SALT LAKE CITY — It’s two weeks into the New Year and the gyms are already emptying out.

If you’ve already gotten off track of your New Year’s resolutions to get healthy, it might be because you set your expectations too high and burned out too fast.

Lisa Boucher is a certified personal trainer who works with clients in Utah County and has been working in the fitness industry for over 24 years. She says fitness trends come and go but the basics always stay the same.

“There’s the need for resistance and cardio,” Boucher said, in order for someone to get physically fit. She gives tips on how you can make fitness goals and actually stick with them past three weeks.

Check your health and limitations

First things first: make sure you’re in good health, Boucher said. Get a physical and make sure you don’t have any limitations from previous injuries. You’ll have to tailor your routine to any health issues you have, but you can still make it work.

The best exercise in the world is not what you think

You don’t have to force yourself to be a slave to the treadmill, Boucher said. If you don’t like running (or swimming or cycling) find something you love to do because it will keep you coming back.

Need some suggestions? Try walking, swimming, the elliptical machine, water aerobics or yoga for low-impact exercises. If you’re looking for something more intense, you can try a spin class, rock climbing, tennis, a weightlifting class or hiking. If you're looking for something completely wild, you can even try indoor surfing or aerial acrobatics.

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5 wild, crazy exercise classes in Utah worth trying

Bored with your everyday exercise routine? (Or, if we're being honest, it's more like a once-a-week exercise routine.) Once a workout becomes mundane, it's hard to muster up the motivation to roll out of bed and hit the gym. Three miles on the treadmill again? Boring. Stationary bike for 30 minutes? Big yawn.

And if you really do want to become a runner, try a couch-to-5K program that uses a combination of walking and running to help you build up your endurance to run 30 minutes or more.

Best time to exercise

Don’t force yourself to exercise in the morning if you’re a night owl.

“I think it’s really necessary to pinpoint what type of person you are and go with that,” Boucher said. “A lot of people think the morning is the best time to exercise and then they try it and the morning doesn’t work and they give up. But it wasn’t the exercise, but the time of day. It’s important to exercise at time that works for you.”

Listen to your body and exercise when you have the most energy. That might be right after you drop the children off at school, your lunch break or after dinner. No time is a bad time to get in your exercise.

Keep your goals small to get to the big goal

What’s your big goal? Do you want to lose 40 pounds? Do you want to run a half-marathon? You need to figure out what your big fitness goal is and then break it down into smaller goals that you can track by the week and month, Boucher says.

“It’s not hard to say you’ll exercise for 20 minutes, three times a week,” she said. “These little goals are achievable and attainable. And then when you evaluate at the end of the month, you can see how you’ve been successful.”

And once you obtain one small goal, keep it up but move on to the next one, she adds. Lose 2 pounds by cutting out sugar and junk foods for a week. Drink half the number of your body weight in ounces of water a day. Keep adding additional little goals as you go.

Schedule yourself into your day

“The other thing that it is so necessary is to schedule yourself into the day,” Boucher said. “A lot of people just assume it’s going to happen. For many people it doesn’t because people feel overwhelmed with business of schedules.”

Pick a time, put it in your schedule where you block out an hour to exercise and make it happen.

Use a buddy system

Enlist the help of a friend or family member, Boucher recommended.

“It’s always helpful to have support system,” she said. “A lot of times people stop working out because they feel alone in quest for fitness.”

If your schedules are busy, pick two or three days out of the week where you can meet at the gym for a class or go outside for a walk. Make goals with your friend or family member, too. A workout buddy can help push you farther than you’d go yourself.

“It can feel like a daunting task all by yourself, but doing it with a friend really does make it a little bit easier,” Boucher said.

Write it down

A study conducted with the 1979 Harvard MBA program found that only 3 percent of students had written down goals for the future, 13 percent had goals but had not written them down and 84 percent had no future goals at all, Forbes.com reported. When researchers contacted the graduates 10 years later, the 3 percent who had written down their goals were earning about 10 times as much as the other members of their class. The takeaway from this? Writing down your goals can be extremely important in how successful you are in achieving them.

Boucher agrees. She said keeping a journal for food and exercise will help people figure out what works and what doesn’t for them.

“A journal helps you feel accountable,” she said. “It also encourages you to exercise and eat healthy food.”

Write down your goals at the beginning of your journal so you can look at them every day. If you want to keep track with an app, make sure you write down your goals and post them where you’ll see them every day, like your bathroom mirror.

No excuses

One more bit of advice for Utahns during the winter: Don’t let the cold get you down, Boucher said. Utah is a great place to exercise outdoors during the spring, summer and fall, but when the winter inversion hits, it can be hard to want to move from your super-comfy couch during a Netflix marathon.

“Options that are worth looking at are joining a gym for just the winter months,” Boucher said. “And there are a lot of different gym options in Utah.”

Love boxing? Find a boxing gym. Crossfit is a great option for people who like to work out in groups, she said. You can also find a traditional gym just about anywhere.

Not a gym person at all? Find a DVD you like or subscribe to an online fitness streaming service where you can choose a new workout every day. You can even ask a friend to use his or her home gym.

How will you keep your New Year’s fitness resolutions this year? Let us know in the comments.

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