1. Determine your goals and why you started in the first place.
The winter can be a long drain of little exercise for many. It is hard sometimes to find motivation in the coldest months. But just starting some light exercise and working up towards the summer is a great way to stay healthy and fit. Is your goal to stay in condition for the course? Lose a little weight? Whatever is is, determine why you are starting a routine and your desired outcome.
Setting out short and long term goals is ideal. An example for a short term goal would be to go on 3 runs per week while a long term goal might be the ability to run for 30 minutes.
2. Start slowly and ease into things.
While everyone wants to reach their goals and see success early, taking a slow approach is always the better alternative.
If your goal is to become more flexible, you do not start off by doing an hour of yoga on day 1. You can instead stretch 10 minutes every couple days and ease into it. Once you feel comfortable you can keep increasing time and difficulty.
Jumping right into the fire will only cause disappointment in your abilities or even an injury.
3. Obstacles will come. It is okay.
Not everything in life goes the right way. Sometimes there are hurdles and set backs. You will miss a workout one day. Or you will hurt your back and hold off from running for a week. These things happen and when they do all that can be done is look past it.
Social media can put a lot of pressure on people being perfect but that is not reality. Go at your own pace and if a setback happens, it happens. Just stay focused and remain positive.
4. Make a plan.
Now that you are ready to go and have the right mindset, write down your plan. It is shown that people who write down what they want to achieve have a higher success rate than those who do not. A plan does not have to be a complex collection of goals and timelines. It can be as simple as a singular goal or a calendar with some dates to run on it. Make it how you want and try to stick to it. An example could be;
Monday - Morning run
Wednesday - 20 mins of yoga
Thursday - Morning run
Saturday - Squash
This is just a simple little schedule to keep some activity going throughout the week. You do not even have to put days on it, just what you want to do in the week. There are unlimited possibilities.
Last but not least, HAVE FUN!
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