Make Your Fitness Goals Stick in 2011 - Why You Keep Failing

The count down to the New Year has begun.  2011 already?!  You've put on a few pounds - hey, it's the Holidays.  Besides, you've set your New Year's Resolution and 2011 will be the year that you get in the best shape of your life.  In fact it's the same resolution that you had set for yourself in 2010, 2009, and now that you've thought about it, the 3 years before that. It's mid-December and you have 2 more weeks of binge eating before you have to assess and resolve the damage. How about doing it different this year?

Why is overindulgence always the theme for this time of year?  Why do we work out and eat clean all year long only to let things go as soon as the first flurries start to fall?  Sure, celebrating is fun.  Sure, you deserve it.  But why over do it? It will only make your fitness and wellness resolutions that much harder to kick-start.
Every year you set high hopes - very high hopes, might I add- that you will turn your life around in a matter of months, lose weight, get fit, ripped and pumped, take up a new sport, and perhaps even become an ultra marathoner.  Hey, I am the ultimate over achiever, but what I can say is this: be realistic! The more realistic your goals are, the the more likely you are to accomplish them.
So here are some tips that you can use to rework your goals.  After all, it takes months (if not years) to learn a new sport or become an ultra marathoner.

1. Make sure your goals are attainable.  Analyze all surrounding life factors and make sure your goals are actually doable.
2. Quantify your goals.  Don't just decide that you will lose weight. Set a goal to lose 12 pounds, for example.
3. Give yourself a realistic deadline.  For example, by the end of March you plan to lose 6 of those 12 pounds and by the end of April you plan to lose another 2 pounds.
4. Make sure your goals are safe.  Don't risk your health by starving yourself, taking  pills, or going on a fad diet.  If it's too good to be true, it is! Permanent results come only from permanent life style changes.
5. Educate yourself. Using a meal or exercise plan that you found online is not customized to your needs.

Besides, you could risk injuring yourself doing exercises that were not intended for you.  Hire a certified trainer and nutritional consultant who will provide you with a wealth of fitness information and properly introduce you to a sustainable, life-lasting wellness regimen.
Here's to the happier, fitter 2011-version of you.  Cheers!

Sherry Shaban BSc, CAT(C), CSCS