In theory, a New Year's resolution is a great idea. January is as good a time as any to reevaluate and prioritize and make changes.
In practice, many ambitious fitness goals made on Jan 1. dissolve into self-defeating thinking and disappointment. But that doesn't mean that all New Year's resolution (or, really, resolving to make changes at point in time throughout the year) need to end in frustration and failure. The trick is making the right one.
Before you can even get that far, says Jessica Matthews, senior health and fitness expert for the American Council on Exercise and assistant professor of health and exercise science at Miramar College in San Diego, Calif., you need to take a long, hard look at where you currently stand on the fitness spectrum.
"Honestly acknowledge where you are currently in terms of your health and fitness level," she tells HuffPost in an email. "While that spirit behind setting a New Year's resolution is to make positive change to one's health and fitness, so often people establish goals without being realistic about where they are starting from. Even if perhaps your current level of fitness is not where you want it to be, being honest with yourself about where you are presently and using that information as a baseline from which to work will help you to establish realistic, attainable goals for the new year."
We asked a handful of fitness experts to share some ideas for realistic resolutions that will make a difference without feeling like a total overhaul. Here are a few of our favorite responses.
--Kristin McGee, celebrity yoga and Pilates instructor
--Collette Stohler, fitness expert, author of The Intuitive Athlete and HuffPost blogger
--Matthews
--Marc Perry, CSCS, ACE-CPT, CEO of BuiltLean
It may sound silly, but this morning practice has kept me laser-focused on my goals and on what I want to accomplish each day. My only regret is not beginning a daily journaling practice earlier in life!"
--Ben Greenfield, fitness and triathlon expert, Get-Fit Guy podcast host
--Rebecca Mahoney, certified personal trainer and HuffPost blogger
From a physiology standpoint, there are a lot of factors that go into actually changing your body weight. We are not as simple as cars with a gas in/miles out function. People can get hung up on reducing calories by a very specific amount and not get the predicted weight-loss outcomes that they want. I encourage people to create goals that they can definitely accomplish, like: 'Today I will go to the gym and I'll try hard to do exercises appropriately and with effort' or 'The next meal I eat will be made up from healthy food choices and the portions will be appropriate.' [Those are steps] toward reaching a goal of losing 5 pounds in 30 days. We have to be very clear about factors that we can control and factors that we can't control."
--Pat Davidson, Ph.D., former exercise science professor, director of training methodology at Peak Performance in New York City
--Tara Stiles, founder and owner of Strala Yoga
--Chris Freytag, fitness expert, author of Get Started with Weight Loss and HuffPost blogger
What's your healthy resolution for 2015? Let us know in the comments below!
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