You made a New Year’s resolution to get in shape. Now what?

Studies show less than half of all people actually keep their New Year’s resolutions after six months, so your odds for realizing your health and fitness goals by June of next year might be 50-50 at best.  So the challenge is, how do you make sure you are in the right 50%?

Maintaining the motivation to make your New Year’s health and fitness resolution a reality is just as important as the diet and exercise required to achieve it. To that end, we asked a few members of the 92Y May Center for Health, Fitness & Sport what motivates them to work out.  Perhaps what they have to say can help you achieve your fitness goals in 2011:

“I know how I feel when I don’t work out and I don’t like that feeling,” Devin McLean told us. Devin, who works out four times a week, explained: “Working out clears my mind and gives me the energy I need to get through the day.  Feeling good is my motivation.”

Marie Santiago is in the gym three to four times a week. What keeps her coming back? “Good classes with great instructors and gym-mates I’ve built friendships with over time also keep me coming back. Besides,” she continued, “exercise has become my anti-aging medicine.”

While these members exhibit an exemplary level of dedication to their workouts, you can make progress toward your fitness goals without exercising every day.  “The key is to establish a reasonable goal for you to reach and to break that goal into smaller sets of attainable objectives,” says David Simmons, Fitness Coordinator at the May Center.  Simmons explains: “Let’s say your goal is to get in shape by exercising three or four times per week.  “This means all you need to do is to get in the gym 12-16 times for every 30 days in a given month.” While establishing a days-per-month objective makes your fitness goal appear easier to attain, Simmons warns against front-loading or otherwise cramming your workout days together in order to meet your objective for the month.  You should spread your target workout days over a reasonable monthly timeframe to realize the most effective results, which should roughly translate into three workout days per week.

What motivates you to reach your fitness goals? Let us know in the comments! 

[Health & Fitness on the 92Y Blog]

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