The best way to keep a New Year’s resolution to get healthy is to start small, local fitness experts say.
A surefire way to fail at those resolutions by the middle of January is to set goals that are unrealistic, they say.
“A lot of times, people set these lofty goals, and they’re hard to achieve,” Eric Leader, owner of Personal Trainers in Laurel, said. “If you don’t achieve it, it’s very easy to lose motivation.”
79% of Americans who made New Year’s resolutions in 2024 said they were related to health, exercise or diet, according to Pew Research Center.
However, those resolutions can be hard to stick to. A poll from Forbes Health shows 66% of people give up on their resolutions within four months.
It’s common for people to have trouble achieving their New Year’s resolutions to get fit, Ann Frush, manager of Fitness Evolution on Laurel Fort Meade Road, said.
“People say, you know, ‘Hey, I’m going to do ABC in the new year,’ and then they start to fall off,” she said.
Frush said to remember that everyone starts somewhere.
“We all have gone through that process of taking the first step into a gym to work out,” Frush said.
Working with a personal trainer is helpful for gym newcomers who are not sure where to start, Frush said, adding trainers can also help people stick to their health goals long term.
“Working with a trainer, having a set time you know you need to be there, that kind of helps you … not fall off the wagon,” Frush said.
But even with a trainer, it can be difficult to stay on course.
Leader, a personal trainer for more than 25 years, sends trainers to work with clients in their homes and other private settings.
He said he often sees people start personal training in the new year and then stop when they get busy, tired or stressed.
“Exercise is the easiest thing to get into and the easiest thing to get out of,” Leader said. “When you’re doing it and you’re doing it consistently, you never miss it. It’s like brushing your teeth. … Once you break your routine, it’s very easy to fall off the wagon.”
Leader said it can be helpful to let the people around you know that you’re working on your health.
“If you tell the people at work, if you tell your husband, if you tell your daughter, if you tell your friend, yeah, they’ll help to keep you a little bit more accountable,” Leader said.
Leader also recommended setting specific, weekly goals, like aiming to work out three times in a week. He said more aggressive goals, like running a 5K after working out for one month, may be counterproductive.
Setting small goals can also be helpful when it comes to changing your diet.
Ginger Mair is owner of Ginger’s Roots, which sells herbs, tea blends and dietary supplements. Mair said she advises her customers to make small additions to their diets, like one tea or herb, rather than making lots of changes all at once.
“As adults, we just have a natural desire to want to do so much and set these really large goals for ourselves,” Mair said. “And that’s a lot of pressure.”
She also recommends people take a survey of their daily habits to see which of their behaviors they might want to change.
“Are you sleeping a good seven, eight hours a night?” Mair said. “Are you drinking all of your water that you need in a day? Do you get outside and are you able to move your body at least 20 minutes a day?”
Mair said to pick one “foundational health component” to work on, such as focusing on getting enough sleep.
“You’ll be surprised that when you fix one thing, sometimes it fixes several other things,” Mair said.
Mair also said she tells her clients to be gentle with themselves and to “treat themselves as if they are treating a kid.”
“We need to just give ourselves a little bit more grace and be kinder and softer to ourselves,” Mair said.