New Year, New You, New Health!

With the coming of a New Year, many of us participate in forming New Year’s Resolutions. These resolutions we make to ourselves serve to push us closer to goals we wish to achieve over the course of the year.  The top 3 most common resolutions are: dieting/eating healthier, exercising more, and the third one, losing weight. All of these can be condensed into a single word: health.  Year after year, a majority of us want to focus on improving our health. Unfortunately, New Year’s resolutions are often abandoned halfway through the year, or even earlier. Maybe our initial goals were too broad or too demanding, not allowing us to enjoy our time and simply adding more stress to our lives. So how do we become healthier and more active if all our goals lead to us failing or giving up?

When it comes to resolutions, whether they start in the New Year or halfway through, they need to be concise, specific, and most importantly attainable. This last portion, attainability, is the difference between a successful goal and an unsuccessful one. Let’s break down the most common resolution: eating healthier/dieting. The vague nature sets individuals up for failure. It allows them to bend their own rules and create exceptions over time until they just forget about the resolution entirely. Pick an aspect of dieting and healthy eating you want to accomplish. Maybe eating less sugar or drinking less coffee. Both of these goals can be monitored and tracked. You can go further still and set a specific gram amount or ounce amount for sugar and coffee a day/week/month and so on. Now check to make sure it is attainable. If you work in a coffee shop, or next to one, it may be very difficult to limit the amount of coffee you drink. One simple change to your routine is all it takes to start healthy habits. Every journey begins with a step.

Another way to give yourself an advantage towards completing your New Year’s resolutions is timing. Instead of setting a broad, year-long goal of losing 40lbs, shorten it. Try setting multiple short term goals over the year. For example a month-long goal of losing 4lbs is a lot less daunting than 40 and allows you to stay focused and engaged in your resolution. As you finish one month successfully, continue to set more goals every month and over the course of the year you have completed more of your New Year’s resolutions than you ever have before!

 When it comes to focusing on your health this New Year, it doesn’t need to be about losing weight or changing your diet in any way. It can be focused on mental health or on your stress level. Setting goals such as reading for 20 minutes every night, limiting cellphone use in the evening, or even spending 15 minutes a night meditating are all fantastic resolutions. This type of resolution allows for an individual to reduce stress, worry, and anxiety while engaging in an activity that they may not get a chance to do as often as they wish. It can be vitalizing and many feel increased focus and engaged in activities such as work or social events.

As we continue through the first month of this New Year, take time to think about what health really means to you. Whether its physical health or mental well-being, make it a point to form your own resolution; maybe it is just for a week, or a month, or even the whole year. Take that first step. As many have said over time, without your health, nothing else matters.