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Issue Date: January 8, 2006
Reach your goals
A new outlook can help.
This year, take ballroom dancing lessons.
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What will it take to make 2006 the year you finally accomplish your fitness goals? "Most important, make a plan and enlist support," says Kathie Davis, executive director of Idea Health & Fitness Association. "Put it in your schedule, and get friends and family involved."
Idea offers these tips to help you get -- and stay -- motivated:
1. Use your brain. Figure out if you like to focus on your favorite TV show or iPod mix to pass the time while you work out, or if you benefit from focusing on your body and surroundings. If it's the latter, use your senses: Hear your footsteps, be conscious of your breath, see the sights around you, feel your muscles contract with each movement, and smell the fresh air as you breathe.
2. Look at exercise differently. Many people get hung up on doing something they dread, like 40 minutes of jogging or a step aerobics class at the gym. Exercise is anything that gets you active. Think of activities you enjoyed as a child, like playing basketball, biking or jumping rope, and do them. Take lessons in ballroom dancing or martial arts -- anything that appeals to your sense of fun.
3. Create a script. Find a phrase to use when you start to talk yourself out of a workout. It could be, "I'll just do it for 10 minutes," or "Every little bit counts." Something you're striving for, like "designer jeans" or "little black dress," also can be an effective mantra.
Contact Contributing Editor Jorge Cruise, author of The 3-Hour Diet, at 3hourdiet.com.
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