Health & Fitness
Keeping Your New Year’s Resolutions
By Cheryl Alker
When the clock struck midnight and we launched ourselves into 2012, did you make a New Year’s Resolution? Well if you are like most Americans, approximately 88 percent, you will have made at least one, and the majority of that 88 percent will be a resolution related to health and fitness. So whether it is a promise to eat healthier, exercise more or lose weight. How do you keep your promise in 2012?
We live in a throw-away society and even our resolutions, I am afraid, are not immune. However, especially for promises that include improving our health it is in our best interest to not take them lightly.
Below is the Around Wellington’s Guide to helping you achieve your health and fitness goals this year:-
· Choose an obtainable goal. Resolving to look like the model on the cover of your health and fitness magazine is not realistic for the majority of us, but promising to include daily physical activity in our lives is very possible.
· Avoid choosing a resolution that you’ve been unsuccessful at achieving year after year. This will only set you up for failure, frustration and disappointment. If the promise, however, is always “to lose weight” or to “get fitter” analyze how you went about losing weight or getting fitter in past years. Try a different approach or alter the goals set, instead of stating that you are going to lose 30 pounds, try promising to eat healthier. If your fitness campaign never lasted past January 30th find an activity that you enjoy and that does not become a chore. Joining a gym is not the only answer to improving fitness.
· Create a game plan. Willpower alone is not enough; willpower is for short term success, long term success is only achieved by planning, discipline and finding ways to motivate yourself every day. At the beginning of January, write a comprehensive plan. All successful businesses start with a business plan that describes their mission and specifies how they will achieve it. Write your own personal plan and you will be more likely to succeed as well.
· Make it less intimidating. Rather than one big end goal, dissect it into smaller pieces. Checking off milestones along the way will reinforce positive behavior so that the end result is achieved and if it is not, you will still be able to see all the positive changes you have made instead of feeling like a failure.
· Have someone to be accountable to. Share your resolution with someone, whether it is a fitness professional a family member or friend. A gentle reminder will help keep you on track, however set limits to their feedback as this could backfire and be a source of irritation.
· Reward yourself. Once you have achieved each milestone you have set along the way to your ultimate goal, treat yourself. Be careful of the reward though, losing 5 pounds will not be helped by a visit to your favorite bakery! Make sure the treat is non-food related; book a personal training session, a massage or reflexology treatment.
· Seek professional advice and assistance. Everyone needs help and sometimes a friend or workout buddy is simply not enough. When it comes to fitness, research studies have shown that assistance from a fitness professional greatly improves success rates.
· Keep a positive attitude. Seeing a fitness regime as a punishment for bad eating, an obligation, time consuming, impossible to sustain over a long period of time or just plain boring is not a recipe for success. Try a different perspective and look at your exercise plan as a break from a stressful workday, a way to boost energy and mood, the only time you will have to yourself all day, a chance to get totally physical and let your mind rest, a way to improve your quality of life immediately.
Good Luck and Happy New Year!
Cheryl Alker specializes in flexibility training, facial exercises and postural alignment. Her 30 year career started as a group fitness and personal trainer, she has lectured and directed fitness training programs in both Europe and the USA and was an advisor for a Governmental health promotion program. Alker and her company Stretch Results International continues to work with a select clientele from a base in Palm Beach County, Florida, certifying health professionals in her results based stretching program, educating consumers through public speaking and offering consultation to clients who wish to lose their muscular pain and gain flexibility to achieve full and active lifestyles. Alker has just released a DVD for back pain sufferers. For more information about professional continuing education and consultation options, e:books or DVD’s please call Cheryl on 561 889 3738 or visit www.stretchresults.com.
This information is solely for informational purposes. IT IS NOT INTENDED TO PROVIDE MEDICAL ADVICE. Neither the Editors of Around Wellington. Stretch Results International, the author nor publisher take responsibility for any possible consequences from any treatment, procedure, exercise, dietary modification, action or application of medication which results from reading or following the information contained in this information. The publication of this information does not constitute the practice of medicine, and this information does not replace the advice of your physician or other health care provider. Before undertaking any course of treatment, the reader must seek the advice of their physician or other health care provider.