Happy Workout Wednesday, ladies! I’ve been procrastinating on this post a bit – I have to admit. It’s not that I don’t enjoy working out (more like who has the time! jk kinda), but mostly because I’m not sure exactly what my fitness goals should be this year. Beyond finally fitting back into most of my jeans. I’m almost there y’all! But in my resolutions post I talked about how important it is to set measurable goals, and I want to take my fit-life to a point beyond fitting in clothes. So, I’m doing one of my favorite things for getting my brain to flow toward a certain direction: I’m sitting down to write. And I’m going to develop these fitness resolutions with you today.

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GENERAL FITNESS RESOLUTIONS

I’ve shared my workout routine with you previously. And, while I love that routine because I just do what I like, any fitness guru would cringe reading it. It’s a routine that keeps my happy. When I have a rough day, it’s achievable. But I’m completely ignoring huge muscle groups and the routine itself won’t take me much farther than the just fitting my clothes goal.

So what next? Just finding a routine I liked was a big goal for me. And for some, that’s enough. It was enough for me for years. But I’m ready for a new challenge. I just don’t have enough knowledge to know what’s next. But I do have a gym membership, at a gym filled with knowledgeable people. So I can take advantage of that. I’m not quite ready to say personal trainer, but my gym does offer a variety of classes, including some I know I love. Why not take a few of those?

My goal for 2018 moving forward will be to learn more fitness styles I like and that can offer a more full-body focused work out.  To accomplish that goal (by making it measurable), I will try out 2 new classes a month. If I feel like doing more, awesome. But 2 is reasonable for me, so we’ll start there.

RUNNING RESOLUTIONS

One thing I started to get back into at the end of 2017 was running. I used to be really big on running – in fact, it was the only workout I ever did. These days I’m looking for a little more well-rounded routines, but running still brings on a mental and physical clarity nothing else can compete with.

I wasn’t necessarily the best runner, I walked a lot, but I think that was more to do with not being very good at pacing myself. At the end of 2017, I was running for lengths of time without walking at all, thanks to a treadmill setting the pace. I do prefer running outside, but if it takes a treadmill to learn how to pace this year, I’m down.

So I just need a goal? What am I running towards? I did the Color Run and I ran track in high school, but I’m not really one for races. I might consider a race later on. But let’s just pick a distance goal. I’m more excited about running a distance I couldn’t before, than beating a time. I can run a 5k, that’s easy. A half marathon, on the other hand, is horrifying. So I want to shoot for something like a 10-15k. I think it would be amazing to be able to run 15k in one go, but that’s a bit audacious. So we’ll shoot for being able to run a comfortable 10k this year.

The best thing about a goal like this is that it’s measurable, and achievable. Maybe I really hit my stride running this year, and I’m able to conquer that goal half way through the year, instead of by the end. Well, now I can say I conquered my goal, and I can set the 15k as my bigger goal. But I won’t let myself become overwhelmed or stressed by setting a goal that I’m not quite sure I can achieve right off the bat.

FOOD RESOLUTIONS

Oh food, my favorite friend. “Dieting” is not happening this year. But I do want to be more aware of what I eat. When I’m going to the gym regularly, it becomes quite natural for me to track my food in an app like MyFitnessPal. I really want to get back into that.

But if I come across a week or two when hitting the gym is a challenge, I still want to track what I’m eating. One thing I saw someone do recently was pay themselves for accomplishing their goals. I think it’s a great idea and I’d like to give it a shot. My goal will be to log my food 5/7 days of the week. For accomplishing that, I’ll “pay” myself a dollar, and bump it to two for hitting all 7 days. I think I’ll assign values to other fitness activities as well. Since an unrelated goal this year is to get better at budgeting, I think this might be a fun way to “earn” the general spending money I have in my budget.

I’ve never done anything like this before, so I’ll let you know how it goes. But if it seems to be working, I might assign a “payment” to other tasks I don’t like doing and put off for months on end. And if it doesn’t work, I’ll find a different way to motivate myself to accomplish goals. No harm, no foul – just constantly improving.

What are your fitness resolutions this year and how did you set them?

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