“Goals” is a better word than “resolutions” when we’re deciding how to improve ourselves at the start of the year. “Resolutions” seems just a bit too vague and it’s all too easy to forget about what you wanted to do in a new year, especially when it involves what can often be a struggle to lose weight and get fitter and healthier — something many people aim for after the excesses of the festive season and one of the most common New Year’s Resolutions.
After all, it’s easy to say you’ll sign up for a new gym membership and spend as much time there as possible, but once the harsh realities of bleak January set in and you’re back at work and dreaming of jetting away on a sun holiday later in the year, health and fitness plans can often, and quickly, take a backseat — and fizzle out entirely. This is especially true if you have a family and small children to take care of. Sometimes at the end of a long working day when you come home to a house that needs to be cleaned and meals cooked, the last thing you want is to get ready and go down to the gym.
So what to do? Just give up, cave into the demands of the hectic pace of modern-day life and accept that you’ll never have that fit body you’ve always wanted that will also boost your health and help to ward off colds and flus? Definitely not! When you’re working out a workout programme, there’s no need to think you’ll have to work out like a warrior to get fit and healthy. It’s a bit like all those skinny guys rushing to the heavy weights section of the gym and pumping like demons to get huge muscles — all they achieve is sore muscles and they soon give up. The key is to start out slow, and small, and you don’t even have to go to the gym at all.
Making Time for Workouts
If you want to get fit and healthy this year and really want to stick to it, the first thing you should realise is that you need to manage your time — especially if you’re the kind of “super-busy” executive many of us are these days and you have little time for anything outside of work. If you have a gym membership, and can make it there a few times a week for at least an hour or so — great. But if not, you can surely allocate half an hour every second day to do a workout in the comfort and convenience of your own home.
Many people frown at working out at home because they think they need all manner of big and expensive equipment to get fit. That’s simply not the case. Bodyweight exercises — performed with just the weight of your own body, like pushups, squats and bridges — can often be as effective as all those glitzy machines down at the gym. And the good news is you can use your body to work out wherever you find yourself — in your bedroom, at a hotel, even while flying. You’ll be surprised how you can quickly work up a sweat this way, and get fit and healthy in the process.
As a way of sticking to your workout routine, whether at the gym or in your own home, it’s hugely beneficial to keep a diary so you can record your progress. Not knowing how well — or badly — you’re doing can easily cause you to quit your workout plan and forget about it. You can make a weekly plan for the days you’re going to be working out and set yourself a higher target as the days go by. So if you’re starting out with three sets of 10 pushups on Monday, you can increase it to 12 on Wednesday. You could also work out different parts of your body on specific days — chest and legs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, for instance — so you’ll be more inclined to do specific exercises when those days roll around.
Quitting Unhealthy Habits
Obviously, if you’re a smoker, one of the best things you can ever do for yourself is to quit and never pick up a cigarette again. Smoking robs us of so much energy anyway, as not enough oxygen is getting into the bloodstream, and this makes it hard to work out if you’re still puffing away — you’re soon out of breath and struggling. Just days after quitting, however, you’ll notice a huge surge of energy as your body is getting more oxygen, and you’ll be raring to go.
Quitting cigarettes is no easy task, though, as many of us know all too well. But recently, the battle has become so much easier to win, and now tons of people are successfully quitting with the help of e-cigarettes, which can give them the nicotine they want but none of the health-sapping tar and other toxic chemicals found in burning tobacco. What’s the best e cig in the UK today for people trying to stop smoking?
You can find out by heading to an online vape store and having a look at their vape kits. There you’ll find vape gear — e-cigarettes — that are slim and easy to use. Plus, vape kits will have everything you need to get vaping in a flash, including the all-important e-liquid that contains nicotine. Over time you can wean yourself off nicotine altogether by lowering the amount in your e-liquid and just vaping for the flavours alone.
And who knows, by the end of the year, you could be a whole new, fitter and healthier you.
