What is fitness? We could say that fitness is having a body with balanced muscular strength, healthy internal systems (heart, lungs, and nervous system), cardiovascular endurance, appropriate body weight, and a positive mental attitude. Achieving fitness does not take as much time as we may think it does.  It does however take commitment.  Commitment = Sacrifice of TIME. This means you may have to sacrifice something that you enjoy in order to make time for exercise. However, the benefits are many and there is joy to be found in physical training. Gerrish Personal Training’s Top 5 Tips for Fitness Success in the New Year are:

1) Find a coach. Have you faced difficulty in maintaining exercise? There are two chief difficulties here are: 1) Receiving proper exercise instruction and 2) Establishing momentum in your practice of exercise. By working with a coach you receive custom exercise instruction and you receive coaching to push through your resistance. It is common to “quit” and “give up”. Left to our own devices it is easy to fall back into old habits and grow complacent.  Find a coach who you resonate with and invest in yourself. Participating in 6-12 weeks of exercise coaching can establish a completely new direction in your life.

2) Stick with it. Find a coach, commit to a program, and stick with it for 6 to 12 weeks. You must display strength in the face of your resistance.

3) Enjoy yourself. Hard work + no fun = failure. It is essential to maintain a sense of humor and to make time for yourself in the midst of daily life and your responsibilities, including your new exercise program. What are your favorite things to do, favorite foods to eat, and favorite places to be?  Make a plan that supports your goals. Do you like to sit in a café, eat unbelievable meals, and spend time with friends? Recreation = Re - Creation.  Don’t forget about this.

4) Establish Clear Goals and Reassess. It is important to have clear goals. With your coach, establish clear goals that are attainable and exciting to you. As you start to work towards those goals, re-assess periodically. Developing an exercise routine is a process and we often learn new things and gain clarity as we move forward. Don’t continue towards a goal just because it is the first decision that you made.  If you find out that losing 20 pounds in 3 weeks is impossible, make a shift to 10 pounds in 4 months and joyfully re-commit to that program. You can’t push the river.

5) Celebrate. Back to the having fun part. Set your goals, commit to your program, work hard, and upon achieving hard-earned accomplishments, celebrate! Don’t hold back. It is difficult to maintain discipline with a physical training program. When you overcome hurdles and beat your sprint time, shave minutes off your mile, put on 10 pounds of muscle, or lose 20 pounds of body fat, you have shown the universe that you mean business. Give yourself a pat on the back, high-five your coach, take satisfaction in the hard work you completed, and go out for dinner!