01 Jan 52 New Year’s Resolution suggestions for 2013

Happy New Year – 2013!
Whether you’re trying to feel better after a long night ringing in the New Year, or are simply relaxing here on Jan. 1 it’s like a fresh start today for all of us in some respects.
Whatever happened in 2012, that’s in the rear view mirror now and it’s time to focus on 2013.
Many of us make a New Year’s Resolution – some make many. For others who don’t, it’s still a good time to take stock of where you’re at and how you can improve your life.
To help with your New Year’s Resolutions, here are 52 random tips that can help you make this a great year – one for each week in 2013.
1 Make fitness a TOP priority
2 Understand your scale – muscle weighs more than fat
3 Make stretching a priority
4 Schedule visits with friends based around fitness
5 Only do exercises you enjoy – you’re a lot more likely to stick with them.
6 Sign up for a fitness class or event
7 Reward yourself for meeting an exercise goal
8 Pass out compliments – Being positive to others makes them see you as a positive person.
9 Update your workout music library
10 Buy a new piece of exercise equipment
11 Keep a log of your workouts
12 Try to find a workout partner
13 Learn a new fitness regimen, like yoga or kettlebells
14 Get a dog – pets lower blood pressure and are a great way to get exercise when walking them
15 Make an agreement with your spouse that you each get one hour a day to work out. And help each other stick to it.
16 Be appreciative of what you have and say one thing out loud that you’re grateful for each day. It can make you feel a lot better.
17 Eat a good breakfast – It will start you off to a productive day and actually help you eat less the rest of the day.
18 Don’t go to the grocery store hungry
19 Don’t keep junk food in the house
20 Put your fork down between bites
21 Drink eight or more glasses of water a day
22 Reduce salt from your diet
23 Cut way back on sugar, too
24 Stop drinking soda, including diet pop
25 Don’t eat out at restaurants more than a few times a month. Restaurant meals average about 750-850 more calories than meals cooked at home.
26 Limit your alcohol to only weekends
27 Drink a sparkling water in between alcohol when you do drink to cut the calories about in half.
28 Get plenty of fiber
29 Get a bike and hit the trails
30 Learn to ski
31 Get a treadmill or elliptical for your home
32 Take a fitness related vacation
33 Go swimming as much as you can
34 Quit smoking
35 Quit drinking
36 Consult a professional if numerous attempts to quit smoking and/or drinking have failed in the past
37 Work with a nutritionist to improve your diet
38 Play catch with a relative or family member
39 Shoot baskets with a relative or family member
40 Go on a long trail walk or bike ride
41 Train for and then enter a local 5K (3.1 miles) run
42 Play tennis with a friend or relative
43 Buy yourself new workout clothes
44 If your workout shoes are old, get some new ones. You can’t do much if your base isn’t solid.
45 Buy a healthy cookbook and cook meals regularly from it
46 Identify healthy restaurants in town and go to those when eating out
47 Take walks whenever possible
48 Keep cut up fruits an vegetables in the fridge for healthy snacks
49 Post a “fit” and “unfit” picture of yourself from over the years on the refrigerator to look at daily
50 Vow to take you picture again at the end of the year and put it up on the fridge, too. Think all year about how you want the new you to look.
51 Stick with your fitness plan, but don’t be too hard on yourself if you slack off now and then.
52 Don’t ever quit! You never stay the same – you’re either going to get better or worse each day. Which is it going to be today?

At Home Fitness consultant Aaron Dorksen’s blog deals with a variety of fitness topics, ranging from workout tips, motivational ideas and feature stories on how exercise impacts people’s lives. E-mail him with comments, questions or ideas for future blogs at aaron@athomefitness.com