Fit goals are a wonderful thing to create for yourself at the dawn of 2017, but what really matters is bringing them into your reality – and making sure you stick with them for the long-haul. While it's perfectly normal to create and adjust your fitness goals as you go, we want to make sure you set yourself up for success this year, both in terms of looking and feeling your very best. Tried and true, here are our top tips for sticking with your 2017 fitness goals.

 

Focus on your routine

What does your day-to-day routine look like? Are you typically rushed in the morning and relaxed in the evening, or vice versa? Do you get to work via transit, foot or car? Where can you make regular space for your workouts within your current routine? Or, if needed, how can you adjust your routine with ease to make space for your fitness plans? Understanding what your routine looks like and where there's a little extra wiggle room will undoubtedly help you to add workouts to your daily life. Once your workout is an easy, automatic part of your daily routine, you will actually miss it when you skip the gym. Something will just feel off ... and that's the ultimate objective, isn't it?

 

Don’t make unrealistic goals

One of the greatest keys to making goals you can stick with is not making unrealistic ones! How can you tell if your goals are unrealistic? If, in order to accomplish them, it would require an expenditure of energy or time that you currently – and quite simply – do not have. If you are already working nine-hour days, cooking for a family of five each night and spending your weekends running errands, you probably won't be able to go from zero to working out every day right off the bat. Instead, make realistic – and creative – goals that are attainable and won't leave you feeling disappointed.

 

Develop an accountability fitness partner

A lack of accountability is a detriment to goal carry-through, and having accountability when you are the sole party is a difficult thing to manage. Therefore, get yourself an accountability fitness partner – ideally, someone whose needs are the same – and kill two birds with one stone. You'll have company during your workouts, which makes them more fun, and you'll have someone to bark at you when you skip out ... which you may not want, but you certainly will benefit from.

 

Ask your loved ones to encourage you

In addition to having an outside party in an accountability partner, it can also help tremendously to have encouragement coming from inside your home. We recommend having a conversation with your family or partner to share with them your fitness goals and plans, what that will mean for them, why you want to accomplish this new lifestyle and what you need from them to help you get there.

 

Make a vision board

Remembering why you started is one of the most powerful tools to get you to the finish line. Of course, in this case, the finish line is more of an ongoing lifestyle, but that just means you need to remember more frequently. We highly recommend creating a vision board for yourself and keeping it somewhere visible in your home or workplace. You can include images of how you want to look and feel, as well as the types of exercises and activities you want to partake in and how this lifestyle will impact other areas of your life, such as work and family. So there you have it! There are plenty of ways to obtain what you have set out to accomplish this year. Stick with your 2017 fitness goals, and perhaps even consider adding a marathon or half-marathon to the list for greater motivation. You can view a list of marathons in Vancouver to sign up for now, here.