Five Ways to Keep Your Fitness Resolutions

We all make resolutions, especially around the New Year, but the stark reality is that few of us actually end up keeping them. Made with great intentions and started with spirited efforts, time allows our desires to dwindle and our motivations to die.

So, the question seems to perpetually remain: how do we finish what we start?

Certainly not an easy answer, but not impossible either. If you begin with a little will power and sprinkle in the following suggestions, you'll stand a far better chance of reaching your goals and changing your life.

1. Have a bigger reason: Fitness goals normally fail if they are merely superficial. While you may desperately want the perfect set of chiseled washboard abs, using that as your only drive will inevitably leave you dissatisfied. Instead, give your health a greater purpose, such as your family or a special cause. Having that sense that something truly important is guiding you will keep you moving on the days you feel like quitting.

2. Don't use numbers: Our world adores numbers; in fact, everything we do is analyzed and criticized based on a number. But should our fitness goals be based on losing a certain number of pounds or losing a certain number of sizes? No, not if we actually want to make a positive life change. Rather than define yourself by a number, work to feel the improvement rather than simply see it. There's a big difference.

3. Don't negate the bad stuff: You won't be perfect, so admit from the start that it is fine to have mini relapses that allow you your vices at times. Certainly minimize them as you work to phase them out, but to expect that they will suddenly disappear sets you up for inevitable failure.

4. Work small but look big: You'll push yourself to meet smaller goals throughout your daily workouts, and the decisions you make will reflect the little pieces of the plan. But, to keep the right perspective and allow yourself to feel the change, always keep in mind the big idea, the huge end goal you want. You will have an endless string of successes and failures along the way, and change will not occur instantaneously, so see what you want in the end to give you the true purpose.

5. Be flexible: Those original goals you made at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve may very well have been too stringent or downright absurd. So, be willing to make some honest alterations in your plans to meet your changing needs