Let’s face it, the easiest part of your fitness journey will be the beginning. When you’ve hyped yourself up to eat healthier, watch the calories you consume, and more the first few weeks can go by like a breeze.

But as the months go by, life will eventually get in the way. Some days you’ll be swamped with work or sometimes you need to travel. Often, you end up taking a step back from your fitness goals you can get on with your busy life.

The great news is you can always get back on track. Remember that achieving your fitness goals is a journey and not a race. It’s all about being able to create a steady and sustainable lifestyle that you can stick to in the long-term.

One of the key things you need to practice is consistency. This is important because it allows you build a routine of healthy habits that you can always get back to no matter how busy life gets. Today, we’ll be talking about 5 simple ways to stay consistent in your fitness journey. Let’s get started!

Start with Small Goals        

At the start of your fitness journey, it can be all too easy to make sweeping statements like “I will work out every day for one hour” or “I will eliminate sugar completely from my diet”.

The thing is, you’re setting yourself up for failure when you try to pursue big and unreasonable goals at the start. This is especially true if you’re going from zero workouts per week or from eating mostly takeout every day.

Instead, start with small goals like waking up earlier to make a healthy breakfast or choosing o move more by taking the stairs or riding your bike to work. Achieving smaller goals at first helps condition your mind so you can stick to healthy habits better down the line.

Track Your Progress

Keep a journal to track everything you do—your workouts, your water intake, your meals, and how you feel. This helps keep yourself accountable to your goals. It can also help motivate you and remind you why you’re doing this in the first place.

Furthermore, tracking your progress helps you reach and even surpass your goals. It helps to keep you committed to you plan while seeing how far you’ve come since you’ve started.

Treat Yourself

Pursuing your fitness goals doesn’t the be all hard work and no pay-off. Sure, seeing the number on the scale go down, seeing yourself do more reps, and intuitively choosing healthy food over junk food can be a rewarding experience but you don’t have to wait for these milestones to give yourself a treat.

Take the time to reward yourself every now and then with something that feels fun and motivating. Treat yourself to a mani-pedi after crushing a week’s worth of strength training sessions. Get that cute workout outfit you’ve been eyeing for months! You’re doing your best to be in better shape, physically and mentally so give yourself a pat in the back occasionally.

Rely on Accountability Partners

Pursuing your fitness goals is much more fun if you share the experience with people you trust and feel comfortable with. Having accountability partners helps you stay on track and gives you external motivation so you can keep on going even if things start to get difficult.

Be Gracious to Yourself

The key to staying consistent is being gracious to yourself whenever you feel like you’ve fallen off the wagon. Remember, a few missed workouts or eating some cookies here and there doesn’t have to spell the end of your fitness journey.

Give yourself some grace, get back on the horse, and more on. Don’t let some slip ups from sabotaging your journey towards self-improvement.