How to Stick to Health and Fitness Routines No Matter the Season

For some people, it is easier to work out during certain times of the year than others because of the weather, busy work seasons, busy home lives, or just life in general. But, if you want to be more consistent with your health and fitness routines and stay on track to reach your goals no matter the season, you’ll need to make a more concerted effort to adopt healthy habits throughout the year. Our tips will help you make a year-round healthy lifestyle a reality.

1. Change Your Mindset

One of the first steps you need to take to stick to health and fitness routines no matter the season is to change the way you think about health and fitness. Rather than starting a diet or starting a workout routine, think about your routines as a lifestyle change. Fads come and go, but real health and fitness routines need to become part of your daily life. Willpower and motivation will only get you so far, but understanding that you are making a life change can go a lot further in becoming a healthier you.

The key is to change your mindset and turn your activities into habits. Rather than setting lofty goals, set smaller goals that you can achieve fairly easily. You’ll feel better because you will be experiencing success, but more importantly, your brain will accept the changes and create new neural pathways that guide you toward developing habits.

Try making a routine that will trigger you to eat healthy or exercise. For example, start drinking a glass of water before you eat or drink anything else in the morning. Your brain will associate waking up with drinking water. Try taking an exercise class like yoga or pilates. Or, start taking a walk with your dog every day after dinner so that you’ll associate walking with after-dinner time and begin developing the habit. Better yet, your dog will get into the routine and will start whining at the door or bringing you his leash if you try to skip a walk.

2. Find Ways to Be Accountable

While it may be tempting to broadcast your new health and fitness routines all over social media, you may be setting yourself up for failure if you plateau or struggle to stay motivated. Rather than using a loudspeaker to announce your new health and fitness venture, report to one person that will be supportive and nonjudgmental while helping you stay accountable.

Now, this doesn’t mean that you should choose someone who is afraid to give you some tough love from time to time. You need to choose an accountability partner who will help, rather than harm, your pursuits. In fact, you should choose a person whom you can text, email, or call when you reach a goal, lose motivation, or just need to talk to when you have struggles that are natural to the process of improving your health.

You might also find ways to work fitness into your everyday responsibilities. For example, you have to go to work every day so why not commit to taking the stairs rather than use the elevator. You could also sign up for a physically active part-time job such as dog walking or babysitting. When you have a responsibility to a client, you’ll be much more likely to get up and get going. Keep some exercise equipment in your home, and build yourself a little home gym so you can’t make excuses for not getting to an actual gym.

3. Commit to Healthy Eating

Eating healthy must be part of your health and fitness routine throughout the year. Most doctors and nutritionists agree that 80% of success or failure is based on what you eat and 20% is based on your exercise. You cannot exercise away an unhealthy diet, so you need to commit to healthy eating as part of your health and fitness routines.

First, read labels on the foods you frequently eat. If most of it comes from a box or a can, you’ll need to change the way you shop, cook, and eat. Real, whole food is much healthier for you than processed foods. Meat, fish, eggs, fresh fruit and vegetables, and nuts are real, healthy food. But, don’t start a fad diet and eat only fatty foods and eliminate carbohydrates. You need to approach healthy eating as a lifestyle change and solution that will make you healthier, stronger, and more energetic rather than as a string of fad diets that are unhealthy for you.

Committing to health and fitness routines throughout the year will improve your overall health much better and faster than jumping into the latest exercise craze and diet fad and ditching them as quickly as you start. If you change your mindset, find ways to be accountable, and commit to healthy eating, you will soon find that you are developing and sticking to health and fitness routines that do you a world of good all year round.

This article was written by a guest writer, Travis White:

Travis considers himself a foodie and loves sharing his cooking tips and recipes. His passion for Health and Fitness is evident in how he loves to share LearnFit visitors how to cook restaurant-quality meals at home.