Health & Wellness

You Resolved To Be More Fit In 2020: Now Here’s How To Make It Stick

When you made that commitment in the euphoria of the New Year’s Eve countdown, you may not have thought about how hard it was going to be to make it happen—and keep making it happen. Whether your 2020 goal is to amp up your gym routine, focus on eating healthier, drink more water or just generally cut down on things that are not good for you, it’s easy to let your motivation wane as time bears on. The good news? You know what you want, and you have a clean slate this year to drop old habits and develop new ones. Now you need a game plan.

Through teaching at Barry’s Bootcamp and through my online health coaching, I spend most of my days helping people achieve weight loss, better eating habits and all-around healthier body composition goals. When fatigue sets in, the key is helping clients to love their bodies and better understand themselves.

Whether you’re feeling too lazy to go to the gym or craving something unhealthy, I help clients understand the “why”—why they crave certain things and how to manage those cravings, why they feel a slump in that crucial 20 minutes before they have to pack their gym bags. When you know why, you know how to make behavioural changes to avoid the negative outcome and show up for yourself. Here are some simple steps to help you understand your “why” and respond to it in a healthier way.

Research shows that when you write things down, you are more likely to act on them. Writing down your goals with specific details will help your goals come to fruition. So grab a pen and start writing a letter to yourself. Describe exactly how you want to feel/look and exactly what you need to do to get there.

The next step is to consider what your goals are and which ones are most important to tackle first. If you try to accomplish everything, you’ll probably end up getting overwhelmed and doing nothing. The trick is triage: pick the most important goal, or the most important step in that goal, and focus on that first.

Put it in your calendar. If you are not a self-motivator, pick a fitness class on a certain day at a certain time and PUT IT IN YOUR CALENDAR. With a reminder! Invite friends to join you so you have more accountability. For example, make Monday your cardio day and Sunday night your yoga night for at least a month. Don’t negotiate with yourself; don’t say “Oh, I can skip Monday, I’ll make it up Tuesday.”

Make your health your first priority. Before scheduling meetings, dates or family time, schedule your weekly workouts that are non-negotiable and perhaps even pay for exercise classes in advance so you have an extra incentive not cancel them last-minute.

There’s nothing like a support team. The reason why my clients have success during my three-month transformational health coaching program is because I hold them accountable for their actions. So find a friend that’s on the same page as you, book in workouts together, learn how to meditate and take yoga classes, motivate each other and enjoy the company!

Just like one workout won’t make your dream body, one cheat day or bad week is not going to break it. It’s okay to have days where you don’t have it together and you just really deserve to treat yourself. It’s also okay to not feel well and take some time off of working out—it doesn’t mean you’re failing, it just means you are regenerating. Start fresh the next day, pick yourself back up and tell yourself it’s fine. Nobody is perfect.

My number one rule is have fun! Life is too short not to enjoy it. If yoga’s not your jam, cool. There’s nothing wrong with that. Find a workout that you enjoy, even if it takes time and some trial and error. Put yourself out there! Try that weird dance group thing you think looks funny every time you pass by, or that intense class you think only super fit people go to (Guess what? They didn't all start super fit, so maybe there’s something to it). Just remember, if you find “your thing,” it’ll be easy to get obsessed with it and keep doing it!

Karina Vee is a celebrity trainer, health coach/nutritionist and a wellness guru. Follow her wellness journey through her blog www.karinav.com & her Instagram @karinaveee. Check out her YouTube channel here.