It’s that time of year again, where lots of us think about the coming of a new year as an opportunity to have a new start. However, every year, statistically speaking, after about one week people feel their resolutions are impossible to maintain. Then lots of us lose our motivation and we give up. I have some tips that can help keep you motivated and achieve your goals!
-Don’t make your goals too big at first. Starting with smaller goals makes them less overwhelming. If you want to lose weight, take it slowly and start off by trying to lose about 2 pounds per week. To help you with this journey, I suggest having a composition book to mark down what you eat, your fitness levels, and your goals for each week.
-Similarly, don't make too many resolutions! It's admirable to want to cut out junk food, exercise more, get more sleep, study more, get up earlier, stop spending as much money, watch less TV... But taking on so many changes will set you up for failure. Pick a couple of the most important ones (getting healthier and getting more sleep are always good ones to start with) and focus on those first. Eventually you can add more of those resolutions in, making changes over the course of the year and not all on January 1st.
-The biggest mistake I see is that people think they can just quit the junk food and exercise a lot and it will be easy. Doing this will make you go crazy, and honestly this will make your cravings a lot worse. Your mind will not like quitting cold turkey, so you must gradually get yourself on track. To do this, before the new year starts, keep a journal of the foods that you eat, how much you snack, and the workouts that you do. Then, eliminate some of the junk food in your diet. For example, if you find you eat 2 very unhealthy foods per day, reduce that down to one thing per day for 2 weeks. Make sure you log what you eat so you remember to stay on track. If you haven’t worked out in a while, I suggest planning to work out 3 days out of the week. (Log this as well!) Gradually get rid of more junk food, add more workouts, etc., and after a month these changes will become routine.
-If you are planning on getting fit and you haven’t worked out in a while, this is the perfect time to find out what you like to do! Try a variety of exercises and keep doing the ones that you find fun. (If you make a resolution to start running a mile every day but you hate running, it's much harder to stick with your fitness goals than if you love to do dance workouts!)
-To help keep you motivated, try to give yourself a result that you can look forward to in the end. This can be the amount you weigh, the way you look, or (even better) the physical accomplishments you can reach! (Maybe you can run a couple miles in less time than you could before!) If you choose the second option, I suggest that you take pictures of yourself once you start and every week after that. This can help you see that your hard work is paying off. Even simple things like trying on new clothes can help you see these results.
-Don’t be afraid to go to others for motivation. Tell your friends what you are doing and ask for their support. Especially go to those friends who have the same goals as you do for the new year. (They can even exercise with you!)
Just remember that you can achieve your goals! Have a good New Year’s guys!
~Katrina
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