Chances are, if you made a New Year’s resolution to exercise more, you have likely stopped. Many studies have shown that people who make health-related New Year’s resolutions, abandon them by the end of January.
As we approach the end of the first month of 2021, we spoke with a Personal Trainer about how people can get back on the wagon and maintain it for a longer period of time.
Lindsay Wisnicky of the Manitowoc/Two Rivers YMCA said that the most important thing to remember is to look at wellness as a long-term goal, not a short-term one.“This is the time when people who tried to do the short-term bouts (the 30-day challenges and the three to four-week challenges), this is where they are usually falling off,” she explained. “They realize that what they tried to do is too overwhelming, and it causes you, unfortunately, to fail.”
Lindsay suggested taking a look at what you changed with the resolution, and honestly determine if it is sustainable. “If you’re exercising 6 days a week, but you know that’s not sustainable, and you know that is just for this challenge, why are you doing that?” Lindsay asked. “If you know that three or four days is something that is sustainable for your life, for having kids, for your schedule, do that.”
The same goes for food. The so-called “Get Thin Quick” diets may help in the short term, but more often than not, you gain all the weight back, sometimes even more.
While it may seem overwhelming to think of your final goal as being so far away, but Lindsay said it can become more manageable if you make smaller goals along the way. “An example of this is I don’t drink soda, so for me to give up soda is not important,” she said. “But someone who is drinking two, three, four sodas every single day, that alone will be hard, so choosing that and one other thing is going to be challenging enough, besides adding 20 other things to that list.”
Lindsay is a nighttime personal trainer at the Manitowoc/Two Rivers YMCA because she is going to school to be a dietitian.
If you want to work with her, you can call the front desk at (920) 682-0341 and request her specifically, or you can request any other trainer they offer. You can also go to MTRYMCA.org for more information.
