New Year’s Resolutions That You’ll Actually be Able to Keep
We all probably know what the common New Year’s resolutions are: lose weight. Go to the gym. Eat healthy. You might also know the problem with these resolutions: they’re completely vague, which makes them nearly impossible to accomplish.
Eat healthy, but how? What are you going to eat? What changes are you going to make? You might’ve realized this before and made more slightly actionable resolutions. Ones like: “don’t eat carbs” or “don’t have dessert during the week.” To be honest, I’m sure we’ve all been there with resolutions like that. I know I have! But here’s the thing: 9 times out of 10, they don’t work.
Resolutions that tell you what you can’t have don’t work because they’re not clear and they’re negative – they make you feel like you’re already doing something wrong by telling you all the things you shouldn’t be doing. These resolutions set anyone up for failure. You’re human, and some point, it only makes sense that you’ll want to eat carbs or dessert. Life without either one is completely unrealistic!
But then, when you do eat the carbs or dessert, inevitably, you feel like you failed. You might nix the resolution completely and decide to just throw the towel in on healthy eating altogether.
It makes complete sense that you’d feel this way. And this pattern is super, super common. But, like all things in nutrition, your New Year’s resolutions don’t have to be so black and white between accomplishing them or failing at them. There’s another way to do it.
Instead, I like to focus on resolutions that add things to your life. Trust me, you can still focus on healthy eating as your New Year’s resolution! But, when you shift the focus to a positive, addition mindset, instead of a restriction and subtraction mindset, you set yourself up for success much more easily.
Here are 3 resolutions to consider for 2020:
1. Eat your favorite food once a week.
I know, I know, what?! A healthy eating resolution and eating a not-so-healthy food once a week, but hear me out: when you know you can have this food, and that you can have it often, it decreases incessant cravings for that food.
Let’s call it cookies (my personal favorite food!). If you told yourself you weren’t allowed cookies, they would be that much more tempting. Every time you’re around them, you’d ruminate over how much you want them but can’t have them.
Instead, you know you’re allowed to have cookies once a week. In fact, you have to have cookies once a week. So now, when you’re in a situation when you’re around them, you’re able to take a step back and ask yourself: “do I actually want these cookies? Or are they just there? Would I prefer different cookies? Am I even in the mood for a cookie right now?”
And then, when you do have cookies, it makes your enjoyment level that much higher. You’re able to have cookies when you know you were craving them, eat the exact cookie you were craving, eat an amount that leaves you comfortably, but not overly full, and therefore, feel satisfied.
One caveat: try to be a little flexible with this rule. These New Year’s resolutions are meant to be easy to follow, and not meant to make your life harder. So call it “your favorite food once a week with a grain of salt.” Some weeks, you might want it twice a week, and some weeks, maybe not at all. Both are okay!
2. Add more vegetables to your lunch every day.
I’m a firm believer that veggies are the healthiest food we can eat. They’re loaded with different vitamins and minerals, plus fiber, that our bodies need. Every vegetable offers a different combination of nutrients (usually based on its color!) – you can’t go wrong with any of them.
Like the first resolution too, this one focuses on what you can add to your diet to make it healthier, not what you have to take away. Instead of telling yourself things you can’t have, you’re giving yourself something concrete to add every single day.
Us dietitians are big fans of SMART goals – has anyone heard of them? SMART stands for specific, measurable, actionable, realistic and time-related. While I don’t nitpick that every single goal follows SMART guidelines exactly, I do like that the idea of these goals allows you to know exactly what to do in order to make the goal happen.
So, for this goal, you know that you’re adding veggies – let’s say at least 1 cup – to your lunch, every day. You know how to make this happen; it doesn’t leave room for question. If you feel like this might be hard to do at lunch or you’re already set with veggies at lunch, try doing it at dinner instead. It’s a great idea at either meal.
Some ideas include: adding a side salad with your lunch sandwich or piling your sandwich with lettuce, tomatoes and other veggies; mixing in roasted broccoli or zucchini noodles with your pasta; or adding a side of any roasted veggies – like carrots or snap peas – with your leftovers.
I love this resolution because it has immediate effects too. Chances are, adding more veggies to your lunch will make you feel more full, more satisfied, and more energized after lunch right away.
3. Find an exercise you enjoy.
“Go the gym” is such a vague resolution. When are you going – before work? After work? On weekends? Plus, how often are you going? And what are you doing when you go?!
Instead, let’s make this goal actionable. And, even more so, let’s make it enjoyable. Because nothing screams “I’ll be gone from this gym by February” like forcing yourself to do a form of exercise that you absolutely hate.
Think about what you enjoy. Or, if it’s been a while since you’ve exercised, think about what sounds most appealing to you. Does a dance class sound fun? Or maybe a morning walk outside for fresh air before you start your day? How about a 20-minute HIIT or strength training video to follow at home that’s fast and convenient?
Here’s the thing: there is no right or wrong way to exercise. You don’t need to be profusely sweating or have burned thousands of calories for exercise to effective and impactful.
So, focus this year on finding the exercise that sounds best to you. Aside from the physical, a huge benefit of exercise is the feel-good-hormones and stress relief it provides. Once you find an exercise that you enjoy doing and that gives you that feel-good-feeling, you’ll want to keep doing it.
And then, once you find it, can you look at your schedule and figure out 3 times per week that it would be realistic to do it? Again, you don’t need to (and actually shouldn’t) work out 7 days a week (seriously, rest days are important!). Keep it realistic and achievable with 3 days a week to start. If you find that you love it and have the time to add in another day or 2, go for it.
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Like with anything, yourself some slack. While these resolutions will be much more easy to follow, simply do the best you can. Life happens, and it would be so unrealistic to expect to follow these through 100% of the time.
In general though, these resolutions are not only much more easily achievable than the standard “eat healthy, lose weight, go to the gym” resolutions, but they’re also so much more positive. Negative resolutions (like “eat healthy, lose weight”) imply that you were doing something wrong before or that you aren’t good enough without accomplishing these things.
Positive resolutions reframe the situation. They give you actionable steps to more easily accomplish, without feeling like a failure right off the bat. Not only are they much more easy to achieve, but they’ll also make you feel good, both physically and mentally. When you feel good physically and mentally, you’ll want to keep these things up. And when you keep these things up, you’ll keep feeling better and better.
It’s a positive, perpetuating cycle that you’ll be so happy to be on.
Happy 2020!!
Want to learn more about healthy eating and creating a positive mindset around food and exercise? Check out All Foods Fit, my membership program with 12 thorough lessons, or check out my e-book, 7 Days to Make All Foods Fit.
