Hardest task of the year: sticking to your New Year’s resolution. There’s all this hype in the beginning of the month, but then it slowly starts to fade out. Womensfitness.org wants to focus on how you won’t fail to get the results you’ve always wanted. Check out our fool-proof, no fail New Year’s Resolution checklist.
First, write your goals down. Before you start anything, write your goals down. Whether it’s a jean size, a certain number of lbs, or body fat percentage, write it down. It’s also important to give yourself a goal date, so if you start falling off track, you’ll see that date and remember why you started and what you’re aiming for. It’s also a great measure if you need to push yourself a little harder!

Second, make mini goals in the form of a checklist. Maybe break your big goal down into weeks and check off each time that you’ve hit your mini goal that’s getting you toward your New Year’s resolution. Maybe even add certain workouts, classes, personal or group trainings, muscle groups or mile runs to your checklist!

Third, grab a friend to workout with you. There’s nothing better than the moment you want to quit and you look over at your friend. She keeps going, so you do, too. Working out with a buddy makes it more fun and helps to keep your motivation high.

Next, clean out your refrigerator! Regardless of what your specific goal might be, we could all use a fresh start in our kitchen. Throw away any tempting foods that may take away from your New Year’s resolution! Also, especially if you have difficulty with portion control, go through your kitchen and pre-portion certain food items. For example, take some small zip-lock bags and count out portions for snacks, like pretzels or almonds and even for cereals.

Lastly, plan ahead! We cannot stress this enough. Oftentimes if you don’t plan ahead, the business of life gets in the way, and your goals get put on the backburner. However, if you make exercise and eating healthy major priorities and you plan ahead, you’ll be able to accomplish your goals without thinking twice. For eating healthy, plan your meals and snacks for the week. Then, make a grocery list for the items you’ll need, so you don’t mindlessly snack on something you didn’t intend to snack on. Also, plan your workouts. Try alternating every other day for upper and lower body strength training and add some cardio workouts, too. Try some interval cardio or functional training workouts. It will rev your metabolism and get your heart pumping!

Photo courtesy of volunteercalgary.com