9 Tips for Sticking to Your New Year’s Resolutions

We’re a few weeks into 2025, and chances are you’re trying to stick to a New Year’s Resolution or two.

Data suggests you’re probably still doing well. According to a Forbes Health survey, only 8% of people stick with their resolution for just one month. 21.9% manage to make it two months, and 22.2% get through month three. But after that, your chances of maintaining your New Year’s Resolution go down – drastically.

That same survey found just 13.1% of people made it four months, and 1% stuck with their New Year’s Resolution for 11 or 12 months.

You’re on UnosFitness.com, so you probably have a New Year’s Resolution that deals with your health and fitness. If you’re going to make real lifestyle changes, your resolution has to last longer than a few months. So how can you sustain it?

Set clear goals that are measurable and realistic

“Be more healthy” or “lose weight” is not a clear, realistic, measurable goal. How are you going to be more healthy? Are you going to lose 20 pounds in the first six months of the year? Are you going to increase your bench press max by 20 pounds within four months? Do you plan to run a marathon on Sept. 1?

Your New Year’s Resolution, or any goal for that matter, should be very specific, realistic, clear, have a measurable data point, and have some sort of timetable.

Personal trainers can help you with goal-setting and tracking progress. A Certified Personal Trainer will help identify specific goals and make sure they’re realistic – and healthy. Then they will curate a customized program to help you reach those goals.

Remember your why

We don’t just decide to do things. There’s a reason you set a New Year’s Resolution. What was that reason? Accomplishing goals won’t be easy, so remembering your motivation for simply starting is important.

Was there some sort of internal motivation, like wanting to improve your health or prevent future health complications? Do you want to feel more confident? Do you feel like you need more energy? Or was there an external motivation, such as running a race or wanting to fit into a certain dress for a wedding?

Whatever your motivation, visualize what it will feel and look like when you accomplish that goal. Visualize the positive impact it will have on your life.

Personal trainers can help keep you motivated, and when you struggle with your motivation, they can help keep you disciplined and accountable.

Have a plan

No matter what your fitness goals are for the New Year, you must have a plan you can follow in order to realize them. It’s hard to lose 20 pounds by doing random exercises at the gym a couple times a week and not changing your diet. A good plan will include scheduled workouts with different types of activities, as well as monitoring your nutrition to ensure you’re getting the correct number of calories.

A Certified Personal Trainer will put together a custom plan based on your needs, abilities, and goals. And while personal trainers are not nutritionists, they can provide you with some guidance about how nutrition impacts your fitness goals.

Create a support structure

It’s hard to do anything alone, and that includes hitting your health & fitness goals. Workout buddies and walking or running clubs are ways you can find support from other people. Personal trainers can also play a role. Trainers will support you through difficult workouts and celebrate your progress, and because you’re scheduling workout times with them, they’ll always be there.

There are other steps you can take on your own. Wearables like Apple Watches and Fitbits, as well as apps like MyFitnessPal, can help support you. You can also find other ways to support yourself, such as building a great playlist or finding a favorite podcast to keep you motivated.

Track your progress

Sometimes it can feel like progress is slow, but it’s important to keep track of it so you can see just how far you have come.

People track their health & fitness goals through apps, logbooks, and photos. But a Certified Personal Trainer will track your progress too. Whether it’s body fat percentage or body weight, how much you can bench press or how much you can squat, or if it’s how many push ups you can do or how long you can hold a plank, a trainer will keep detailed records of your progress so you always know how close you are to your goal. This also helps identify potential changes that are needed to your program.

Expect obstacles

It’s not always smooth sailing. You will have days where you’re busy with work, your kids need your attention, you’re traveling, or you’re just not feeling like working out. You need to have a plan.

Anticipate as many of these obstacles as you can. Is it going to rain one day? Maybe you should run the day before and do yoga instead when the weather is bad. Feeling low on energy? Try a morning workout. Creating a routine can help you stick to your fitness goals because it just becomes part of your typical day.

A personal trainer can help you with these obstacles by offering new ideas for workouts when your situation changes. Have an injury, for example? A trainer can modify workouts to keep you active without worsening your injury. Personal trainers can even play a role in injury rehab.

Remember, it’s not about being perfect. If you miss one workout, you haven’t lost your ability to hit your goals. Don’t let that stop you.

Stay motivated

Sometimes our big goals can seem daunting. “I want to lose 50 pounds” seems like a big task, and it is. If you hit a plateau, you may not feel motivated. Instead of focusing on the big goal, set some smaller goals. Can you lose 5 pounds in the next 5 weeks? That’s a realistic goal. And seeing some progress will help you stay motivated.

You could also look for other successes that keep you motivated. Maybe the scale hasn’t changed, but your body fat percentage has gone down – that’s more important anyway! Or maybe you just feel better, or more energetic. Maybe your last visit to the doctor was the best one you’ve had in years. Whatever it is, use it as motivation to keep going!

A personal trainer can help you stay motivated by pointing out the success you’ve already seen and keeping you on track for what’s to come. Trainers can help keep workouts interesting by introducing new exercises or modifications.

Don’t be afraid to change your goals

Sometimes we have to reconsider our goals, and that’s OK. Maybe your goal wasn’t realistic at first and you need to revise it, or maybe it wasn’t tough enough and you need to make a new one. We also experience unexpected events in life, and those can force us to change our goals too. Whatever the situation, a personal trainer can help you identify realistic goals for you and map out a plan to reach them.

Celebrate

When you hit a milestone, celebrate it in a healthy way. That could be treating yourself to a massage, a round of golf, or new workout clothes. And share your success! Your friends and family want to support you. Post your accomplishments on social media, share them on fitness apps, and be sure to share them with Uno’s Fitness on social media. Personal trainers want to help celebrate your success too.

Stick with it. We’ll help.

Most people who set New Year’s Resolutions don’t make it past March. Don’t let that be you! You set a goal this year to be healthier, to be more fit, to run a race or lift more weight. Whatever it was, it was important to you. Stay motivated, stay disciplined, and crush that goal this year.

We are here to help you at Uno’s Fitness. Certified Personal Trainers spend their days helping others define and reach their goals by creating custom plans for each client. No matter where you are in your health and fitness journey, we can help you. Contact us today to set up a free consultation and let’s make sure you stick with your New Year’s Resolution this year.