Are you working on your New Years Resolutions? Then you’re going to be thinking about your fitness goals for 2019. This post will be a perfect place to start!

Today’s post is number 1 out of a series of three. Over the next few weeks, I’ll go over how to set your goals for 2019 for nutrition and mindfulness!

But for now, let’s dig into how you’re going to actually accomplish your fitness goals for 2019!

“I want to lose weight.”

This is a goal I hear people say time and time again.  Especially around New Year’s! So, how do you start working out and actually STICK with it all year?

Make your goal less daunting!

There’s two main themes here:

• You’ll need to hold yourself accountable
• You’ll need to go easy on yourself

Sounds like a contradiction, right?

Well, its true!

If you’re able to hold yourself accountable to actually do these goals you’ll start your new habit.

If you’re able to forgive yourself when you make a mistake (like skip a day in a routine) you sustain your new habit.

Get specific with your 2019 fitness goals

With any new task, you have to know what you’re doing, right? Now we’re going to get specific with your fitness goals so you can start to hold yourself accountable.

So before we get to that step, I made a 2019 goal planner for you to use! Once we get more specific with your 2019 goals, you can use this planner to keep you organized!

You can use this goal planner for in the next few weeks when we break down your nutrition and mindfulness goals!

Just fill out the form below and I’ll send it to you instantly.

Ok, so now you’ve downloaded your 2019 goal book and you’re ready to fill it in with some goals!

But what do your goals look like?

Are you only able to come up with really broad goals to start? Maybe something like: I want to loose weight.

That’s a great place to start, but I would make it less broad. With a huge goal like “Loose Weight” you probably aren’t likely to actually accomplish this.

Why?

Because you’ll feel overwhelmed by how big of a goal that is and give up as you won’t have a place to start.

So to avoid this feeling of overwhelm, all you need to do is re-word your goal to make it less about what your’e loosing and how specifically your life will change.

Here’s an example:

“I want to have more energy so I can be present in my time with family and friends. I can do this if I’m healthier. So, I’ll start to workout regularly by adding in running and lifting weights one day a week”

I know, it’s more wordy than just, “I want to lose weight”. But it’s for good reason! Let’s break it down.

1. I want to have more energy so I can be present in my time with family and friends.

This is what you can visualize in your head when you’re not feeling up to working out. This is a positive emotion tied in with your goal.

So it’s less about negative feelings, like loosing weight, and more about envisioning how your life improves because of what you’re doing!

• 2. I can do this if I’m healthier. I’ll start to workout regularly by adding in running and lifting weights one day a week.

Now we’re going broadly into how you can accomplish part 1. Then you follow up with a specific way to actually do it.

You can’t end on your broad statement! If I just ended with “I can do this if I am healthier,” then I would have no place to start!

The formula for setting your 2019 fitness goals:

1. Start with how your goal positively impacts your life
2. State the broad goal you need to accomplish in order to get that impact
3. Follow up with very specific way you’ll actually get to your goal

Set the bar low at first

Make it super easy for you to accomplish your goal! So often, people over-goal themselves and they aren’t realistic.

My mistake in the past with setting goals was making them HUGE!

Like when I first tried to consistently meditate I said I would meditate for ten minutes in the morning, during lunch and at night and journal after each session.

As you can probably guess, that didn’t work out really well for me. I did it a day and gave up completely!

So how can you actually accomplish your 2019 fitness goals? Start small!

Start so small actually, that it almost feels silly!

Let’s say you wanted to start working out, but you haven’t in years. Start REALLY small at first, then you can increase as you go.

Maybe at first you simply workout each weekday for ten minutes. Or even just five minutes!

You could take a 10 minute walk around your neighborhood or a do 10 minute video at home (you can find a TON on YouTube).

Keeping your commitment low will make your goal feel less overwhelming. And, after a while, you’ll start to feel so confident with your routine that you’ll naturally want to increase your time! ☺️

Set your workouts in your calendar

Set your workouts in advance for the week in your calendar. I promise that is such an easy “mental hack” to staying committed to your goal.

This works well wether you plan on exercising at home, in a studio class, or at the gym.

If you just got a gym membership, then check out my post about maximizing your time at the gym! This post will go through ways to get a lot out of your time there!

What do your goals look like for 2019? Let me know in the comments below or on social and tag me @mindfullymonica! I’d love to cheer you on! ☺️