How to stick to your fitness goals

When was the last time you set an exercise or weight loss goal?  An even more important question is ....when was the last time you reached an exercise or weight loss goal?

If you are like alot of us, you set those kinds of goals all the time.  Just the idea of accomplishing something gets us motivated, but I think what we're imagining is what we'll look like or feel like at the end of all this hard work - not how the hard work is going to feel.

That's the not-so-fun part.  Even more not fun is setting the same goals over and over and never reaching them.

The key to sticking with your exercise goals and actually reaching them involves the most complex, often crazient, part of your being ...your mind.  The mind is hard to wrangle at times, but you can put some mental strategies in place to help you stay on track.

1. MOMENTUM:  Momentum is a key part of consistent exercise.  It's normal to have those weeks when everything goes right ...you do all your workouts, eat properly and start to think, "I can totally do this!"  Then "it" happens.  "It" might be a holiday, a vacation, an illness ....something that throws you off your game.  Getting back is always tough, partly because you've lost that momentum.  So getting moving again is the only way to get your momentum going.  Think of yourself like a stalled car - once you start pushing it, it'll pick up speed and you won't have to work hard to keep it moving.

2.  STAY IN THE MOMENT:  Picture this - you're at a party and you've promised yourself you won't attack the buffet like a starving lunatic.  Then you see a giant platter of the prettiest, most perfect cubes of cheese you've ever encountered.  Several hours later, feeling your cheese hangover begin, you vow to make up for it tomorrow with a two-hour workout.

There are a couple problems with this approach ....first, you can't "un-eat" what you ate the night before and second, killing yourself with a workout is not a great solution since it could lead to you hating exercise.

If you're busy living in yesterday's mistakes, many of your decisions will be based on guilt and shame rather than what you genuinely want (and need) to do to reach your goals.  True change comes from daily choices and being mindful and basing your choices on what you need now (instead of what you did or didn't do yesterday).  This will make your exercise life much more tolerable.

3.  GET INSPIRED:  A couple times a week my 82-year old mother goes to the pool and does water aerobics.  She also just finished digging all her yard waste into her vegetable garden to compost over winter.  She's a great inspiration to me ....if she can exercise, there's definitely no good reason I can't do my workout either.  So, what or who inspires you?  Is it the older man you see walking every day, rain or shine?  Or maybe a friend training for her first marathon.  The next time you're thinking of skipping your workout, think of the person who inspires you ....or think of my Mom.  If she can exercise, so can you.

4.  GET BACK TO THE BASICS:  Sometimes we do very well on our exercise programs for months.  Then the holidays hit and, before we know it, our intense workouts are out the window.  We even admit to actually scrubbing our bathroom floors with a toothbrush to avoid working out.  Happened to you?  To get back into some kind of routine, simply your workouts - making them short, accessible and much less complicated than before.  Before you know it, you'll be going strong and ready to add more complexity to your workouts.   Remember ....simplify!

5.  GET TO KNOW YOURSELF:  If you've never been much of an exerciser or athlete, now is the time to discover a few new things about yourself.  Think of this as a learning period.  If you've fallen off track because you're completely bored with your routine, you've just learning something important about yourself.  Spend some time asking and answering these questions:

• What do you like about your workouts?
• What do you hate about your workouts?
• What's your least favourite exercise or activity?
• When do you most enjoy exercise?
• If you could choose any physical activity to do, what would it be?
• Do you enjoy working out with others or alone?

Now take the answers to those questions and look at your workout routine.  Does it include activities you enjoy?  Is your schedule in line with your body clock (or as close as you can get)?  What could you do to make your workouts fit you better?  Make a list of ideas and choose one to implement today.  There's no right way to exercise.

Staying on track with your exercise program probably requires more mental work than physical work.  It means checking in with yourself to see how you're doing, how the routine is working and making whatever changes necessary to keep you moving.  It means finding inspiration wherever you can and being willing to try new ideas if the old ones aren't working.  Most of all, it means not giving up.

If you've got a minute (actually 3 minutes), you might want to watch this very inspirational video clip.  Certainly an inspiration to many of us who still keep going to the rink....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REynXnZAITk&noredirect=1