resolutions back in order!

To help keep your momentum, here’s some tips to get you fitness-focused....

Join a community

 

Whether it’s losing weight, building muscle or just building up fitness, find a group who have the same goal. Facebook is great for this kind of thing, and once you find the community, you can then share all the highs and lows of reaching your goals. By building friendships in the group, you will be far more motivated than if you were on your own. And while it's good to have as much kit as possible, don't forget your gym towel - you'll thank us for it!

Have your inspiration around you

 

Whether it’s a picture of your goal body, or an inspirational quote, or just simply your target weight - keep it at hand so you can see it throughout the day. On your fridge door, in your wallet, stuck on the mirror, next to your gym ball - these little reminders will be very effective in keeping your mind focused.

Don’t shop when you’re hungry

 

Arriving at the supermarket hungry is a disaster waiting to happen. In that state, you can somehow convince yourself that filling your trolley with crisps, doughnuts and sausage rolls is OK. Well, sadly, it’s not OK, you’ll only feel rotten afterwards and totally unmotivated to work out.

Have your food ready to go

 

If you can pre-prep all your meals for the week, the temptation to stray and eat off-plan is less. Making up big stews, stir fries, lentil curries and healthy one-pot meals and dividing them up over the week is well recommended. That way you will always have a meal to eat and won’t have the chance to pick at bread, sweets and other ‘forbidden’ food!

Have a cheat day

 

Ideally, we should be chewing on kale and mung beans on our yoga mat forever, but this is real life, and psychologically, it’s a good thing to have the odd cheat day. By looking forward to pizza, chips and chocolate and forgetting about the bathroom scales once a week or once a fortnight, you are more likely to take care of your diet plan in between.

Create a plan

 

Work out the days where you can fit in some exercise - and avoid the days when you’re struggling to fit everything in. Make sure you have a plan on what to do on those days and only bother doing what you enjoy - a long walk, a spinning class, a jog. This way, you know what to do and when, which makes it a lot easier to prepare. Write down your schedule in an exercise book to keep organised. And a sports phone armband is essential.

Of course, after a while of doing this, you do see the results - your clothes are looser, your muscles are defined, you’re sleeping better and feeling less sluggish through the day. All these give you that kick to get out and carry on working out.

So how are you keeping motivated? Tell us about your fitness journey on our Facebook, Twitter or Instagram pages!