Stick with your New Year’s Resolution throughout the entire year with these 10 tips
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EmailThose well intended New Year’s resolutions are starting to wear-off. Use these 10 tips to help you in your journey.
The initial motivation of sticking with your New Year’s resolution may be wearing off now that we are in the first couple weeks of February. To make sure you stick with your new and healthy lifestyle through the rest of the year, Michigan State University Extension offers these 10 tips to help you along in your journey.
- Buddy up. Find a workout buddy for that extra motivation to get out the door on days you are not motivated.
- Surround yourself with people that have similar goals. Spending time around people with similar goals greatly increases your chances of succeeding yourself.
- Start simple, and then add on. People are highly motivated in the beginning of starting something life changing (which is great), but adding too many changes too quickly can set a person up for failure. The American Psychological Association recommends changing one behavior at a time. If you feel successful with that change at the end of the week, then move on to the next behavior you want to change.
- Be consistent. Consistently practicing healthy habits will increase the chances of that change becoming habit. Things like: waking up at the same time every day to enjoy a healthy breakfast, exercising at the same time every day, or a specific break in your day to enjoy a healthy snack.
- Remind yourself (cues to action). Posting images, quotes, or sayings in work and living spaces that are motivational to you and will help you stay on track with your health goals.
- Allow for bumps in the road. Humans are not perfect and will make mistakes. Don’t let one slip up derail the success you have had so far.
- Create a vision board. If you are a visual person this may be helpful to you. Vision boards help you to stay on track and remind you why you are on this journey.
- Make this change something you want to do. Behavior changes are highly personal and are the most successful when the change is something you choose to do yourself.
- Remove temptation. Moving junk food to a hidden space in the kitchen and not buying junk food at the grocery store are examples of removing temptation. If your temptation is something other than junk food, remove it from your physical space, so you can continue with your success.
- Stick with it. It took a long time to develop unhealthy habits (maybe your entire life), give yourself time to create new habits and don’t give up!
For more information on healthy eating, nutrition and wellness go to http://msue.anr.msu.edu/topic/info/food_health.
