How to stick to an exercise resolution for 2016

Do you plan to exercise more in 2016? So how are you going to make that resolution stick?

It might take a few bucks.

This might get an eye roll, but the official recommendation when it comes to exercise from the Department of Health and Human Services is 150 minutes a week.

If you want to lose weight, you might want to aim for double that time, about 300 minutes a week. But you can start off slowly, even just 10 minutes a day.

Here's the tough part, kicking off any new exercise routine and sticking to it.  A Cleveland Clinic psychologist says you need to give yourself some incentive.

"In the early going when we're trying something new we're struck by the discomforts of it," said Scott Bea, Cleveland Clinic. "And we can be put off by that new behavior before we get to the benefits or before it becomes habit. So, I like incentivizing any new habit that might be uncomfortable."]

Bea recommends throwing a couple of bucks in a jar every time you go to the gym and working towards a grand prize experience, event or object you've been itching to have.

Just remember, the only way you can get to your grand prize is by accumulating the money in the jar.

The nice thing about this type of incentive is that even if you fall off the wagon one day, you can jump right back on the next day and your whole program isn't blown.

Bea says creating early incentives can help keep you on track.

"In doing so we can get to that spot where it's now a habit, that just means it gets to the deep part of our brain called the basal ganglia," Bea said. "And we don't resist the performance of the habit so much anymore.

"It gets easier to go to the gym, but we have to stay with it, so try incentivizing that early on."

According to Bea, it takes 63 days to create a new habit and to make it stick.