If you are like most people, you approach each New Year with wonderful intentions to improve your life and do more in the coming year. Then the New Year comes, and goes, and somehow those good intentions did not translate into new accomplishments. Of course, when that pattern repeats itself year after year, we eventually give up on the good intentions altogether and resign ourselves to mediocrity. DO NOT GIVE UP! There is wisdom and hope in the old adage, ?If you want something you have never had, you must do something you have never done.?

I have some suggestions for you regarding your New Year resolutions to get in better shape. After all, is there anything more important to you than your health? Virtually everyday the first section of the newspaper has an article about the serious problems in the United States from obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, stress and a host of other preventable diseases if we were only in better shape. Here are four simple things you can DO to fulfill your New Year resolutions to get in better shape:

1. Set exercise appointments with yourself. Use your Palm Pilot to set appointments for exercise ? and then stick to them. You would not miss a business meeting or client appointment, would you? So do not miss your exercise appointment with yourself. Nothing is more important than your health. Nothing! Everything else will crumble around you if your health goes south. So make your exercise appointments a priority. 2. Set realistic, attainable goals. You must have tangible, quantifiable, short-term and long-term goals for your fitness program so you can gauge your progress. It is crucial to have a ?baseline? before you begin, so you can measure success. Having goals, particularly short-term goals, allows you to track your progress and keep you motivated when times are tough and you do not feel like exercising. Keeping a journal of your cardio and resistance training workouts, as well as tracking what you eat, is truly a fitness success secret. Just remember that your goals should be realistic and attainable. 3. Remember the benefits of exercise. Remember the feeling of euphoria you experienced after a particularly good workout. You experienced that feeling because the most powerful ?feel good?drug in the world ? endorphins ? was coursing through your veins. If there is a panacea, it is exercise. Nothing feels better than the post-work-out high you experience after exercising. Revel in that feeling. Let it wash over you and truly experience it. Etch that feeling in your brain. It will fuel your motivation on those inevitable days when you just do not feel like exercising. Being physically fit affects every single aspect of your life: you sleep better, eat better, love better, overcome stress better, work better, communicate better and live better! 4. Finally, and most importantly, use ACCOUNTABILITY to help you. That?s right, accountability is the number one, most important thing you can do to help you keep your resolution to get in shape. But not accountability to yourself. It is too easy to rationalize this away. Not accountability to a spouse, partner or friend either. They will stop nagging you because they do not want to damage the relationship. The secret is accountability to a coach, mentor and guide?someone who is committed to your commitment and impervious to your excuses. They can also help you with numbers 1, 2 and 3 above.

Make 2007 the year you really DO something about becoming healthier, happier and better looking.

Wendy Tarlow is the owner of Fort Lauderdale Fitness Together and is a certified personal trainer. She can be reached at (954) 491-7988 or at the Fitness Together studio in The Shoppes @ 18th & Commercial Blvd, in Fort Lauderdale. Add a Comment

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