11 Ways to get back on the fitness wagon

Winter is the time of year when many people’s fitness motivation goes out of the window. The nights are longer, it is colder outside, and you generally want to just curl up under a blanket. But once you have fallen off the fitness wagon, it can be very difficult to get started all over again. Well, this blog post is here to give you a helping hand and hopefully, that extra boost of motivation you need to get active. Of course, that is not to say that things will be easy, but once you get your fitness habit back again, you should notice lifestyle improvements too.








Don’t become too negative


The first thing that you want to avoid is beating yourself up for having fallen off the wagon in the first place. While there is nothing you can do to change days gone by, you can make commitments to be different in the future. In fact, if you were in a pretty good fitness regime before, you may well find that all is not lost and you are able to return to your pre-break levels quite quickly. Give yourself a break, stop thinking negatively and vow to keep your fitness habit going in the long term this time.



Get the support of others


If you try to do everything all by yourself, you are much more likely not to enjoy the success you are looking for. So, try to seek the help and support of others who you know will give you encouragement along the way. Even better, you could get yourself a workout buddy. This way, you have a mutual relationship in which you are providing support for each other. Not only this, you will be less afraid of joining that intimidating-seeming fitness class if you are going as a pair. Often, having someone else there when you are exercising can help to push you to new levels that you never realised you were capable of before.



Schedule your fitness sessions


You should be looking to schedule specific times when you can exercise. If you just pick a general day, you could find yourself busy with other activities until the evening arrives and you realise that you are too tired and put it off until tomorrow. Before you know it, the whole cycle starts all over again. Make sure that you schedule a time when you are most likely to follow through with your exercise session. A lot of people opt for first thing in the morning as it is out of the way and you don’t have to worry about it for the rest of the day.



Start with a single goal


Rather than trying to rush into everything too quickly, start off with a single fitness goal. A couple of good examples include getting to the gym twice a week, cutting out chocolate or going for a 20-minute walk every day. Once you have one of these targets hit and you are comfortable with the way it fits into your everyday life, you can then start to add new goals along the way. Bit by bit, you will be building up the components of a healthier lifestyle.



Invest in new workout gear









Since you are starting your fitness goals all over again, you could mark the occasion by investing in some new workout gear. After all, you wouldn’t want to see your new running shoes or yoga mat going unused. Though this may only be a temporary solution, it can still be effective in giving you that extra boost of motivation to kick your fitness habit back into action. When you manage to keep the habit going for a certain period of time, you could then buy yourself something new as a reward.



Keep it short and sweet to begin with


When you are getting back into the swing of things after a long break, there is no need to go crazy and attempt to fit huge fitness sessions back into your life. All you will end up doing is making yourself tired and sore, as well as decreasing your motivation to continue. You could start off with a session of 20 or 30 minutes and gradually increase this over time. Ideally, you should be striving towards getting this up to an hour. Perhaps this could be broken down into 20 minutes of strength, 30 minutes of cardio and 10 minutes of stretching. Try to plan your workout beforehand so you know exactly what you will be doing and for how long.



Clear out temptations from your household


Now, you should make your household more reflective of your commitment to your fitness and health goals. So, if you find that you are partial to the occasion junk food binge, you should avoid storing unhealthy food in your home. As for your kitchen, you should aim to clear out all drinks with dyes or artificial sweeteners. Perhaps you are trying to give up smoking? You could start by replacing your cigarettes with products from Ecigwizard's vaping website. You will find that you only have so much willpower during the day, so you need to ensure that you have a home environment that supports your fitness resolutions.



Start changing your meal plan


What you put into your body has such a big impact on your health and fitness. Similar to the advice we talked about earlier, you should start off small until the habit is established. To begin with, you may only want to change your breakfast from something that is high in fat like a muffin to something that is high in protein like egg whites. Another part of your regular mealtime routine that you can adjust is the portion sizes. So, rather than completely changing what you eat on a regular basis, you can instead eat smaller portions of it.



Keep a journal








There is something about keeping a journal which helps to solidify your commitments and keeps you focused on the goals which you have set for yourself. Writing down how much exercise you have done that day or what you have had to eat helps you to better understand what choices you are making and the type of improvements that you can make along the way. You can also use this as a place to write down your fitness goals so that you have clear and solid targets that you are working towards.



Get help from the professionals


If you find that nothing else is working, you can get help and support from professionals like personal trainers. They can help you to set up a plan which is tailored to you. After all, this is something which can be challenging to do all by yourself. You also have someone who you can direct all your questions to. Not only this, personal trainers can give you that extra push in the right direction when you feel like your commitment is wavering.



Make your workouts more interesting








If you find that your regular workouts have become stale and boring, there are plenty of other activities that you can try to make things more interesting. Perhaps you could take up a new sport or join a different fitness class. Ultimately, you need to find something you are passionate about.


Using a combination of the 11 different techniques that we have discussed above, hopefully, you now feel more ready to get back on the fitness wagon - and stay there.

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