How To Stick to Your New Year's Resolutions

Another year has passed and you probably are making the same new year's resolution again. Odds are you are just one of the statistics. There are more gym member sign-ups in January than any other month of the year. It is because of all of the people like you who want to start their life fresh. Now another sad fact is that most of these people will be gone and stop working out by March. If you don't want to be like them try these tips:

1. Start of Slow
The body doesn't do well with dramatic change. Odds are if you go from a couch potato from a gym-rat overnight, you won't be able to stick with your plans. However, if you just plan on showing up! to the gym (you don't have to work out), and then leave. Do that just 3 times a week. Then maybe the next week you could start working out for 10 minutes, then 20, then build up until you are working out your desired amount. This will help you slowly become acclimated to the gym, and you will be able to build up a habit of going, making you less likely to break it.



2. Eat 1 healthy meal per day
So the same logic goes for diet as it does for the gym. Even though diet is more important than working out in terms of weight-loss, we will start out even slower. Let's say you eat 5 meals per day (including snacks), try to eat just 1 healthy meal a day. So if you snack on chips during work, eat an apple. Do that just once a day for a month. Then the next month continue eating that apple in place of potato chips, but then if you have another snack after work when you go home, replace that snack with a piece of fruit. Then you can start working on your main meals. Before you know it, all your meals will be healthy, and you won't desire any of the bad food again.



3. It's Ok To Cheat
Now I'm not saying it's ok to completely ditch your diet all together, but after a couple of months of rigorous dieting, its ok to maybe have 1 or 2 cheat meals per week. These aren't meals where you completely binge, they are more like meals where instead of the apple you will have potato chips. In these meals you reward yourself but you don't go too over the edge, because it is easy to get back right where you started.

If you follow this advice you should have no problem sticking to your new year's resolutions, and hey maybe you will inspire someone else in the process.

Posted in: General Wellness