So it’s February, and this means that the number of people holding on to their new year’s resolutions are at its apex, and will soon start to decline. Here are some tips that will hopefully keep you motivated to keep training, and never have to make a new year’s resolution of fitness again.

Everybody has unique goals, but always try to include performance in your plan for progress. Constantly weighing yourself can take a toll on you, and does not always provide an accurate measurement of your progress. Test your performance in the gym, and try to hit a personal record every day you are there. Hitting these records will keep you motivated on weeks when the weight might not come off like you wanted it to. If you are weighing yourself, make sure to only weigh yourself once a week at a similar time to get a more accurate measure of what your progress is. Also, remember that if you are on a good training program you are also probably adding some muscle. If you gain 5 pounds of muscle and lose 5 pounds of fat, your body fat percentage is significantly lower even though the scale still reads the same number.

It is also important to stay positive and remember the body behaves strangely. The body does not always make progress steadily as we would like it to, rather progress happens in bursts. So this means to stay consistent if you are on a good plan. Often, you’ll get an accumulation of results in a short amount of time after an extended period of training.

Lastly, as you hit goals start expanding your horizons. It always helps to be training for something, so find some kind of fitness competition that looks appealing to you and give it a whirl. You will find out that most competitors are just like you, so don’t let the idea of competition intimidate you. Training for something specific has been proven to really improve your focus, and can go a long way towards keeping you on track with a program and helping to create consistency.