How to Be Successful With Your New Years Goals/Resolutions

The new year is a good time for reassessing goals and making resolutions. New Year's resolutions have gotten a bit of a bad wrap over the years. I believe this is because New Year's resolutions tend to be unattainable goals that people set for themselves. “I want to drop 20 lbs in January”, “I am going to start working out 7 days a week”, “I am going to start cooking at home every night and stop eating out”, “I'm going to stop drinking alcohol completely” etc. etc. 

The problem with these goals/resolutions is that they are too drastic and when you go to begin on January 1st, it feels overwhelming. Or you start your extreme diet and it lasts for a couple days or a week because you cut way too many calories at once and barely have enough energy to make it through the day- and you certainly don’t have the energy to get to the gym for a workout or to try a new healthy recipe. New Year’s resolutions get a bad rap because they tend to be temporary changes that don’t last and by February 1st  you are back to your old ways because you didn’t make the changes in a sustainable manner. 

Rather than focusing on dropping weight or looking a certain way, it is more effective to focus on becoming the healthiest version of yourself. Eating a healthy diet and exercising is about so much more than losing weight and looking a certain way. It is about short term and long term health. Having more energy, feeling more confident, balancing mood, decreasing pain, getting better sleep, having a stronger immune system and the list goes on and on. And the long term benefits are also amazing- decreasing your risk of many chronic conditions like diabetes, cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis and more, and the benefit of having a better chance of enjoying life as you age and feeling your best so you can live life to the fullest with the ones you love! 

Doesn’t that all sound so much more amazing than just losing weight for a month or two just to put it back on down the road?! 

Okay, so now that we have cleared up the benefits of changing your perspective on your health goals/ resolutions for this year - how do you become successful with your goals?! 

There are three main points to focus on here: 

1. Mindset and perspective 
2. Make small sustainable changes 
3. Get support

Mindset and Perspective 

We have already touched on this above but it is crucial if your goal is to workout and eat healthy because I believe it is important to understand why you want to do these things. If you know the reasons why and the benefits, you are much more likely to carry through with the hard work ahead. 

I believe you are much more likely to show up for yourself day after day and stay committed to your goals if you know that getting movement and eating a healthy diet is going to: 

• help increase your energy
• help you get better sleep
• help you be more productive at work and home
• help you be more patient with your family
• decrease mood swings and help you feel like a more stable human being
• help you feel strong
• decrease your risk of a ton of different chronic conditions in the future 

Making Small Sustainable Changes

I will preach this over and over, because I think this is so important! For example, if you eat out 7 days a week it’s not going to be a good idea to all of a sudden expect yourself to cook healthy food every night and not eat out anymore for all of January. The goal here should be to focus on starting to incorporate a couple health at home meals per week and plan to have leftovers for a couple lunches per week as well. Or if you rarely eat veggies, your goal could be to have one extra serving of veggies per day - even if you are still way short of your 8 servings a day making these changes slowly is going to help keep you on track and prevent you from getting overwhelmed and quitting on yourself. If you haven't been prioritizing any movement in your life I don't suggest making your goal to go to the gym to workout 7 days a week. Start by getting 10 minutes of movement 2-3 times per week! You may feel like taking it slow is going to take you forever to lose the weight you are hoping to, or to get the 6 pack you plan on getting this year, but the truth is there are not many people that can go from 0 to 100 and actually meet their goals. Making small changes allows you to have the time and energy to actually do the things you say you are going to do and the fact is that once you start making these small changes you will want to do more because you will start to feel the benefit!

Getting Support

You don’t have to do it all on your own! The people who have gym buddies (at least in the beginning) are much more likely to stick to the plan and meet their goals because they have support and they have someone to keep them accountable! If nutrition is not your strong point it is so important to have the guidance from someone who knows what they are talking about- there is so much BS out there about nutrition and crazy diets it is hard to know what is actually going to benefit you. 

Support can come in many different ways- having the support of your family when it comes to nutrition and meals in the house, having the support of a walking or gym buddy when it comes to exercise, and having the support of a health professional who can guide you through evidence-based practices so you aren’t wasting time and money doing the wrong things!

Supporting people in their health journey is my passion. Sometimes this means working 1:1 with patients and sometimes this means supporting people through my online group education programs. I believe knowledge is power and that the most successful people are the ones who become the driver in their own health journey! There is nothing I love more than empowering people on their road to health, keeping them accountable and proving to them that they have what it takes to make these changes for the long term so they can live the life they love with the ones they love and enjoy it to the fullest.

If you are interested in learning more I have some free resources and some paid programs to support you in achieving your health goals this year: 

1. Balancing blood sugar webinar where we touch on some nutrition topics and learn key pieces of balancing blood sugar through nutrition (free)
2. Elevated Nutrition - self paced online educational program taking you through small sustainable changes to keep you accountable on your nutrition journey to help you succeed with your nutrition goals (link)
3. Elevate Your Health - self paced online education program guiding you through small sustainable changes in many different areas of health including - nutrition, movement, self care, sleep optimization, stress management, supplements and more!