Top Tips for Making Your New Year’s Resolutions Stick

Happy New Year!

It’s that time again. The time where we all feel a little rejuvenated, excited and hopeful about a brand new year ahead. Anything is possible! I’m going to exercise 5 days a week! I’m going to make all of my meals at home! No more fast food ever! Sound familiar? Unfortunately, as the weeks go on, with the holidays far behind us and the winter blues starting to set in, we often begin to run low on motivation (either that or it freezes up like everything else…). The hardest part of New Year resolutions is sustaining them throughout the year, when life returns to normal and motivation is lacking. Here are my top tips for creating healthful resolutions that last.

Think tiny & be realistic. Picture it: you’ve got a big huge goal sitting in front of you, maybe it’s losing weight, running a marathon or learning to cook. Looking at these goals head-on can be very intimidating and overwhelming, making reaching that goal seem impossible. Instead of looking at the ginormous end- goal, think about the small tiny goals that are going to help you get there. For example, if your goal is to lose weight, what are the daily things that will help you get to that big goal?

I will walk 30 minutes 3 days per week, I will make sure to eat at least 1 fruit or vegetable with each meal, I will use MyPlate as a meal planning guide for at least 1 meal per day.

These are all things you can check off your list for the day or the week and feel good about what you’ve accomplished!

Be specific. When making those tiny goals, be as specific as you can. Notice in the above example I mentioned walking 3 days per week for 30 minutes. Even this one seems a big too vague for my taste. Ideally, you would be able to look at your own schedule and plan for the week which days you would be able to accomplish walking. For example : “I will walk 30 min on Tuesday during lunch, 30 minutes Thursday morning before work, 30 minutes Saturday afternoon at the park”. By including your daily goals as a part of your day, this will ensure you have time for them- and actually DO them!

Keep making new goals. The great thing about setting small, realistic goals is that, in time, you hopefully make these things habits and something you just do rather than have to plan for. When you start finding these goals are no longer challenging, create new goals by either expanding on ones you’ve previously made (walk for 30 minutes 4 days a week!) or creating completely new ones. This will have your motivation-juices flowing all year long!

Grab a partner. Having someone in your corner, whether it’s a friend, significant other or family member, will help you stay on top of your goals. You can either make goals together or simply have someone you can share your goals with to keep you accountable.

If you’d like help creating and/or sticking with your health & nutrition goals, set up a one-on-one consultation with Emily today!