One of the biggest draws of the New Year is the idea that it is fresh, and new, and unmarred by the past. There is this inherent belief that this year will be better than the last. In setting the perfect new years resolution, it is not a set amount of weight, certain amount of miles, or a list of new exercises to try. These tips to improve any New Years resolution can be used to help you improve, whatever your goals will be.
There is a hope each New Years that the barriers you experienced in the past will now no longer be there. They won’t be a hindrance to the progress you want to see. There is the ideology that you can reset your life with the forward tick of a clock.
Yet, the reality of the New Year is that you are still you, life is still happening and there is no magic stroke of midnight that evaporate all of your cares and worries.
The Good New Years News
There are skills, tactics and approaches that we can learn to better manage the reality that life is still the same. Over the past decade there has been a push to be “10% better”. This can also be seen when you are encouraged to improve a little each day. If you do so, by the end of the year you are light-years ahead of where you were.
In the health industry, most professionals discuss lifelong health behaviors or small, simple, sustainable changes. All of these approaches are helpful, but it comes back to one solitary idea.
Health is not one decision, it is a million little ones.
Zach Cordell, Registered Dietitian Nutritionist
Oh how we wish we could just say, “I don’t want to eat out anymore” and viola, you don’t eat out anymore. Or to start running and now you are a fanatic. You now watch marathon races on TV and frequent your local shop to hang out with your runner friends.
But, it is never that easy.
Barriers to change
As I said earlier, your life is going to change. This can be hard to remember when you are hard and fast on your new goals. That is why these tips to improve any New Years resolution will apply to your resolutions regardless of their focus.
If your goal is to stop eating out, that is fine. However, some days we may be running late and still feel overwhelmed. The thought of having to go home and decide what’s for dinner, make dinner, eat dinner, and clean it up afterward is just too much. Low and behold, eating out is now more appealing and you may break your resolution.
If your goal is to run more, you may start running and enjoying it. Then the weather changes and its colder so you sleep in and skip your run a few times. Or your work schedule changes, or you have another kid. Now you have fallen out of the habit you had created.
If you want to succeed over the long run, you will need to understand that one decision will not make or break you.
The slice of key lime pie for desert (or dinner), the pasta for breakfast, the double bacon cheeseburger are not the end all, be all.
The important part is to be flexible in your goals, and to reflect on them often. Be willing to recalculate if you miss a milestone.
The New Years Resolution Challenge
This New Year, I challenge you to accept that you can make a different decision next time.
This is not to say that you should procrastinate your healthy choices. Instead it encourages you to recognize that one “bad” choice doesn’t dictate the rest of your life. It is not all or nothing. The issue with “this or that” thinking is that it is never as clear cut as “this” or “that”. Family may be in town, money may be tight, time might be limited, but those things can change and when they do, so can you.
Here are 3 tips to improve any new years resolution. These will be important for you to use and will improve your approach to health.
3 tips to improve every resolution
Tip 1: Recognize that information is just that, information.
If your goal is to lose weight, or to get stronger recognize that the numbers are just numbers. The scale is not bad, and neither is the number on it. The amount of calories that you are recommended to consume are not made up information out to guilt you. Taking that step back from information and using it as a tool that informs your future decision rather than a tool to inflict guilt and shame on yourself will allow you to change.
Tip 2: Make it an experiment
Now that you are recognizing that you are simply gathering data, be okay with not getting there in the timeline you’ve set. Play the long game. You can view your resolution as an experiment and recognize that you are seeking to establish healthy routines. You simply have to adjust your output based on new information you receive.
If you remember that you are seeking life long health, having a week to recover, or a holiday break is not the end and you are not starting from the bottom. You have a history of healthy behaviors, and you are aware of what works and what doesn’t for you. This will inform your decisions moving forward to help you continue your healthy behaviors.
Tip 3: Check in with yourself regularly.
This is best done once a week. If you are only checking in on yourself when you feel bad about yourself then you won’t want to review your behaviors and habits. Think of investing in the stock market and how you want to continually add money rather than just add a lot all at once. This evens out the price you pay for stocks. On a simpler level, consider how you pay for gas. If you were to get gas more frequently, when your car is at half a tank rather than empty, you will not worry as much about the variation on the price of gas.
Checking in on yourself more frequently allows you to balance the “good moods” and “bad moods”. To help keep yourself accountable, check in and ask yourself some of the following questions.
- Ask, are you being understanding of yourself?
- Are you being too soft on yourself?
- What are your expectations?
- How have you succeeded?
- What do you still want to change?
If you will take the time to put these three tips into your New Years plan you will keep your resolution longer. Not only will it last longer, but you will feel more comfortable with it. They will help you to establish a lifelong approach to health rather than the short-term payoff. If you’re looking for more tips on how to best approach health, consider this article on health lessons from Loki.
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Authored by Zach Cordell, Registered Dietitian Nutritionist at www.cordellnutrition.com