Heart + Soul Fitness: How to keep your New Year’s resolutions on track

As the end of January approaches, many of us may be reflecting on what we’ve achieved so far. To help keep your new year’s intentions on track, we caught up with our Health and Fitness Consultant, Dean Hodgkin, to bring you some motivational tips to help you on your fitness journey.

Always progressing 

Check regularly that what you are doing is moving you closer to your goals, and if it isn’t, you may need to adapt your routine or maybe make your targets a little more achievable. Try to do at least one thing every day towards reaching your goals, and you’ll start to see the rewards in no time.

You can do it

From the outside life will present you with obstacles, which you may have to find ways to go around, under, over or through. However, we also have a tendency to sabotage our progress from the inside with our internal voice which says, ‘You’ll never make it’. To overcome this self-defeating behaviour, firstly, learn to challenge those thoughts, and then replace them with more constructive thoughts. Try creating a mantra which you can repeat to yourself throughout the day, or even when lying in bed at night to support your efforts, such as, ‘I can do it!’

By the yard it’s hard, by the inch it’s a cinch

If you feel overwhelmed by the enormity of your task, remember that small steps will add up to big steps before you know it. Take one day at a time and congratulate yourself after every single workout, healthy meal or early night.

Teamwork

Spending time with positive people, such as friends who support and encourage you, or colleagues who motivate you, can prove invaluable in your desire to level up. Sharing your exercise sessions with someone can be fun and you will inspire each other to keep going.

Cloning

Talking of other people, if you know someone who has already achieved what you are setting out to do, decide if what worked for them will work for you. By adopting their habits, you may save yourself time in trial and error. Not everything that works for others will work for you, though, so it’s important to listen to your body and honour what you’re feeling.

Live and Learn

There will be times when things do not go according to plan and you don’t move on as much as you would like. Instead of being too hard on yourself, accept that ‘life happens’ and don’t let it affect your future progress. If it’s a mistake that’s getting you down, try thinking of it simply as a result you created through a certain action. If you change the action, you will create a new result.

Back to the future

Look forward to next year and imagine yourself reflecting back on this year and feeling proud of all that you have achieved. Doesn’t it feel great?! Aren’t you glad you made that extra effort? Imagine what you look like, what you feel like, and really lean into that positive feeling. Now bring yourself back to the present. Are you ready to really go for it – then let’s do this!