Discover practical ways to jump-start your fitness plan.

Hi, I’m Samantha Clayton, fitness expert and former competitive sprinter. I’m working with Herbalife to help you achieve a healthy, active life.

Here are my tips on how to jump-start your year with a renewed commitment to get or stay in shape. I know that starting a new fitness plan can be daunting, especially if you haven’t worked out in a while or you’ve started and stopped before, but – with a new approach and a determined attitude – success may be closer than you think!

Before you lace up your running shoes and hit the road, you must sit down and make a plan otherwise it’s too easy to lose focus. Ask yourself these five questions and answer them completely honestly:

1. What are my bad health habits?
Your answers might be poor eating, having too many snacks or sitting down for too many hours…

2. Where do you rate yourself on a scale of 1-10?
One being completely out of shape – breathing heavily while doing daily tasks. And 10 being perfect fitness.

3. How long do you currently dedicate to exercise or activity?
And is it enough? Would you like to be more fit and do you want to have more energy?

4. What three fitness activities do you enjoy most?
Be honest — do you like walking, exercise classes or simply playing outdoors with your kids? Don’t hold back from putting something more adventurous down as a bonus forth answer — you can work up to high-powered activities as you build your fitness.

5. What roadblocks have caused you to lose focus in the past?
Maybe you’ve stopped exercising because you’ve become busy at work, or your routine was interrupted and you didn’t get back into fitness. Put down anything that derailed your plans.

Now let’s use your answers to make a set of goals. You can plan to fix just one thing at a time so that you don’t overwhelm yourself.

For instance, if you eat unhealthily then you should focus on your next meal. You can’t change what you’ve eaten in the past but you can make sure your next meal meets all your nutritional needs. Approach fitness the same way. Focus on your current or next workout and do the best you can!

If you want to give more time in your life to exercise then try to increase your exercise habits by 10 minutes per week until you reach at least 30 minutes of activity a day.

You can start out by only doing the activities on your list — the ones you listed in answer to question four. The start of your plan is not a good time to try new types of exercise, so focus on your favorites — they’ll help you feel confident and comfortable for the first few weeks.

Place your answers somewhere prominent to remind you of where you are and what you want to achieve. Maybe stick them on your fridge! This will help keep you motivated especially if you write in why you will achieve your goals this time.

When we transfer our thoughts to paper they become very real, I have always kept an exercise journal because it’s a great way to track my progress and when it works you want to be able to remember how you did it.

Activities like walking, jogging and body weight exercises are a great way to start out. I love the phrase: “don’t run before you can walk” because a slow and steady approach builds results that will last.

I’ll also be showing you how to do basic exercises right and how to combine them into fun workouts here — so, when you need a boost, make sure you check out my next video!

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Herbalife fitness expert, Samantha Clayton shares her advice on how to jumpstart your fitness plan for the new year. Tired of making resolutions that you break one month in? Make sure your new year’s resolution to get in shape lasts by creating a fitness plan. Answer these 5 questions to determine your fitness plan goals. Keep your fitness plan in a visible place & it will lead you to success in the new year.