Happy Holidays!  It’s that magical time of year when there seems to be a party every day of the week and an endless amount of baked goods at the work place. This doesn’t help us if our goal is to make it through the holidays without gaining unwanted weight.  If you’re like the rest of us, you’ve gained a couple pounds and veered off your fitness path and into uncharted territory.  Here’re 5 secrets to help you stick to your fitness resolutions.

1. Don’t Rush into Anything – It’s really important to ease into a routine that is doable.  We get so ambitious after the New Year that we tend to jump into an old routine we remember or try to fill every free moment with some kind of exercise.  I’m just as guilty as anyone when it comes to overloading my schedule and burning out.  The trick is learning from that and not making the same mistake.  Decide how many times a week is not going to be an overload and start there.  If after a few weeks you’re ready to take on more workouts, go for it.

2. Set Goals – Give yourself markers and deadlines.  Whether your fitness goals are to lose a few pounds or gain some muscle mass or increase your stamina on the tennis court, you should have a clear vision of how to measure the success of that goal.  You can take pictures of yourself, weigh in every week or do body circumference measurements.  Which takes us in to the next point:

3. Make a Plan and Write it Down – Create a calender with all the workouts that you plan to do that month.  All the workouts should be in accordance with your goals.  For example, if you want to lose weight, your schedule should be predominantly cardio workouts, inter-spliced with toning circuit training routines.  If you are not seeing results, don’t give up, just make the changes necessary to your workouts so you optimize your time working out.

4. Find a Friend to Join You – Sometimes getting started on something new is scary.  It seems like everyone or at least most of the people that you know have some kind of New Year’s Resolution that has to do with fitness.  It’s not going to be hard to find a friend or someone that works in your office, a co-worker, who’d be more than happy to partner up with you and get in shape in 2012.

5. Don’t be Fooled by the Quick Fix – Make the lifestyle change that will last the rest of your life, not the next couple weeks.  Don’t even bother with these starve-yourself-diets or pills that are guaranteed to burn more calories.  Who are we that we can’t be accountable for our actions?  If I eat junk food and sit on the couch all day, do I deserve to have 6 pack abs and athletic legs?  Don’t fool yourself into thinking a pill or some cayenne pepper and lemon juice is going to solve all your problems.  Make a choice to live a healthy life style and then start introducing the right choices into your life one at a time.  Soon you’ll realize there’s no more room for the things that aren’t healthy for you.