A fitness article entitled “Take it Easy?” You must be thinking this is some sort of joke. No I’m completely serious. I’m not telling you to sit on the couch and watch soap operas and munch on potato chips. I’m suggesting that you don the sports wear and ease into it gently – like you slide slowly into the jacuzzi to get your skin used to the hot water.

What I see most often first of the year is the mad plunge fully clothed (that would be without even examining if the water is diving depth). So here we have Suzy exerciser who hasn’t worked out since that fateful day last January when she found herself so sore after a four hour workout, she couldn’t walk let alone sit on the john.  She’s back at it with the same fury – this time with a new outfit – running for 60 minutes, lifting the heaviest weights she can lift for an hour and then going for the elliptical burn until a waiting exerciser kicks her off.  “Nice,” she says to the astonished woman waiting. “Thanks to you, I won’t reach the five hour mark.” In another week, Suzy will (once again), hate exercise so much, she will avoid it until the first of next year, when she suddenly feels that urgent need to burn off those holiday pounds.

So how can you keep from being another first-of-the-year-exercise casualty? Here’s a few suggestions…

1 – go for progressive overload. Based on what you have been doing recently, gradually (yes, I said gradually) increase intensity and duration of your workout. That means if you have been doing nothing, you might want to start with an easy 20 or 30 minutes of cardio.  After this feels comfortable (usually 2 to 4 weeks depending on age, health and physical condition), you can begin increasing intensity or duration. I recommend  changing one variable at a time.

2 – Choose something you like. If its fun, you’ll keep doing it, right? What I love most is swimming, dance classes and other outdoor activities, like throwing snowballs at my children. 

3 – Measure your progress. Keep a log of how much time you are accumulating doing cardio activity and strength training or log miles of running or swimming.  See if you can walk, run, or swim that mile a bit faster and keep track of your times. If events keep you motivated, raise money for a charity or organization you care about through your participation in a walking or running event.

4 – Find an exercise buddy or trainer to keep you accountable.  Workout with someone else or hire a trainer to keep you motivated so you will strive to do your best. You are less likely to skip a workout if you have an appointment with a trainer or a friend is depending on you to show up.

5 – Look at the big picture.  Doing regular exercise (even if its 30 minutes) most days of the week will do much more for you than extreme exercise over the course of a few days.

Good luck! I hope you find 2010 your fittest year ever.

Photo by Chris Mooney

One factor that often inhibits progress in both the diet and the exercise departments  is what I’ll call the “identity crisis.” Maybe you have been overweight most of your life or were the last kid picked in gym class. Perhaps after  years of seeing yourself as “fat” and/or “unathletic,” you have convinced yourself you can’t be anything else. If truth be known, I was the last kid picked in gym class. Through a great deal of discipline and practice, I was able to transform myself into the athletic person I always wanted to be. If you’re not happy with your fitness level or weight, I’m asking you to take that step today to see yourself as someone entirely new.

Before you can make this happen in your own life, you have to decide who you want to be and start identifying with that. For example, I swim with a U.S. Masters swimming team 3 days a week and often compete on a state and national level. So I see myself as a swimmer and I have cool swimsuits and a team warm-up suit and a team cap and all my favorite swimming gear that reminds me and others that I’m a swimmer.

I also identify myself as a fitness professional, since I teach many classes and work one-on-one with clients every week. Because I work in fitness, I also believe it is important for me to be a role model for health and fitness. So that inspires me to eat and drink less at parties, because I don’t want to let down the people who look up to me anymore than I want to disappoint myself.  At last night’s party, even some of the other people pushed the sweet plates away once they learned my profession.

I also identify myself as writer,  parent, and wife. It isn’t difficult for me to play any of my roles any more because I have become accustomed to them after years and years of “living” this lifestyle.

So here’s my suggestion. Try to follow the same principles in your own life. Embrace as part of your identity what you want to become. Instead of telling everyone else you’re unathletic, say “I’ve taken up tennis lessons and I’m already getting more of my serves in bounds.” Whenever you get ready to leave the house, take a look in the mirror at your tennis skirted physique and say  to yourself “I’m a tennis player.” And when you have extra money, instead of buying junk food at the mall, splurge on a new racket or a new tennis skirt or pair of shoes. Before you know it, playing tennis will be part of your day and even fun as you improve your skills and meet other players.

You can follow the same principles with weight loss. Lose the “I’ve always been fat” mantra that is sure to leave you gaining rather than losing weight and say instead (after you have really started changing your diet)  ”I’m eating lots of fruits and vegetables. I know this is so much better for my body than junk food and foods packed with preservatives.”  After a few weeks, healthy eating will be part of your lifestyle and “good” foods will start to appeal to you more than the “not-so-good” foods. 

So let’s all search our souls as we embark on 2010 and start seeing ourselves as the best we can be instead of who we have been.