At the start of every year, we get super conscious about our health and make our new year resolution of eating healthy and joining gyms. And guess what, most of us don’t even last the month of January in going back to our old unhealthy habits. But every year we have excuses like not having enough time or the most common of all the excuses “I have to work”. This year, that’s not the case anymore because of the pandemic. Most of us are working from home, so this is the optimum time for starting a fitness routine.
Sparing an hour from the daily exercise may seem like a lot, but it comes to watching another episode on Netflix, that hour seems like nothing. These habits need to be changed ASAP. Make that “As Soon As Possible” this year.
Setting Up Goals
The first thing you need to do even before getting started is to set up your goals. Make small goals and focus on achieving them rather than making goals so big that you get demotivated after some time and eventually give up on them.
Remember, persistence is the key, whether it is a diet plan or a workout. Therefore, do not plan on making big leaps from the get-go. Instead, take small steps and reach your ultimate goal eventually.
How to get started?
Many of us don’t even know how to start. They tire themselves too much on the first day and then miss out on exercise for the whole year. If they are trying to switch to a healthier diet, something similar happens as they start eating food for some time that tastes so bad that they give up the idea of eating healthy.
That’s the wrong approach. First, starting with exercise, do not overdo it at the beginning. Start with as little as 10 pushups a day, 25 sit-ups, and 10 pullups. If this sounds a lot, you can start with even less than this. After a few days, when you get comfortable with that, increase your exercise a bit, but again not too much. Once your body and mind are ready for more, you can make some leaps.
Take a similar approach with a healthy diet too. It is advised that you learn how to make a boring diet taste good. If you take a diet that is more of a punishment, you will soon end up giving up. During the diet, you can give yourself some rewards every now and then by taking cheat days. Yet, do not over exceed taking cheat days as you will not see the results you are hoping for. Keep both things balanced.
What to Follow?
What you watch has effects on what you do and what you think. So, follow relevant content like following fitness blogs or social media and YouTube channels of famous fitness instructors. Also, keep yourself motivated and do not lose sight of your goals.
For motivation, the content you watch or read. So, follow positive people, and in any case, do not lose sight of your goals.
These are the things you should be doing. Also, there are things you should not be doing, as well. These things are:
To Find Excuses
On the list of things, you should not be doing, finding excuses is on top. After some time, most of us start to come up with reasons for missing out on a healthy routine. Such habits are the most dangerous for you because at first, you make excuses and think that it is okay, but often end up giving up on your goals.
So, whatever you do, “Do Not Make Excuses”.
Not Prioritising Your Goals
Your goals should be one of your top priorities. You should know what to prioritize. If you do not set your priorities straight, then your chances of falling short of the goals quadruple. So, keep your fitness dedicated routine, and only miss it in the case of genuine emergencies, not because of some hours of gaming or streaming sessions.
Procrastinating
If you have goals and you really want to achieve them, then procrastinating can be your arch-nemesis. With fitness, it’s always “Now or Never”. If you put off your routine at a later time, you will end up losing a lot of workout sessions, which is definitely not good for you.
Therefore, put a big No to even the thoughts of procrastinating.
