The top 5 ways to stay accountable with your fitness goals

19 Jan The top 5 ways to stay accountable with your fitness goals

So the new year has started and you have decided this is the year to get fit, lose weight or improve your fitness. So how do you keep accountable and ensure you are resolute with your resolutions? Well read my top five tips to help keep you on track so you actually reach your fitness goals in 2018.

1. Set realistic goals

It is always important to have goals but let’s be realistic. Dropping three dress sizes within a month or wanting to run a marathon after a few weeks is not going to happen and you are just setting yourself up to fail.

Write down your goals and make sure you can actually measure and achieve them in the timeframe – and just take one small step at a time.

2. Get a friend to help you

Sometimes two heads are better than one – training with a friend or partner can bring an extra dimension to your workouts and give you that extra bit of motivation to make you succeed with your training.

If you are not training with someone, make sure your friends support you to make it easier for you to reach your goals. The last thing you want is anyone sabotaging your efforts – explain to your friends and family how they can help you and ask for their support when you need it.

3. Use a personal trainer

OK I am being a bit biased here but one of the most common reasons people train with me is because they need someone to motivate them to start and continue to train. Knowing that someone is waiting for you makes it less likely you will skip your workout.

Read more on my blog about the top 5 reasons to use a personal trainer.

4. Monitor your results

Now you have set your goals, you want to track your performance and see how you are progressing. The most obvious one is to weigh yourself every so often but this can often be misleading. Don’t forget muscles weigh more than fat so sometimes the scales are not be the best way to track your results (plus if you don’t feel like you are losing much weight, it can be disheartening).

A better way is to go by your clothes and how tight or loose they feel. The scales may not tell the whole story but your clothes always do.

Dexa scans are all the rage at the moment – they provide a lot more information on your body composition such as body fat, muscle mass and bone density. They have the advantage of giving you a full body analysis but they can be expensive and you often need an expert to interpret the results.

Some other ways to measure your progress – regularly measure your hips, thighs, tummy and waistline; take before and after pictures of how you look in your swimming costume or underwear, or use apps such as MyFitnessPal.

5. Celebrate the wins

When you set your goals, don’t forget to include a reward when you achieve them. Whether it is a new outfit, a glamour photo shoot, massage, facial or even a holiday, you want to give yourself credit where credit is due. You have worked hard to get where you are so make sure you celebrate the wins.