A personal trainer from Co Fermanagh has laid out some of her best advice for getting into shape in the new year.
Joanne Doonan, Fermanagh GAA player and fitness guru, said the most important thing is to just accept where you are starting from and work up from there.
Joanne also said setting smaller goals within the long term goals can also help to make the process easier.
“Just accepting where you’re at and not being too hard on yourself for what you did over Christmas,” Joanne said.
“Set goals but then set smaller goals within them to help you achieve those in the long term.
“You don’t want to have it where you are going from one extreme to the other.
“I would say to tell someone about your goals as well, to make yourself that wee bit more accountable.
“It doesn’t always have to be a personal trainer, it could be your friend or your mother, someone that will check in on you from time to time."
The Kinawley woman added that ‘punishing’ yourself in January wasn’t the best way to approach a fitness plan.
She added: “I’d be a big believer in it being a lifestyle change as opposed to just punishing yourself in January.
“It should be a gradual process and the aim should be to make it part of your lifestyle.
“I would look at all the things that are in your daily habits and think - are they adding to where you want to go or is it something that you can change?
“A massive thing that I hear regularly from many of my female clients is that they come to me and say they have eaten 1,000 or 1,200 calories per day, and I wonder how they even function on that.
“Most of them basically don’t even make it to the end of the session because they don’t have enough energy in their body to do it.
“You don’t have to listen to people who say you have to be eating next to nothing to lose weight - you can still eat a healthy amount of food while exercising and lose weight as well.
“And you will get fitter and stronger quicker than if you are eating way too little calories.”
