A new year is the perfect opportunity to make positive changes. Whether it’s about your career, your relationship, your waistline, or anything else you want to improve. The challenging part is often staying committed to those new resolutions. This year, we have five helpful tips to support you in turning your good intentions into lasting habits.
1. Create a plan
Having a plan is crucial for successfully following through on your New Year's resolutions. Even the greatest motivation isn’t enough without a clear roadmap. Within your plan, set practical goals you can achieve step by step.
A study published in the British Journal of Health Psychology randomly assigned participants into two groups. Both groups were asked to track how often they exercised each week. One group also received the additional instruction to create their own training plan. The results were impressive: while only 38% of participants in the group without instructions exercised once a week, 91% of those who were encouraged to create a training plan exercised at least once weekly.
Now, for example, let’s say you want to lose 5 kg. Achieving this goal will likely require several steps, such as adopting a healthy diet, staying active, reducing stress, and getting more sleep. Trying to tackle all of these at once might be a little too ambitious. So, maybe start by focusing on your nutrition first, because a healthy, wholesome diet is the foundation for losing weight — for example, it gives you more energy to exercise. And in turn, physical activity can help you sleep better.
If you decide to take this path, one short-term goal could be to eat more homemade meals. To do that, however, you’ll need a plan. Because if you wait until you get home after a long day to start preparing your meals, it’s easy to fall back on frozen pizza or takeout.
Instead, we recommend planning your meals every day. Choose your recipes and write down exactly which ingredients you need to buy. You can use the weekend to plan your week, go shopping, and maybe prepare a dish or two in advance.
2. Get to Know Yourself
This tip encourages you to take a moment to reflect on both your strengths and your weaknesses. When you know yourself well, you can make the most of your strengths and work around any weaknesses that might otherwise hold you back. Start by identifying your strengths so you can use them to achieve your goals. For example:
Are you open to trying new things? Why not try something new to stay fit? For example: climbing, surfing, dancing, or ballet. Turn your daily movement into an exciting adventure.
Do you enjoy taking on challenges? Then think of your resolutions as little challenges to conquer.
Do you like spending time with others? If so, consider involving other people in your healthy plans for the new year. For example, organize a bone broth diet group at work or a weekly tennis game with friends. Activities like these help keep your motivation high.
Are you a creative cook? Then try to discover at least two new ways each week to include healthy foods in your diet.
Next, take an honest look at your weaknesses. But don’t be too hard on yourself—we all have them. The key is to recognize them so you can handle them better. For example:
Do you find that your diet often falls apart during dates or girls’ nights out? If so, avoid the bar and restaurant scene and plan weekend activities that encourage more movement and less eating or drinking. Try taking a walk with your date or enjoying a relaxing massage with your friends.
Do you often rely on fast food because you don’t enjoy cooking? Think of 2-3 simple, healthy recipes that you can prepare quickly. Make a list of the ingredients needed for these recipes and keep it in your wallet. Whenever you're tempted to grab a burger and fries, simply take out the list and pick up the ingredients instead.
Do you have a negative inner voice? Then stand up to it. For example, whenever you catch yourself thinking, "I will fail," replace that thought with a positive one, like, "I am strong and committed to becoming slimmer and healthier."
3. Reward Yourself
Being slim and healthy is also about self-love. So, when you stick to your plan and reach your milestones, take a moment to appreciate how far you’ve come and reward yourself. For example, if your goal is to lose 3 kg, consider giving yourself a small reward for every kilo you shed. That doesn’t mean indulging in a whole tub of ice cream or two bags of chips, though. Instead, choose something enjoyable that truly makes you feel good. Treat yourself to a massage, visit an exhibition, or buy tickets to a fantastic show.
4. Don't give up
Even if you have strong confidence in yourself, remember that no one is perfect. Surprises will happen. So, alongside self-love, try to cultivate a bit of self-compassion as well. If you stumble over a hurdle, don’t let everything spiral out of control. Instead, be kind to yourself and simply pick up where you left off. Because stress or guilt won’t help you move forward.
5. Keep your goal in sight
While having a plan is essential, never underestimate the power of motivation. Keep reminding yourself why reaching your goal is so important to you.
