How to Maintain Your New Year’s Resolutions

Welcome to 2017! It’s the start of something new. Well anyway, it’s January and that means one thing: Gyms are crowded.

It’s the time of year again where we feel we have to turn over a new leaf. We are misguided to believe the New Year will be the magical one we’ve been waiting for. This is the year we will finally reinvent ourselves, yet, in a few weeks, we find ourselves back in the same patterns and habits we tried to get rid of in 2016. The list usually looks the same: lose weight, eat healthy, renew the gym membership, be nicer, stay productive, floss and so on. Well by week three, you’ve forgotten about your list and you’re sitting on the couch with a plate of nachos.

We are here to ensure you stick to your New Year’s resolutions. Well, some of them.

Make it something you actually want. Don’t make your resolution something you should want or what others tell you. Your resolution has to fit within your values and that will give you the motivation to stick with it.

Limit your list. If you can stick to 10 resolutions for all 12 months, bless your soul, but for most people, stick to two or three. By limiting your list, you’re focusing your efforts on the goals you truly want. You’re making a small change in your life as opposed to changing your whole life at once. Once you successfully make small changes, you can build upon it and be a whole new you by December.

Accept failure. No one is perfect, so if you miss a walk or ate pizza two days in a row, don’t hate yourself for it and give up. Make a note of triggers that caused the setback and learn a lesson from them. Perseverance is key, so keep trying.

Break it up. Try to make resolutions that require small acts of will, not weeks. Losing 25 pounds sounds brutal and unrealistic at first, but if you decide to go to the gym three times this week and bring a healthy lunch every day, the goal sounds practical.