No, this blog is not late, I really want to talk about New Year’s resolutions. The top 4 New Year’s resolutions made in Australia all evolve around health: More fitness, healthier eating, quit smoking and drinking. But how many of these New year’s resolutions are still being followed one month into 2018? Did people really make a difference and change their life style? It is said it takes 30 days to create a new habit, so with roughly 30 days into 2018: Did your New Year’s resolution turn into a habit?
The good feeling we get by reminiscing on our accomplishments of the past year in December, are all made obsolete about defining basically our failures: ‘I need to get fit’, because the only real movement that happened in the past year was on my bank account by paying my monthly membership fees. ‘I need to eat healthier’ since these regular sugar binges make me feel so sluggish.
So here are my top 3 of ideas how to keep your New Year’s resolutions. No, we are not going to wait until 2019 to start afresh, we just start NOW. And call them ‘February resolutions’ or something.
Do not rely on will power alone
Most resolutions are purely based on willpower, and unfortunately, willpower is not infinite. After a hearty breakfast you will have the power to clear out all the junk food from the kitchen cupboards, after a rough day at work, not so much. If eating healthier is one of your goals (which I hope it is of course) make sure you gear up the environment to fall back on, when your willpower is not present.
So pick that strong moment to clear your cupboards of junk food, pre-cook meals and freeze them, come up with some healthy ‘go – to – meals’, buy a (small) amount of healthy snacks and set up an automatic fresh produce delivery so you will have something to fall back on. And if you have a friend who has made the same resolution, team up! Make a date to share healthy meals once or twice a week together to double up on that will power!
Stick (close) to what you know
Sure, there are plenty of superfoods and ‘Lose weight quick’ diets out there, but if most of them confuse you, or are drastically different from your current lifestyle, it is going to be very difficult to stick to it. You have more chance of succeeding if you stick close to your current diet and make adjustments from there. That way you do not have to think what is ‘allowed’ or get used to different tastes. If eggs on toast is your normal breakfast, add spinach and tomato instead of making a drastic move to swapping your whole breakfast to a green smoothie. You really do not have to chase superfoods in order to get healthier. If kale is too much for you, add more broccoli. Don’t know which café serves up acai bowls? Stick to an apple and some nuts. Just use your common sense here and make (small) step changes to your current lifestyle.
Resolutions aren’t a number’s game
We tend to add numbers to our resolution, since that is how we keep track right? Well, not really. Mostly they are way to optimistic. You look at your empty calendar for 2018 and think that it would be easy to cook fresh healthy meals every day of the week and squeeze in a few gym sessions. We have new ideas for the New Year, but unfortunately our environment doesn’t change overnight.
The place we go to for lunch with our colleagues will still be the same. But instead of ditching them and find a new vegan and gluten free café, it is easier to do a bit of research to find out what the healthier option is (unless it only sells donuts, then you all should just find a new place to eat).
If you manage to cook one or two healthy meals a week, your new year’s resolution should be to double up on your amounts and freeze those extra meals.
I think the thing with New Year resolutions it that it represents a wish list of how our life would be better if we were slimmer, trimmer and did not smell of cigarettes. And although this might be true, you need more than just a date and a bucket load of will power.
So get rid of your guilt and re-think those New Year’s resolutions!
Merry Christmas and Happy February!