If you're continuously setting fitness goals and can't seem to meet them, you're not alone. Studies show that 73% of people give up before meeting their goals.
The reasons can vary from setting too high of a bar right away to lacking motivation. With fewer than 30% of people actually hitting their goals, we should consider how to actually sustain our efforts and keep going.
Regardless of the reason you haven’t been able to meet your goals, you can increase your odds of success by creating more fitness accountability in your life. Accountability is an integral part of achieving any milestone in our lives, whether it's fitness-related or not. The good news is accountability isn’t difficult to create and can push you forward no matter what your motivation level feels like that day.
Here's a closer look at how fitness accountability works, why it's essential, and how to create it for yourself with limited resources.
Follow Through On Your Goals
Research shows that people are more likely to follow through on their goals and execute them when they share them with someone else. One study found that participants had a 65% chance of completing a goal if they told someone else about it.
Telling someone else about your fitness goals is simple, straightforward, and can propel your goals forward. There’s also no right or wrong way to do it, especially if you’re confiding in supportive people along the way. You get to choose whether or not you want to tell a trusted friend or share it with everyone on social media. Push yourself somewhat outside of your comfort zone without entering into a state of overwhelming.
Increase Motivation
We've all been there. We're soaring on a high after meeting a hard-earned goal and decide to increase our focus to something bigger and better. The only problem is we start to feel uninspired and unmotivated after just a few weeks, or even a few days.
Sustaining motivation is a significant factor in maintaining your nutrition and workout goals to push yourself forward. Many people think they're low on motivation or have failed because they can't keep it going. In reality, motivation is fleeting and wanes on any given day. There’s also no real way to really ensure we’ll feel motivated to do anything hard at all. That’s why we need motivation and fitness accountability to work. Creating accountability in your life and health increases your motivation and keeps you going when workouts feel lackluster.
Shift Your Mindset
Creating a determined and focused mindset is an indicator of how successful you’ll be in your workout journey. But that's easier said than done when daily life gets in our way. Whether you're stressed out at work or dealing with a busy season at home, our mindsets automatically shift to adapt to the experiences around us.
Fitness accountability helps shift your mindset and sustain the determined and focused attitude you need to keep your workout routine going. Bonus points if you find an accountability partner who shares that same mindset to help bolster your experience.
Now that you have some insights into why accountability is so vital to your workout, here's how to create it for yourself.
Get a Coach
A fitness and nutrition coach does more than help guide your workouts and diet choices. They also create built-in accountability to help meet your goals and help shape your standards. Reaching goals is about pushing yourself with realistic but challenging expectations. Too much, and you're likely to give up too soon. And when you're not challenged enough, it's easy for motivation to slip away and slowly quit on ourselves in the process.
Your coach can help determine what goals are realistic, which ones you can strive for, and how to get there. Whether you need the motivation to improve your nutrition or push past workout plateaus, a coach can help you get there.
Join a Fitness Community
Studies show that the healthy actions of others can rub off on us and improve our motivation to keep going. Working out at the gym with others is just one way to find that form of fitness accountability. An established, go-to community is also an essential aspect of accountability.
You can create your own community by joining an in-person MeetUp Group, online fitness forum, or a weekly gathering with a group of health-minded friends. WAYT also offers built-in support and community to help foster the accountability you need to succeed.
Offer Someone Else Support
While you're building fitness accountability and community during your workout journey, offer someone else support along the way. The effort can strengthen and bolster our mindsets and create a cyclical form of accountability. When you hold someone else to higher fitness standards, you're also reinforcing your expectations.
Take the time to show up in your community and offer encouragement and an ear to listen to the struggles of others. Sharing your successes and wins can also be a way to inspire others to keep going when they hit a plateau and need accountability to keep going.
Get Inspired
Let's face it. Diving into the same workout routines or nutrition plan day after day can start to feel stale and more than boring. Leaning on your community or WAYT coach leads to new discoveries and inspiration. Get fresh ideas on working out, supplements, meal plans, and more to mix up the mundane.
Getting inspired can also be about stepping away from your routine and getting a new perspective for your health goals. Take accountability for your day and schedule a walk, meet up with a friend, or indulge in a favorite hobby and take the pressure off for a few hours. Sometimes creating more space in our lives is what helps propel our goals into fruition.
Record Your Progress
Fitness accountability is more than pushing yourself, it’s also about acknowledging your progress along the way. Despite our best intentions, it's easy to lose sight of our progress. Or we focus so much on the ultimate results we're looking for, we don't stop and see how far we've come. Never acknowledging that progress can make your goals feel like an impossible feat.
Record your progress and think beyond traditional metrics like shedding pounds. Remember, you're only competing with yourself, not everyone around you. Focus on inches lost, endurance at the gym, reduced cravings, feelings of wellness, and increased energy as progress.
Celebrate Your Wins
Recording your fitness progress and celebrating your wins go hand in hand. Break your goals into smaller milestones and reward yourself along the way. Make plans to go on a day trip for a hike, enjoy time with a friend, or invest in some new fitness sneakers or gear to acknowledge how far you've come.
Take the opportunity to turn to your fitness or WAYT community and celebrate your wins together. You'll end up inspiring others and create more fitness accountability and support during the process.
Commit to Fitness Accountability
Fitness accountability also requires taking committed, intentional, and repeated action. You can't take accountability by sitting on the sidelines or making a half-hearted commitment. Set up your own systems and processes for accountability to uplevel your fitness goals.
Ready to get started and find ways to stay accountable to your own fitness journey? Sign-up for WAYT Nutrition today.