How to Make a New Year’s Resolution You’ll Actually Keep

Every year we set health goals that so often, we just don’t fully see through.

Maybe its because those goals are unrealistic (i.e. “I’m going to stop eating chocolate” or “I’m going to lose X amount of weight”).

Now, its not that I am saying you should not be ambitious with your goals but really, its important to put things into perspective and realise the challenges involved in extreme 0-100 behaviours.

Whilst it is true that some people can certainly change their behaviours drastically overnight, for the majority, this can be very difficult and often results in feelings of failure or giving up completely.

For example, if your goal is to run 4 days a week for 1 hour each time. Consider how many days per week you run already. If this is 3 times a week, you shouldn’t have any problems increasing one more run into your weekly schedule. However, if you are completely new to running and aren’t clocking in any miles whatsoever, this goal will be a hugely challenging one.

The same goes with our diet. Your goal might be to never eat junk food again but if your lifestyle is typically built around fuelling up on fizzy beverages and sugary foods, this goal may seem insurmountable because it is too drastic a change. 

Instead, why not focus on a goal towards positive inclusions, building meals full of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and wholegrains and slowly reducing your intake of one element such as the fizzy drinks. Soon enough your body will be less dependent on these foods and you will start to enjoy consuming quality foods more often. Then you are much closer to a healthier lifestyle without that extreme thinking involved in “I must never eat X foods ever again”. Restriction thinking often creates cravings for those foods in the long-term and can lead to lapses in our eating behaviours.

 In short, whilst there is absolutely ZERO pressure to even have a new year goal, you might find that if you do set one, trying small incremental changes will be much more achievable than having to make drastic shifts.