A Guide to Starting Your Own Health and Fitness Journey

We all want to live a long and healthy life. We also want to be able to do the things we love for as long as possible. This desire is why many people start a health and fitness journey. So, where do you begin? 

Starting a new, healthy lifestyle is usually a daunting prospect and can be hard to deal with. Information and advice are abundant, making it hard to decide what direction to follow. So how do you figure out what to do and how to do it? Read on for a guide to help you find your footing.

Establish your goals

The first step is to set some goals. They will help you keep on track while motivating you to continue making an effort. However, balancing the need for consistency and the desire for significant achievement is best, particularly if you rely on outcomes as motivators. Set objectives so that you’re more likely to succeed, but they have to be sustainable and achievable.

Prepare for the long-haul

You need to have a long-term goal in mind while working towards the bigger picture. If you only focus on the short-term, you will miss out on what is expected of you and what you could have gained from your efforts. You should always work to improve your health and fitness. To do this, you need smaller targets that match your abilities as you progress – and they also need to grow with your new levels.

Make allowances for improvements

One of the biggest mistakes novice fitness enthusiasts make is to try and go all out from the start. This ideology is false and can lead to burnout and chronic injury. Instead, it’s better to ease into it and start small, then grow as you go if you’re feeling good about it. If you create some space for yourself, you can make more organic progress without juggling your existing commitments. That, in turn, eliminates the risk of feeling overwhelmed in the future.

Be flexible about complications

Once you get started on your new pursuit, you’ll come across many new experiences. However, it’s not always possible to do everything you had hoped for, and life happens. Sometimes there are just too many commitments or obstacles along the way.

In this case, keep in mind that perfection is not a requirement. So when something goes wrong, make sure not to punish yourself. Instead, just step back and do what you can to fix it without being too hard on yourself. Allow yourself to indulge, then get back on course. 

Try involving others

A fitness journey is personal. But when you have friends by your side, you’re less likely to fail. Therefore, it’s a good idea to bring people up on the journey with you to push and encourage one another. For example, running is a very popular form of exercise, and it’s easy to see why. That being said, it can be hard to motivate yourself if you do it alone. To counteract this, get other people involved and arrange times to meet up for a run with them.

Alternatively, if that’s not your thing, you might want to look into group classes where you join others who are on the same journey. The sense of community and support could keep you going and be a good boost for yourself.

Make it fun

An excellent way to set up a fitness & diet plan is to make it fun. Use the things you enjoy doing and base your workout structure off of them. You can also use this as the framework for your diet and lifestyle, making it very easy to stick with what you find enjoyable. If you are willing to experiment with different options, you will be able to find things that don’t bore you.

To explore every avenue available to you, why not join a sports club? You can try all sorts of activities, both individually and in groups. Furthermore, they can provide you with new skills and the opportunity to make new friends. So why not check one out today? You might find it’s just what you need to help guarantee your success.