Just think, the world was supposed to come to a crashing halt 10 years ago with Y2K and we all survived. Now, according to the media, we just have to make it past 2012!! Ha ha.

January is generally the time when people re evaluate their lives, bodies and make goals to start off the new year fresh. But unfortunately too many times, we fall off the wagon and watch our dreams fade away and then beat ourselves up because we feel like we have failed. This sort of thinking will only further your progression downhill and doesn’t help – even those around you. So this being said, make your goals realistic and take one step at a time.

If your goal is weight loss, decide how much you want to lose in the short term (3 months) and long term (1 year) and write it down. Once you have put pen on paper, it makes it a lot more realistic and you have made a commitment to yourself. Then look at the steps that it takes to achieve those goals. What do I have to do? Exercise? Nutrition? How many days per week and for how long? Remember safe weight loss is 1-2 pounds per week. Any more than that is usually muscle and water. Going hard core and extreme will give you extreme results but usually returns to added weight gain because it’s not realistic. If losing weight was easy, 55% percent of the population wouldn’t be overweight!

If your goal is toning and strength, resistance training and building muscle are your requirements. Women are too afraid of lifting weights because they fear that they will bulk up. Unless you eat mass amounts of food and lift far beyond your comfort level, this will just not happen. Women don’t even have enough testosterone to look like that. Bodybuilders typically take an abundance of additional supplements to look the way they do.

And if your goal is just to be more regularly active, do some research and find out what you like. What are your interests? Is there something that you have “always” wanted to do? If you are a new mom, this is the time to take charge and do it! It’s really easy to let motherhood dictate what you have time for and put yourself last.  While the candle is hot, sing up for that class and go for it! Trust me, you’ll only regret it or end up resenting yourself or someone else if you don’t.

Let this not only be a new year but the beginning of a new century! The only one who can make it happen is YOU.