Keeping that New Year's Resolution

Now that we are firmly in to 2017 those New Year’s Resolutions may seem to be distant thoughts. If that is the case, it is time to reevaluate your goals and find ways to stick with them. One key resolution that many people make is to lose weight and for some reason this resolution seems to be one of the most difficult to keep. If you have made this your goal and find yourself having difficulties sticking with it already, we can work together to determine some ways to change that.

1.   Reevaluate your goal. Any time you want to give up or lose something, this is a negative concept and that makes it more difficult to do. It feels like you have to sacrifice your diet and give up your free time to work out. Just changing your perspective to the positives that you want to happen can change your ability to lose weight. Instead of focusing on a number on the scale, think about what it is you really want to achieve by losing weight. Is it to have more energy? Is it to have a healthier lifestyle? Do you want to be able to run a half marathon? Is it to feel more comfortable in your own skin? Really think about why you want to lose weight. If you can come up with positive goals to aim for, then you may notice and celebrate the small changes over time that add up to those goals.

2.   Be realistic about your goals. If you decide you want to have the energy when you were a decade younger (and thinner at that time) and have a picture of yourself at that age you want to look like, you might be setting yourself up to fail. Plus, think about how you felt about yourself at that age. Most people are not happy with some parts of their body. Our bodies change over time and you may not slim down and look the same as you did back then. You may set unrealistic expectations of what your body will look like. If you want to look like a model or actress these too are unrealistic expectations. Think of it the same as hairstyles. Have you ever had a hairstylist tell you that the style of hair on the person in a picture will not look the same on you? Same with losing weight.

If you want to lose 10 lbs a week, this is not realistic. If you want to go from a size 10 to a size 6 in a few weeks, again, you will be upset and give up. Set daily and weekly goals that you can obtain and build from.

3.   Weight loss by itself will not make you happy. How many times have you heard someone say they lost weight and still wanted to lose more? They may look amazing but still have areas that just aren’t what they want. This goes with being realistic about the expectations you set up. Even if you hit some magical number on the scale that you think will make you happy, more than likely you will find issues you want to fix or another 5 lbs you want to lose. If you set your goals to be healthier, have more energy, sleep better, run a marathon, or something else along those lines, these are goals that can bring you some happiness but they will not specifically make you happier with the way you look. You will have to work on your self-image and self-esteem for that. Mindfulness meditation and positive imagery can help with this. Setting goals to work on your underlying beliefs about your body may also help. 

5.   Set daily, weekly, and monthly goals. Saying your goals and writing them down is the first step. Then think about what you need to do to get there. Writing this down can also help. Give yourself rewards if you reach these goals like a new song on your Ipod to listen to when exercising or going out with friends. Try to make your rewards non-dietary. Going out with friends doesn’t have to revolve around going out to eat – go play put-put, go for a hike, take a group bowling, window shop for a while, play at a park, have a games night. 

6.   Don’t think of changes in eating habits as sacrifices. Once again if you feel like you are giving something up, this makes it more difficult. When I start thinking about something rich and not too good for me, I first decide if this is something I really want? Am I just interested in having this because I feel I shouldn’t be eating it? If I feel that is the real reason behind why I want it, I remind myself that I can eat this at any time later too. It won’t disappear. The option is always there but now I want to eat something healthier than that.

Usually going through that mental exercise and reminding myself I can still have it but I really don’t need to eat it at this time resets that thought process so I don’t ruminate over wanting to eat it. Having a diary to work out your thoughts about food can also be useful. Consider hunger on a scale of 0 to 10 (0=starving/empty stomach, 10=completely stuffed to the point your pants are tight). When you feel hungry ask yourself where you are on that scale. If you are a 3-4, you probably are not really that hungry and you may be eating because of emotions. Write down what you are feeling and why you feel you need to eat something. If you feel you deserve to eat something after a long day, you are again eating out of emotions/stress/boredom/etc…. Many times we eat our emotions instead of address them. This exercise can help figure out when that is happening. Even if you feel you really want to eat something and you know you shouldn’t but you do, don’t stress out.

7.   If you slip up do not beat yourself up about it. We all have a day where the planned exercise didn’t happen or we ate more of something we had not planned to eat. If you acknowledge that this happened and move on, you are fine. Don’t allow the guilt of messing up to set in. If you do, chances are you will use this as an excuse to keep doing what you have always done and give up.  I like to think of slip ups like this as learning opportunities. These are not failures because you can learn from it. How did you feel physically and mentally after you had your slip up? What about the next day? I usually find if I go and eat something greasy or not so healthy that within a few hours I have less energy and even the next morning I don’t feel as good as I normally do. Remember those feelings so that the next time you feel like you will slip up you can bring those memories to the front of your thoughts and ask yourself if you really want to feel that way again.

I hope these tips help. We all need goals to improve ourselves. I thought about getting in to the length it takes to develop a habit but in all honesty, some people make them faster than others and sometimes something you did for the past year stops when you get sick or go on vacation. So habits change and we need to always stay on our toes to know when this happens to see if it is a good habit or one we need to adjust. We can talk more about habits at another time. Now it’s time to take a look at those New Year’s Resolutions and make them happen.