The period between the end of March and early April has an infamous reputation of seeing a lot of individuals dropping off or abandoning their New Year’s resolutions. While this is quite normal, staying committed and adhering to a set of rules over a period of time is always a bit of a battle. This in no way should mean that you have to drop off the wagon completely. All it means is that you need to reassess your current situation, understand why you found it hard to stick with the previous plan, recalibrate and build a plan with your new reality and learnings. Here are a few tools you can use to help you get back to fighting form.
Firstly, be kind to yourself and don’t beat yourself up for slipping up. Instead, give yourself credit for trying and getting started in the first place. Acknowledge that you did the best you could under the circumstances and that you are human with access to a finite amount of willpower which is also needed to fulfil your various other responsibilities. Whilst speaking to yourself, be that friend who encourages you to get up and keep going every time you fall.
Next, understand what went wrong and why you were unable to stick to your previous plan. Once you have identified the what and why, factor that in while reworking your plans and goals. If the reason was that work became hectic and so you were unable to dedicate 30 minutes of exercise 5 days a week, you could change that variable and build a plan that has you doing a focused fitness activity for 30 minutes only 3 days a week instead, but has you moving more through the day, eg., standing up from your desk every 35-40 mins to do 25 jumping jacks/ squats/ push-ups, walking while taking all phone calls, etc.
Find activities that you enjoy engaging in. If your previous plan included an activity like running and you absolutely loathe running, it’s going to be very hard to find the motivation to continue to do that activity regularly. Moreover, you will end up eating into large amounts of your willpower (of which you have access to finite amounts of) in order to perform this activity and you will reach a point where you have no more reserves to dig into and will eventually give up. So, ditch it and substitute it for another activity that might be more fun for you to do. The same rule applies to food. Avoid forcing something down your throat that you cannot palate and find more agreeable nutritional choices. With either of the above choice of activity and nutrition, give it a fair chance (a minimum of two weeks) before you decide to replace it.
Partner up with a friend or form a group of training buddies who have similar training goals. This will make you feel motivated, accountable and more importantly support one another. Set daily/weekly goals and help each other complete them. The daily goals can include things like getting 7-8 hours of sleep, drinking 2-3 litres of water, 30 minutes of focused fitness activity, etc.
Finally, chase progress rather than results. If you make this shift in the way you approach your new training plan, then you end up making your win scenario more attainable, because every effort made will result in progress. So long as progress and not perfection is the goal, you can continue to feel motivated and refuel your stock of willpower to keep going.
(The author has over a decade of experience in the fitness industry. She is certified in various areas of fitness such as Posture Analysis, Suspension Training, Kettlebell, Advanced Personal Training, and Pre-Post Natal Training from one of the top institutes in the UK. In 2018, she became one of the few Sports Performance Coaches in the country.)