Hooray, we’ve made it to THAT time of the year. The time when the stress of Christmas is behind us, and we’re facing a shiny, bright new year ahead. So what better way to face that new year than by resolving to be so much better than we were the last? We’ll be thinner, healthier, work less, and have more time for our friends and family. We’ll be so fabulous! New year, new you, right? Wrong. I’m sad to say that nothing magical happens when the clock strikes midnight on December 31st, despite what we tell each other. So, while there is a place for resolutions, they shouldn’t be the be-all and end-all of every NYE.
Think of resolutions as those annoying SMART goals you’re forced to set for yourself in your annual work appraisal. The only difference is these will benefit you! After all, that’s all resolutions are, goals. They’re end goals, but often without all the mini goals designed to help you reach them. Therefore, the more realistic you are about your health and fitness goals, the more likely you are to achieve them. If you enjoy a glass or three of wine every evening, instead of saying, ‘Tomorrow I’m going to stop drinking wine,’ tell yourself, by March, I want to have stopped drinking wine EVERY DAY, and think about how you will do that. Will you have one less glass a day, one less bottle a week, and only have it on special occasions? Breaking the resolution into smaller resolutions is less daunting, AND you’ll feel less guilty if you succumb to the odd glass here and there.
You cannot become a different person overnight. It’s simply not possible. We are all works in progress; not one of us is perfect, and by putting so much pressure on ourselves to change that one thing we hate (or think other people hate) about us, we’re setting ourselves up for failure, particularly if that thing is a habit we’ve had for many years. Very few people can go cold turkey, so it is much better to tell yourself that you will TRY to give up that habit and then take it one day at a time. And if you manage a day or two days without having that cigarette, drinking wine with dinner, eating chocolate before every meal, etc, then relapse, don’t beat yourself up, and decide you may as well not bother now because you ‘broke’ your resolution. Start again the following hour, afternoon, evening. Rome wasn’t built in a day!
Suppose you want to improve your life by making healthier choices; great! But you don’t have to make ALL those choices in one day. Deciding overnight only to eat foods you consider healthy and to work out four days a week, having never worked out before, will put you on a hiding to nothing. Instead, choose one food to switch out or one meal where everything on your plate is a healthier choice. If you deprive yourself of everything you enjoy eating in one go, you will inevitably crave every one of them and be gorging by January 5th—likewise, an exercise regime. Start small. Making a new habit is much easier if you make little changes and build on them. Decide on one day a week and one activity, be it walking, cycling, or doing an online workout, and determine to spend the time you know you can spare doing that activity. Make it an activity you think you will enjoy, giving you the best chance of sticking to it. There is no point telling yourself you will go for an hour swim every other day when you know full well you only have 10 minutes to spare, and you can’t swim.
The most important thing to remember is that we make our resolutions, and we do so as we feel there are parts of our lives that could be improved. The only person you need to be accountable to is you. Don't feel the need to make an excuse if you do reach for the wine, or can't be bothered doing that workout you promised yourself. Your resolutions are nobody's business but yours so be kind to yourself when making them and even kinder to yourself when breaking them. In the words of Winston Churchill:-
'Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts'.
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