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Hi everyone, it's your Fitness Mom here for a heart-to-heart New Year's chat. (CN: talk of food, weight in thread)
'Tis the season for a lot of diet talk, unfortunately. Let's get the basics down first: food can be fun as well as fuel, food is not something you "earn" by exercising, pain is ABSOLUTELY NOT ~weakness leaving the body~, drink water before you're thirsty.
If you're old hat at the gym thing (and you live in a part of the world where gyms ARE, you know, a thing right now), don't be a jerk to people who are there for the first time. Help them figure out equipment. If you can, answer questions.
KINDLY explain gym etiquette if necessary. (People might not realize they need to wipe up the sweaty spot they left on the weight machine.) Don't offer unwanted advice. DON'T be an asshole about other people's bodies or who you think should have the right to the squat rack.
If you're new to the gym, take it slowly. If you want to be stronger or faster or hit that sweet first-ever pullup this year, you're not going to do it by slamming face-first into a wall of soreness and exhaustion. Let alone an injury!
Strength and cardio are great but make time for mobility in your routine, too. Are you sitting at a desk right now? Hunched over a phone? Where are your shoulders currently located? Yeah, that's what I thought. Work that range of motion!
If you want to set goals, please please please set them based on things you can DO, not the numbers on the scale or the distance around your bicep. "I will weigh x pounds" is not a kind or, generally, realistic goal. "I want to add x% to my maximum deadlift by [date]" can be.
If you are setting goals (Do a pullup! Do a pistol squat! Build shoulder mobility! Increase overhead press by x%!) help yourself by also setting out concrete steps to achieve it. If you want your first pullup, for example--
--plan out a routine for how many negative pullups you're going to do, how many scapular pullups, how much grip-strength work, how long you're going to dead hang or hold the top pullup position. Map out a path from here to there and move along it only when your body says yes!
And THEN, be willing to change your plan if it's not working! No workout routine is one size fits all. Find what works for YOU.
Form matters more than how much weight you're moving. Check yourself in the mirrors, if there are some, or try recording yourself to watch, in slo-mo too, to make sure your core is staying solid and your knees aren't wibbly.
Good form will keep you safe; moving a million pounds ONCE and tearing your back in half will not.
Don't forget rest days, either! A schedule without rest built in is not a workout routine, it is a countdown to injury.
Some people, I am sorry to say, are going to act like New Year's arrivals don't belong in the gym. I would be happy to fight them for you. Longterm gym-goers don't get to tell you that you're unqualified for the squat rack. It's for you, too. (And squats are FUN.)
And, on the flip side, if you decide the gym isn't for you (or that one particular gym isn't), that is a personal choice and NOT a personal failing. Find your happy place somewhere else!
Be well, be happy, do it your way (and do it safely), and your Fitness Mom is always here in your corner. 
