4 Motivation Tips to Get You over the Fitness Cliff

Click here to get this post in PDF

th, ominously known as the Fitness Cliff, is gaining attention with health professionals and fitness brands alike. Gold’s Gym even released a statement stating, “What we see from proprietary research is that Friday, February 9th is the Fitness Cliff — the day when New Year’s Resolutions go astray, gym check-ins begin to steadily decline and members begin to lose focus on their goals.”

There is a long list of common reasons why people remain unable to stick to their goals. Impatience is usually at the top of this list as many people do not truly understand that weight loss and fitness improvements take time – usually a minimum of three months before results are noticeable. Lack of support (both mentally and socially) is also a big reason for many. Improper tracking, complicated goals, injury, and/or lack of proper fitness and nutrition knowledge can also lead you over the fitness cliff’s edge.

But rather than focus on all the reasons why we might fail, here are four great practices to help us succeed!

Piggybacking

We all have daily practices – whether it be brushing our teeth or driving to work – that we just do without thinking about it. They are consistent daily habits and can be used as great support mechanisms to continue your New Year’s fitness goals. For instance, if your goal is to improve your diet through specific supplements, put them next to your toothbrush so that every time you reach for it, your supplements are ready to go. If you love coffee, try turning that habit into a reward and only allowing yourself a cup of joe after a 15-30 min exercise routine. (Most people only need that much to sustain proper fitness!) Even if it’s just a stretching routine, make sure you piggyback with a morning habit.

Overdo Your Daily Reminders

This might seem like a no-brainer, but simply writing down goals and reminding yourself of them daily is a practice few people are able to sustain. If this is an issue, go overboard with your reminders. First, write them down on a whiteboard and position it somewhere obvious, but different before bed each night. Put it in your bathroom on Monday, move it to your kitchen on Tuesday, your car on Wednesday, and elsewhere Thursday thru Sunday. Moving it around will break the monotony of seeing something in the same place every day and glossing over it. Also, try setting goal reminders on your phone at different times of the day on different days. Ensure that no day is the same and your reminders will have meaning every time they pop up.

Relentlessly Measure Your Progress

Noticeable weight loss won’t happen overnight or even a week. In fact, healthy weight loss (1-2 lbs per week for most) is achieved over months. Noticeable fitness gain is the same – it might take 6 months to take 30 seconds off your mile time or improve your resting heart rate. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t track these statistics daily in order to gain valuable insights around fitness, nutrition, and hydration. Maybe you won’t eat another cheeseburger this week if you notice that last night’s McDonalds run made you two lbs heavier this morning. Or perhaps you see that heart rate running a little higher on the treadmill because you haven’t been drinking enough water lately. Whatever your goal, measure your progress daily and take a hard look at what you are (or are not) putting into your body that is helping you achieve your goals.

Don’t Break the Chain of Success

Some endurance athletes will argue that quitting is contagious. If you quit during a tough race, it’s easier to convince yourself that it’s okay to quit during another tough race, and then another, and then another, until the only races you’re completing are those where your body feels perfect – which almost never happens. The point is that you really don’t want to call it quits ever – or break the success chain – as it will ultimately lead to more of the same. When that alarm goes off at 6 AM, get up and out of bed.

To help avoid even the slightest misstep in your fitness routine, try applying a methodology made popular by comedian Jerry Seinfeld. In order to improve his jokes consistently, Jerry recommends writing every day. After each day of writing, he marks the day off with a big X on his calendar. His goal is to never break the chain of X’s, or in this case, success, and his track record has proven successful as he’s remained a top comedian for over 30 years!

Train your body to remember how good it feels to complete that AM workout; not how good it feels to sleep in until 7 AM. If that’s what you really wanted, then you never would’ve made the resolution to get up early in the first place. Mark each day you complete a task that gets you closer to your goal, mark it off with an X and try to never break the chain.

The post 4 Motivation Tips to Get You over the Fitness Cliff appeared first on GetVi.