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Be active![/caption] With the New Year upon us, we’re receiving lots of general questions about fitness. People want to know how to start a program, how often to work out, how long it will take to improve, how they should eat, and so on. We realize starting a program can be confusing, and we’re happy to help out. Below, we’ve collected our top six tips for getting fit in 2015. These tips are the result of six years of experience teaching individuals and groups how to get fitter. This is not a complete recipe for success, but we’re confident that these six tips will put you on the right path and help you start improving your life today. 1. Commit to a program for at least three to six months and then evaluate your results, making changes as needed. You can see improvements in fitness in a short period of time, but results are not immediate. If you go in expecting instant changes, it will be all too easy to quit a program after a month and go back to old habits. Fitness is a long-term goal, and it is achieved over months, not days and weeks. Predetermine evaluation dates and realize that any progress is a very good thing indeed, and progress generally comes more quickly once you get some momentum behind you. [caption id="attachment_5026" align="alignright" width="300"] Build a healthy lifestyle.[/caption] 2. Realize that the exercise guidelines published by most authorities are approximate minimums. Walking for 30 minutes five times per week is a good start if you have never been active before, but it is a mistake to think that consistent improvements will come from “being active” for a total of 2.5 total hours each week. Think of the level of activity of a farmer in 1850 and compare it to the level of activity of a modern office worker who drives to work, sits for eight hours and returns home to the couch. Our bodies are made to move, and they need to move regularly to become fitter. We recommend working with a qualified trainer who can help you safely exceed the minimum recommendations and truly improve your fitness. 3. Be prepared to work. Working out should be fun, but it shouldn’t be easy. To become fitter, the body needs to be challenged. In fitness, there is no reward without some degree of work. The amount of work does not have to be excessive, but you have to sweat and feel some burning in your muscles in order for changes to come. Remember this Tony Robbins quote: “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.” [caption id="attachment_1128" align="alignright" width="300"] Eat less sugar.[/caption] 4. Work out and stay active. We believe there is a difference between going from the gym to the couch and going from the gym to the back yard to rake some leaves. In addition to working out, supplement with additional activities that don’t involve sitting: walking, hiking, gardening, playing a recreational sport, etc. This is part of building an active lifestyle, and it will amplify gains made in the gym. 5. Eat better. Diet can be complicated, but we’ll simplify it for you to start and encourage you to do more research: Eat less sugar and processed foods, and eat more vegetables. If you shop for groceries once every two weeks, we can guarantee you’re eating too many processed foods. Shop every two to three days for fresh vegetables and fruits, and avoid processed carbohydrates and foods with added sugar. If you reduce the amount of sugar in your diet and increase the amount of nutrient-dense vegetables, you’ll be supporting fitness with healthy eating. With simple fixes in place, you can then research more detailed nutrition strategies tailored exactly to you and your body. [caption id="attachment_5788" align="alignright" width="300"] Work with a trainer who can help you meet your goals.[/caption] 6. Work with a qualified trainer who will ask you about your goals and help you achieve them. A good trainer explains the program he or she creates for you, modifies it regularly and monitors your performance. If you walk into a fitness facility feeling lost, or if you walk out feeling like you didn’t accomplish anything, know that qualified professionals can help you get results. If you would hire a mechanic to fix you car, you can see the value in hiring a trainer to help you improve your fitness. If you need more advice on how to get fitter, or if you aren’t getting the results you want, we can help. Located at 483 Berry St. in Winnipeg, 204 Strength and Conditioning and Functional Fitness 204 offer personal training, bootcamps, and Functional Fitness classes in our fully equipped 6,000-square-foot facility. You can view our programs here, and you can review the qualifications of our trainers here. To contact us, email info@Functional Fitness204.com or call 204-880-1001. Read this Winnipeg Free Press article about our program: “This Year Proved Good Journalism Can Change My Life.”