10 Fitness Tips for the New Year

The New Year has come and passed, and yet another new and potentially exciting year awaits us. Just because it is a new year, that does not mean that you should get rid of your habit of regular exercising. And if you by any chance don’t have this wonderful daily habit yet, this is the year to own it.

Top 10 Fitness Tips to Turn Exercising into a Habit

The cold, short daylight hours, and family vacation time can reduce your interest in working out and staying in shape. Even if those Christmas dinners and New Year’s parties made you feel like a sloth though; spring is around the corner and winter exercise of all types can be the perfect energy boost. Here are 10 fitness to help keep you going in the new year.

Schedule Your Workouts

Experts say it takes about 21 days for a new activity to become a habit and 6 months for it to become part of your personality. It won’t happen overnight, so be persistent and patient!

Make time each Sunday to make a week plan that will include enough time for your workouts. That way, you will not be able to make the excuse that you do not have the time to spend at least an hour a day exercising.

Add Amla to Your Routine

You might be working out hard to reduce your weight and one new daily habit can make a big difference. Including Amla Green in your daily diet can help improve metabolism and aid in faster digestion. Plus, if taken in the form of a green tea, it acts as an appetite suppressant for more effective intermittent fasting.

Create an Environment That Sets You Up for Success

If you prepare your setting to encourage good habits, you are more likely to follow through. Put your walking shoes in front of the front door or lay out your exercise clothes next to your bed as a reminder of what you intend to do.

Anticipate Obstacles

We all have temptations that sabotage our workouts. Take note of the situations that regularly cause you to skip workouts. If you know you will be tired after a late Zoom call and want to watch Netflix rather than exercise, commit to a short workout and then a movie. More often than not, once you start moving you will feel good and exercise longer than planned.

Find Your Passion

Discovering an activity that excites you is key. Resolve to try a new sport or workout, be it golf or Zumba or yoga. Try plugging new activities into your calendar monthly. If you have no clue what you are passionate about, start by making a list of what you like and don’t like. If the thought of spinning indoors sounds awful, maybe that’s a sign you’re an outdoors person and should try a hike.

Make it Social

Whether you join a running club or commit to a weekly walk where you phone a friend to catch up, that social commitment can help you stay on track. Walking with a friend is one of the best things you can do for mental and physical health. You actually get physical exercise while unloading your stress and worries.

Have a Backup Plan

Treat your workouts like work meetings and schedule them into the week. But that doesn’t mean unanticipated diversions don’t pop up, derailing your good intentions. Learn to have backup plans, so if your hour-long workout can’t happen, have 40, 30, and 20-minute at-home options to fall back on.

Surround Yourself with Support

If you find yourself skipping workouts to join colleagues for happy hour or friends for beer-soaked football-watching weekends, you may need to find more health-minded buddies to help you stick to your routine. A workout buddy creates accountability and makes exercise a social affair.

Invest in Your Workout

If you splurge $25 on a yoga class reservation, you are more likely to do everything in your power to make it to class. If you’re money motivated, prepaid classes and workouts might help you stick to your routine. Sign up in advance so it’s on your calendar. Investing in pricey gear, like new running shoes or a tricked out road bike, can also be an incentive.

Gamify Your Workout

Gadgets and technology like Fitbit, Strava, and Garmin allow you to track your workouts and compare your progress to yourself or others. If you know you’re encouraged by competition, some of the latest tech-focused fitness gadgets can keep you motivated with regular performance updates.

Bonus Tip: Keep Trying

If you have totally run out of steam when it comes to keeping your resolution by mid-February, don’t despair. Start over again! Recommit yourself for 24 hours. You can do anything for 24 hours. The 24-hour increments will soon build on each other and, before you know it, you will be back on track.

Page Medically Reviewed and Edited by
Cyrus Khambatta, PhD

Cyrus Khambatta, PhD, is a cofounder of Mastering Diabetes and Amla Green is an internationally recognized nutrition and fitness coach who has been living with type 1 diabetes since 2002. Using an evidence-based approach to nutrition and fitness, he first reduced his own insulin usage by more than 40%, and has educated thousands of people with all forms of diabetes how to reverse insulin resistance using food as medicine. Cyrus earned a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University in 2003, then earned a PhD in Nutritional Biochemistry from the University of California at Berkeley in 2012. He is the co-host of the annual Mastering Diabetes Online Summit, a featured speaker at the Plant-Based Nutrition and Healthcare Conference (PBNHC), the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) Conference, Plant Stock, and has been featured on Forks Over Knives, NPR, PBS, KQED, Fast Company, and is the author of the upcoming book Mastering Diabetes.

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