Health & Fitness
Top Reasons New Year's Resolutions Fail
To make New Year's Resolutions last, implement a plan of action, set short-term goals along the way, and recognize and acknowledge your achievements.
As the end of the year starts to quickly close in on us, we begin to reflect on the past months and all of the things we told ourselves that we would complete and that we did not. For example: I need to lose 15 pounds; I want to work out five days per week for an hour at a time; and I want to eat 1400 calories per day. The reality is we didn’t set a plan of action in place to achieve these goals or the goals we set out to accomplish were not sustainable. This results in disappointment and in a sense of failure.
Goal setting is important and drives us forward but not understanding how to achieve the goal is a sure setup to fail. Here is an example of a plan of action:
I want to lose 15 pounds. In order to achieve this I will cut back on my caloric intake by 300 calories per day and I will implement an extra 30 minutes of cardio per week into my workouts.
Having an unsustainable goal of trying to eat only 1400 calories per day will result in feelings of guilt and failure when we aren’t able to maintain it. A more realistic approach would be wanting to replace one serving of sugar per day with one serving of fresh vegetables. Or working out five days a week for one hour per day. Knowing that you have a family, a full-time job that keeps you overtime often, and limited childcare, you could try doing an outdoor activity with family every weekend that includes some type of exercise.
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A trick that I always like to use is signing myself up for a race or an activity that I’ve never tried that has a component of fitness to it. For examples, sign up for a 5k, 10k or half marathon and get your family involved with your training (i.e., running with you, pushing the stroller as you run, etc.), for an endurance bike ride like a century or a half century ride somewhere you’ve never been and use it as a vacation too (there are some great rides in the Santa Ynez area that include wine tasting!!!), or for a paddle boarding lessons with some friends. The options are endless and super fun!
Whatever your New Year’s Resolutions may be, make sure you’ve implemented your plan of action, small goals/accomplishments along the way and recognize and acknowledge your achievements!
