Making healthy New Year resolutions

In theory, a New Year’s resolution is a great idea. January is as good a time as any to reevaluate, prioritize and make changes.

In practice, many ambitious health goals made on January 1 dissolve into self-defeating thinking and disappointment. However, that doesn’t mean that all New Year’s resolutions need to end in frustration and failure. The trick is making the right one. But what is the right one?

Before you can even get that far, you need to take a long, hard look at where you currently stand on the health spectrum. You need to do a thorough assessment of your health. It is through doing this assessment that you will be able to do away with bad habits or you may be able to see what is lacking health wise and plan on working to improve these areas.

Honestly acknowledging where you are currently in terms of your health and fitness level is the first important step.

While the spirit behind setting a New Year’s resolution is to make positive change to one’s health and fitness, so often people establish goals without being realistic about where they are starting from.

Even if perhaps your current level of health and fitness is not where you want it to be, being honest with yourself about where you are presently and using that information as a baseline from which to work will help you to establish realistic, attainable goals for the New Year.

The other important thing is to be mindful that you are not making a shopping list. One reason why most New Year’s resolutions fail is because we fail to be realistic and we make a long list of goals. Most of these goals require discipline, time, commitment and sometimes money. Therefore, after doing a thorough assessment of your health and prioritizing the areas that you want to work on, it would be best to choose one or two that will really impact your health.

Remember that your resolutions/goals should be SMART. That is they should be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely. For instance, ‘I would like to take three aerobics classes a week for 60 days.’ If at the end of that 60 days, you achieved your goal, reward yourself with something worthwhile, such as a vacation or a massage. Just as you set your resolution in the beginning of the year, also plan your reward.

Finally, it will be useful for you to have a journal, so that you can document and see your progress. Find a friend who has the same goals so that you can motivate and encourage each other. Working with a friend allows for a little friendly competition and increased accountability.

Some resolutions can be: lose weight, quit smoking, cut your stress, exercise regularly, stay in touch with friends and family (this is very important for mental health), and eat healthily.

I wish you all the best for the New Year and hope that among the list of resolutions there is at least one health resolution. Remember to stay healthy for 2016.