Did you set Health New Year’s Resolutions in 2019?
Are you setting new goals to live a healthier lifestyle for next year in 2020? Here are some tips for making your New Years resolutions (goals) stick.
How To Set Achievable New Year Resolutions
I hear proclamations every new year as I’m sure you do too… “This year I’m going to go to the gym four times a week”, “My new years resolution is to quit smoking”, “I will lose 20 pounds, get a beach body and look great for summer”…
We’ve all been there at some point or other, the New Year starts and so do our resolutions. And why not, the New Year is all about new beginnings, hopes and dreams.
The problem occurs when we’re not realistic with our resolutions or when we don’t map (plan) them out specifically. This makes the work more difficult, and it will be harder to accomplish all of your goals.
That’s what your New Year’s Resolutions are by the way, your goals for the new year.
It’s great that you want to get healthy this New Year. By now, we all know the important link that nutrition, the foods we eat, play in our health. We also know how smoking, excessive alcohol, and lack of exercise can affect our health in negative ways.
If you’ve been putting off starting your healthy habits because it seems like too much of a daunting task or just haven’t had the motivation, then New Years is a great time to get started.
You can leverage the momentum created by others that are following a healthy lifestyle for the new year also.
Here is some information on staying healthy and keeping your body in optimum shape, by incorporating small achievable steps into your everyday life.
If you want to lose weight, have more energy, feel healthier all around this New Year and beyond read on….
Your Mindset – Your New Body Starts Here
Before starting your new healthy eating or exercise regime, you’ll need to work on your current mindset and identify patterns that have stopped you from accomplishing your goals in the past.
One way to success is to “stop the things that are not working for you”.
Discard any labels and negative thoughts that have been cast upon you throughout your life by others, or even yourself. These could be stopping you from having what you really want. Develop new and more empowering thoughts about yourself.
Thoughts like – “My sister is the pretty one and I’m the smart one”, “I’ve always been the dumpy one in the family”, “I can’t lose weight no matter how hard I try”. These thoughts will be counter productive to your best efforts. You don’t have to be tied down by labels or negative thoughts.
Think of this opportunity as a clean slate, a fresh start – you can do anything you want to do.
It may sound cliché but it’s so true, that you can set your mind to what you really want and make it happen. You deserve to have the things you want and if you don’t act now the year will pass and you’ll be in the same place, making the same resolutions next year.
So let’s get started: What do you really want to accomplish health wise? Is it to quit smoking, lose 20 or 30 pounds, have more energy?
Write it down and look at what you’ve written.
Visualize just how much different your life would be if you accomplished this goal.
Go beyond the physical aspects of losing weight (if that is your goal) but also think of how much healthier you will feel, how much more energy you’ll have. You’ll need extra motivation beyond looking good to keep you going. Persistence and positive self talk is key.
If you want to quit smoking then visualize just how much better your life will be. Think of those that love you and how terrible it would be for them to see you suffering from a smoke-related illness. Use positive affirmations to help you in the beginning.
Related Post — How To Make Affirmations That Help You Achieve Your Goals
To get ahead, you’ll need to get rid of your negative thoughts and patterns once and for all. (eg. Who says you are big boned and why should you believe them anyway.)
Okay, you may not be able to physically look like a super model (those images that have touched up by the way) but you can certainly shed a little extra weight, have more energy and tone up. Your life gets better and longer the healthier you get.
Chuck the labels out the window and get ready to create the life you want… remember think clean slate and new beginnings.
Vanishing Bad Habits: Do you reach for the donuts as soon as something goes wrong in your life? Does a stressful incident send you running to the smoker’s corner?
It’s time to banish these habits and the hold they have over you. Stop telling yourself you’re a comfort eater, if you say it long enough you’ll start to believe it and it won’t help your best efforts.
You really don’t need that cigarette or drink if something stresses you out. You can cope with the things life throws your way without resorting to comfort from other influences.
A good way to banish these bad habits is by cramming them out with a more empowering habit pattern, and giving yourself positive reinforcement.
Tell yourself daily you can cope with things, you don’t need that extra serving of ice cream, you don’t need that drink.
Take time to analyze why you’re doing these things rather than just mindlessly doing them. Many times you’ll be able to trace these habits back to childhood.
Did you see one of your parents lighting a cigarette or having a drink every time they got stressed out? Did your mother always comfort you with a nice slice of homemade apple pie?
More than likely you can learn why you’re doing these things in the first place and this is the first step to making a change. You’re not alone when it comes to bad habits, we all have one or two things we could do without.
Realize many have been there for a life time and we’ve conditioned ourselves to accept these bad habits as “just part of who we are”. That’s absolute garbage, you may have certain bad habits but you don’t have to live with them.
This is YOUR life, make it the way you want. You are the designer. You are the captain of your ship. You can change directions at will.
And finally be kind to yourself, it won’t be easy to change a life time of bad habits. Don’t beat yourself up if you do have that extra cookie or can’t make it to the gym.
That’s not saying you should slack altogether but we all make mistakes and have setbacks. Accept these little setbacks for being just that, little setbacks. Adjust and move on.
Understand that you are human and are not perfect. None of us are. By giving in to self defeating behavior you’ll only feel worse and you’ll be less than likely to pick yourself up and get back on track.
Persistence.
That is what is really needed to achieve your New Years Resolutions. Persist long enough to ingrain the new habits and you will have everything you wanted to achieve this year. Do something different this year and achieve your goals (new year’s resolutions).