We all bear witness to an annual flooding of New Year’s Resolutions in nearly every social media platform. Many post status updates, snap photos and caption them with their resolutions or type up a 165-character version of it for all their followers to read. Whether you’ve heard them from your friends, your family or maybe even said them yourself each year, I’ve rounded up five of my favourite health resolutions that often end up, well… being on the list again the following year.
5. START GOING ON A DIET. The term “diet” these days usually refers to following a meal plan for a specific amount of time. Diets are hardly sustainable and often keep you from enjoying the food you eat. When you’re not happy with what you eat, you run a higher risk of failing to stick to your goal. Instead of going on a diet, why not resolve to eat better or make healthier food choices? (Read more about changing the way you understand the word diet on one of my previous blog posts)
4. GET A GYM MEMBERSHIP Apart from the fact that you need to summon the will and discipline to maximize your gym membership, personal finances could be another huge barrier to achieving this goal. Truth is, you don’t need to hit the gym just to get a good workout. Find a park close to home or your office and schedule your daily walk/jog/run. Get creative and find different workouts you can do at the park or at home. Go for something you enjoy doing and set goals for that too (running 5km in your neighborhood, learning to do a headstand on the grass, learning to do a pull-up on monkey bars, etc.) Back when I worked as an Advertising Executive, I would download yoga classes on my iPod and invite a few colleagues to practice with me. We would bring our mats, pick a good spot at the office and do yoga after work hours. It really felt like being in a yoga class as we all just listened to cues and moved with the track. Workmates who still had work to finish didn’t have to worry about anything. They just headed back to their desks after the “class” and continue whatever it is that they were doing before they went into our yoga session. The best part of it was that it was all ABSOLUTELY FREE and it allowed everyone to join in and do it every day.
3. EXERCISE TO LOSE WEIGHT If regular exercise is not yet part of your routine, consider splitting “exercise” and “weight loss” and making them two different goals wherein one (regular exercise) comes after the other (weight loss). It makes a world of difference when you do this. Why? Because it could be difficult to keep sweating it out with only weight loss in mind. You must have the dedication to keep going back at it every day even when results don’t turn up as early as you expect them to. Weight loss through proper diet and exercise takes time. There’s a huge chance of you falling off the wagon or finding easier and quicker means to achieve the weight that you want if you’re only doing it to look a certain way. Focus more on getting into the habit by making sure you engage in at least three physical activities a week (if you’re starting) and slowly adding to it as you go. Just be sure to set aside AT LEAST a day for rest and recovery. Once you’ve ticked off having a regular exercise regimen from your goals, you just might find yourself automatically ticking off the weight loss box as well.
2. LESSEN STRESS. We all know how hazardous stress could be to the health. Aside from the band of illnesses it likes to hang out with, stress also leaves you feeling gloomy, heavy, lethargic or just plain crappy. But getting rid of stress could be quite a task most of us probably don’t know where to start. It’s hard to avoid stressors as they all come to us everyday. And unless we go into hiatus or live in a cave somewhere in the Tibetan mountains, chances are this resolution will land a spot on your list again next year. How about changing the goal to achieve the same effect? Try this. Aim to sit completely still and in silence for 5-10 minutes every day. Just a few minutes without your mobile devices, your laptop or maybe even the list of things you need to do for the day. Sit there and try not to think of or focus on anything but your breath. It ups your tolerance for stressors, elevates your mood and helps relieve anxiety. I could go on and on about the benefits of doing this. See it as a mini-holiday you have the privilege of taking EVERY. DAMN. DAY. Don’t look at it as a chore but a luxury. Oh, and as for your list of goals and resolutions, if you have “become more focused” somewhere in there, then you’re bound to tick that off too.
1. (LOSE ALL THE HOLIDAY WEIGHT AND) GET A BIKINI BODY BY SUMMER Where I am located, summer is just about 4 months away from the Holiday season. That’s a ridiculously short amount of time for some of us. Plus, I’ve always wondered why many would want to look sexy JUST for summer. I mean, who wouldn’t want to look AND feel good in, say, a pair of jeans and a shirt or a thick coat and winter boots? The body suffers from constantly trying to adapt to lifestyle changes especially when they happen every season. So why not be in it for the long run and get yourself a Summer body, an Independence Day body, a Thanksgiving body and a New Year’s Day body all in one?
Image from Pinterest.com
I see resolutions as goals that need to be achieved at the end of the year and in order for you to achieve them, you have to start by asking yourself “How?”. So don’t be afraid to break them down into smaller pieces—ones you can actually chew. That way, you’ll find yourself writing a fresh batch of small, achievable resolutions next year and no longer the same old ones you didn’t get to accomplish this year.
Ready? Now, go get ‘em, tiger!
Fabulous featured image from venustrappedinmars.com
