A New Year brings a fresh slate, and a chance to change a “bad” habit into something positive. One of those common New Year resolutions is to get healthier and exercise more often. But you know and I know it, those rarely make it past the first couple of weeks in January. Read on as to why work resolutions don’t work and how to overcome that failure.
You hear it at least a handful of times shortly after celebrating the Yew Year, “So, what are your New Year resolutions?” You say that you’re planning to be a better version of yourself. A version that will make an effort to go to the gym more.
Friends and family accept your answer and then quickly drown you in their own resolutions related to working out.
But when you actually sit down to think about it, you realize you make the same unfulfilled promise every year without following through. Why is that?
Why Workout Resolutions Don’t Work
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New Year’s resolutions are essentially a promise you make to yourself to start off a new year. They are usually related to improving your health, lifestyle, or mental well-being somehow. Body improvement-focused resolutions have particularly become somewhat of a tradition in the last few years.
According to a Time magazine article, the infamous exercise resolutions seemed to have originally gained popularity in society after a famous bodybuilder, Abbye Stockton, popularized women’s weightlifting in the 1920s.
The idea of women being physically fit started to become more popular and widely accepted after that event. Trend really took off in the 60s and 70s and started finding its way into new year’s resolutions.
The fact that working out is a popular recurring resolution means they might not be the most successful. You try and try, every year you think to yourself, this is the year I work out more.
Yet before you realize it, it’s July, you haven’t followed through with your workout resolutions. All those plans for weight loss or workout goals were just that plans, and you ultimately give up.
You are not the only one – which begs the question of why it’s so difficult to push through for most. The reason is likely due to many different factors, but there are actually plenty of ways to overcome them.
Accept That It Isn’t Easy
Getting into shape takes weeks, months, and sometimes even years. This may be disheartening if you just added getting fit to your list of resolutions.
According to the CDC, a healthy weight loss average is about one to two pounds per week. That means if aiming for a 30-pound loss, that could take up to 30 weeks (more than half a year).
That’s also only without having a cheat week or a break!
Plus, what may seem to work for influencers online or others you know, might not work for your specific body. Each body is completely different due to a wide variety of factors.
According to this article, there is even a term for someone who gets a different result than expected: non-responder.
What’s the Point?
Well, health should be a goal for anyone who can make a change. Here’s how you can (and should) make a change in your mindset, method, and reasoning to achieve the workout resolutions and goals you have set for yourself.
Start small and think realistically first. While you might have fifty pounds to lose, this is near impossible in one year.
Set your weight at a quarter of what you initially had in mind. Let the motivation to reach this new, more achievable goal drive you to lose more.
You may be discouraged and less motivated to work out if you don’t have access to a gym, but it’s just as important to have access to fresh, healthy food.
Have a look at your current diet and figure out where you can make small, sustainable changes.
Quitting bad habits cold-turkey will most likely have a negative result, and taking on scary new healthy habits may discourage you altogether.
The key is to start small and build up to a regular and habitual routine.
Stay On Goal
There are ways to trick your brain, and it’s especially helpful when you choose to start or kick a habit.
Following that logic for working out more, try to focus on music or TV when working out and listen to your favorite audiobook when eating a healthy meal.
Not only will you trick yourself into making the activity seem pleasurable, but you might also even be getting two things done at once! Bye-bye boredom, hello free-time!
Make sure you are comfortable in whatever new habit you are participating in.
For example, cooking on a non-stick pan without unhealthy butter or oil. Wearing gym shorts or glasses that fall off while doing a workout might make you walk out of the gym in misery!
Check out how you can get comfortable glasses frames online to avoid workout mishap that derails your motivation!
A Realistic Resolution
Long story short, it’s no new trend to add exercise in our resolutions every new year. But we add the same unachievable workout resolutions every year, and we mostly fail them every year.
The trick is to completely change your mindset, mix things up when working out and prevent any hurdles in your workouts by preparing a comfortable environment.
But mostly, break up your goals into much smaller, more achievable and realistic goals first!