The year 2021 was very interesting. I tried like I do every year to jump right into my fitness goals with the all-or-nothing kind of mindset. I do this every single year and then fail to keep it up. So my approach this year is to create habits to start slow to avoid injuries as well as burnout really fast and then stop everything altogether.

I am no longer focusing on my long-term fitness goals but instead creating consistency in my short-term mini-goals that will help me reach those long-term goals.

I started my new approach in December, rather than waiting until January to begin just because I wanted to get started. By doing that unintentionally, it kick-started my motivation to keep it up. I love having this mindset toward achieving my fitness goals. My fitness journey will forever evolve and change as I reach all of my mini-goals along the way.

Last Year Goals

Fitness goals will change each month as I track my progress, but overall need to create a solid home fitness routine that includes strength, endurance, and recovery training. Jumping straight into a huge fitness routine that changes everything all at once is not achievable, so I will begin small and slowly add on to it.

1. Fitness Routine at Home

   I haven’t had much of a solid routine because of the ever-changing things of 2020. But since having a fitness routine does so much for my mental health, I need to get back into it. I’ll begin small by going for a 30 min walk with my dog every day. Then slowly incorporate the following into my routine:

   1. Strength Training

      Building muscle and gaining strength, this one will change as I progress through the year. My goal is to strength train 4 times a week.

   2. Cardiovascular Endurance

      I have asthma, which makes any cardio difficult. But I’ve learned to enjoy running, and it does positively improve my asthma. Since I love backpacking and hiking at high elevations, my goal is to work on my cardiovascular endurance by running 2 times a week. I also want to go backpacking and/or hiking as much as possible this spring/summer.

   3. Recovery Training

      Recovery is so important for any goal, and typically it’s one thing most people overlook in their training. I know that I usually do. So with my recovery training, I aim to do at least 10 minutes of stretching before every workout and yoga one day a week.

2. Nutrition

   Overall I aim to eat healthily and improve my daily nutrition habits. Typically this comes easy to me, so this will come easy to me. I need to be consistent with my caloric intake. I’m not a huge fan of tracking, but becoming consistent, can be a helpful tool to create consistency.

How I did:

I did okay at achieving my goals. I did not find myself forming a habit for fitness like I wanted to do. I did my typical on and off that I do every single year.

When I got my new job in September, I did really well Monday-Friday in October. Then for some reason, I completely fell off everything in November. Starting in December, I started meal prepping with more intention and working out almost every single day. I focused on forming a habit and consistency rather than any long-term fitness goals. Cue: jumpstart my new approach to my fitness goals. Simplify and consistency.

Long-Term Goals

My long-term goals are building muscle mass and improving my cardiovascular endurance. I have done so many years of on and off training and I’ve hardly ever built a solid foundation to build muscle on. So in addition to building muscle mass and cardiovascular endurance, I want to make fitness a habit because I GET to, not because I HAVE to. I always feel my best when I have a regular fitness routine.

Mini-Goal

My fitness goals are long-term goals. What I aim to do will take me a really long time to achieve. I know I won’t see results as quickly as I’d want to, so I am focusing on setting mini-goals along the way. These mini-goals are the small changes that I make every six weeks.

Every six weeks I’ll follow a program that I have written for myself. My first six weeks were to get in the habit and create a baseline for my body to begin. I was not lifting too heavy, something challenging but focusing on the movements. By the end of the first six weeks, I noticed I’d gained so much more strength just by doing those movements. I am very proud of that progress!

This week, I have begun my next six-weeks changes to the same workout program. The only adjustments that I have made have been to my current program is to increase the weight that I am lifting for each exercise. I also switched up my routine a little bit, as in what days I am doing what workout.

After another six weeks, I plan to increase my weight once again. Toward the end of each six weeks, I like to play with weight a little bit. Adding a little bit of weight to get a sense of what my next six weeks program weight should be.

As it gets warmer come springtime, I plan to do cardio outside. Right now it is way too dark and way too cold in the morning when I get up to workout. At some point, it will be warm and lighter earlier so that I will enjoy either running or biking outside. I am fortunate enough to live in a mountain town that has very challenging terrain. But for now, I am really enjoying the Nike Running Club app-guided treadmill runs while watching some YouTube videos.

Nutrition

Since my biggest fitness goal is to build muscle mass, I need to eat a higher protein diet. But I don’t want to eat too few carbs either. So right now, into the next 12 weeks, I am loosely tracking my calories, mostly my protein intake while estimating my total caloric intake. I don’t want to eat too high or too low calories. I am eating an estimate of my maintenance calories right now. After these next two six-week programs, I plan to closely track my maintenance calories for six weeks before assessing whether I want to cut calories slightly all while maintaining a high protein diet.

Overview

My overall plan is to create consistency with both my nutrition and fitness. By establishing a strong fitness routine and nutrition habits I will be able to make slight changes to my routine in order to work towards my fitness goals. I have no idea what my end goal for 2022 will be. Fitness for me is a lifestyle and for now, I aim to increase muscle mass. After every six weeks, I want to assess where I am with that goal or determine if I want to change it altogether.

When it comes to my nutrition, I want to enjoy food all while eating food that fuels my body to achieve my goals. I want to make it clear that after each six-week program I am assessing what type of change I make for the following six-week program. When it comes time to decide if I want to cut calories, the amount I may cut will be minimal so that my body still fuel that it needs for my workouts and everyday life.

My program consists of getting a workout every single day, strength training four days a week, yoga one day, and cardio two days a week. I always feel my best when I get movement every day, or at least almost every day. I allow myself to take days off when I feel I need it but then right back into the routine after my rest.

If you are here and reading this, which means you have an interest in your health and fitness. That is so good, I am so excited for you! Taking care of your body is literally the best thing you can do for yourself in the present as well as the long term.

I find that so inspiring. Hard work will pay off in the future, but you also have to live in the moment, and I feel like taking care of yourself is doing both. You are doing good for yourself now as well as for your future self.

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