New Year is a great time to make a fresh start, but don’t be fooled. The only secret to starting and keeping new routines and habits is your commitment, not the time of the year. You can set a set of New Year’s resolutions, but if you do not want them, you will drop them before you know it. Your New Year resolutions should never be about what you should do but about what you want to do. There are nuances even with a goal like getting healthier or getting more fit. How you complete such a goal will make a huge difference in your efforts and your success.
If you have dropped the ball on new year’s resolutions in the past and want to make changes for your health this year, then consider restructuring your focus. By framing your resolutions in a better light and adapting your approach, you may find it easier to turn a resolution into a reality:
Instead of Losing Weight, Focus on Eating Healthier
One of the big resolutions on everyone’s to-do list is to lose weight, but this is such a vague and emotionally charged goal. Putting pressure on yourself to do something like lose weight so you will be happier, look better, or just so that you can get others off your back is a bad place to start from. It is also mostly unnecessary.
You cannot go from 0 to 60 when it comes to losing weight and expect it to stick. Instead, you need to establish lasting habits that help you slowly lose weight or, at the very least, become a healthier version of yourself.
How do you do it? You change up your diet. Start first with understanding the specific concerns you have with your diet. If you frequently experience bloating, for example, it is time to start identifying which foods are causing it, and how you can work to minimize it. Taking a two-pronged approach like this can help stop bloating, digestion pain, and gas outright. You can order probiotics online, for example, to help improve your gut health while also minimizing how much lactose you consume. Combined, this approach can help you feel better overall.
Your next step will be to then make key replacements in your diet. Making food from scratch can be instrumental to your weight loss journey and help boost your health. For example, a jar of tomato sauce in the store can be full of calories, sugars, and preservatives. Take tomatoes and peppers, roast them in the oven, and blend them with spices. However, and you have a healthier, less fattening sauce that is just as much, if not more delicious.
These healthy replacements exist everywhere, and yes, most of the time, you will need to make the food in question from scratch to achieve it. Doing this can help you stay on track with what you eat and can also help you stop those sugar and fat cravings. From there, the last tip to lose weight by adopting healthier habits is simply checking in to see if you are full. You can go back and eat more later, but minimizing binging can do wonders without causing stress or hunger pains.
Instead of Going to the Gym, Learn Something New
Another very common goal is to get fit. You may want to improve your cardio, decrease your blood pressure, build muscle, or even lose weight. With the exception of building up a particular physique, you don’t need to go to a gym. In fact, the only time you need to go to the gym is when you want glamor muscles since the machines can help you reach those target muscle areas, and there are professionals on hand to help you achieve them safely.
For everyone else, the gym is simply optional. If it does not work for you, then it does not work. This does not mean that you cannot achieve your new year’s resolution to get fitter. Instead, you need to consider how you have fun. If you are competitive, for example, joining a local sports team can be just what you need to stay fit. Having a goal, like winning a game, is a great motivator to exercise and stay active. Not only that, but you will also meet many new people and, in turn, boost your social life.
If you are not one much for competitive sports, look at the individual options. You can learn how to dance, for example, or you could take up a fighting sport and learn how to defend yourself while getting more fit. You can join a group so you can do things that would normally be solo, like running or biking, into a group activity.
There are many ways to take something you are interested in and make it more fun. Adding in friends, competition, or skills building are a few of the best ways to make it not feel like exercise, but just fun instead.
What to Remember When it Comes to Building New Routines
Both of these options require you to stick with your efforts. New habits can take almost a year to fully adopt and become naturalized in your routine. What this means is that it is likely going to feel like a struggle. That is why you need to make each rewarding. For those who want to lose weight, reward yourself with healthy but delicious meals so you can continue beyond your body shape. Similarly, those exercising need to make sure that they are having fun or getting in the zone when they do it.
A little bit every day is more beneficial than once in a while. So even if you do something imperfectly, that’s still better than nothing. As you go, keep an eye out for ways you can improve your experience. Only when the new habit adds value to your routine will it feel easy to adopt, so look for rewarding ways to boost your experience every day.
