10 Strategies to Stick to Your New Year's Resolution
Grace Weatherby
/ Categories: WELLNESS, 2023

10 Strategies to Stick to Your New Year's Resolution

Every New Year’s Day, millions of Americans create resolutions, often related to nutrition, exercise or weight loss. Unfortunately, most struggle to maintain them, with many giving up within the first month and only a mere 8% lasting the full year. Fortunately, there are strategies you can use to boost your chances of success in 2024. Here’s where to start:

1. Identify what really matters and make it your identity

Reflect on your current state and what you want for your future. Consider why change is important to you and how it will impact your life. Next, make the desired change part of your mental self-identity. For example, if you want to get healthier by running, start saying to yourself, “I am a runner.” Spend time thinking about the kind of person that runner is and the kind of habits they embrace. For example, a runner might schedule time in their day for exercise, prioritize eating well, and getting enough sleep. Begin thinking of these habits as your own.

2. Set a clear goal based on action rather than outcome

Avoid vague resolutions like “exercise more” or “get healthy.” Create specific, action-based goals that help you to live out your new identity and get you closer to your desired future. Think about what changes are needed, and what you need to do more or less of, or even stop or start doing. For example, rather than setting a resolution to “exercise regularly,” commit to a 20-minute walk three times a week after breakfast. Clear objectives make it easier to stay focused and accountable.

3. Make your goal realistic and achievable

One way people go wrong when creating resolutions is by setting a goal that is too big, too fast. Changing new habits in a way that will last is a gradual process. Focus on one small change at a time and build up as it starts to feel easier. 

4. Plan for obstacles

Let’s face it. Life isn’t always a smooth path. It’s important to recognize that there will be obstacles. The trick is not letting them derail you from you desired goal. Set aside time each week to look ahead to anticipate challenges and create strategies to work around them. Include a plan to get right back on track if your backup plan doesn’t work out as anticipated. Each minute, each meal, each hour, each day, is a new opportunity to get right back on track with your plan.

5. Surround yourself with support

Find friends or online communities who share similar goals. Supporting each other, sharing tips, and even engaging in activities together can make the journey more motivating and makes it more likely any changes will stick.

6. Acknowledge achievements

Acknowledge every success along the way. Whether it's celebrating in the moment when you follow through on a step or stick to a plan for a week. The positive feeling you get from recognizing and acknowledging achievements provides motivation to keep going.

7. Get curious

Treat your goal as an experiment. Assess what's working and what's not working and why. Ask yourself what you like about what you are doing. What are you proud of? If you are not enjoying what you’re doing, what could you do instead? Just because something works for someone else doesn't mean it will for you. Explore different options to discover what suits you.

8. Set yourself up for success

Just like your goals, keep your plans simple and doable. Plan meals and meal prep in advance, schedule time on your calendar for physical activity, find a workout buddy, or pack a nutritious snack to avoid stopping for fast food.

9. Schedule Check-ins

Schedule weekly, monthly and quarterly check-ins with yourself (TIP: Put them in your calendar now). Take note of how you are doing. If you have gotten off track, remember that you can get right back into it again by following the steps above.

10. Seek expert guidance:

If necessary, consult experts for guidance. For example, you might seek out a registered dietician for help with your specific nutritional needs, a personal trainer for guidance on exercise, or a health coach for personalized support in implementing new healthy habits. Enlist whoever you need to help you realize your resolution.

A note about weight loss

When it comes to weight loss, remember that losing weight is not an action you can take; rather, it’s the result of other actions. Instead of setting a goal to lose 20 pounds, think about the actions that promote weight loss such as walking, strength training, engaging in more healthful and mindful eating, etc. Then set a specific goal around one of those actions. If you think that working on more than one of those areas will help you lose weight, pick one for now, and then add on a second goal once you have been consistent with the first goal for at least several weeks, or longer.

This New Year, approach healthy change with specific, achievable goals, rather than resolutions. Set yourself up for success by planning around obstacles, getting right back on track when things get you off course, and remember that consistency with small goals over time leads to habits that last.

 

Kristina Schmidt, RN, NBC-HWC,LMC is a National Board-Certified Health Coach who specializes in empowering those struggling with weight, pre-or type 2 diabetes, blood pressure or cholesterol to, blood pressure or cholesterol to transform their health even if they’ve struggled or failed at every diet they’ve tried.

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How to Maintain a Healthy Immune System

There are so many things that we have little control over. We can't control what genes we get, how old we are, or what viruses are circulating in our environment, but there is a lot we can do to prevent illness. Remarkably, many of the same habits that protect you from diseases like diabetes, cancer, and heart disease also help your immune system fight infections.

Most viruses can't hurt you until they get inside your body. So, we can help our immune system if we avoid viruses and cut off the ways they travel. Viruses can spread through the air, but not usually for very far. Keep your distance—at least 6 feet—from others, and be a good neighbor by wearing a mask in all public areas.

Viruses that cause the most common illnesses—respiratory infections, including the common cold, flu, and the new COVID-19—travel into the body through your mouth, nose, and eyes and make their way to the areas they infect, like the lungs. The best way to break this chain is to clean your hands frequently, and don't touch your face with hands that have touched anything else. In addition, you can reduce the number of viruses in your environment by cleaning frequently touched objects with a bleach- or alcohol-based cleaner.

Vaccinations are your next line of defense. Immunizations, like the flu shot, introduce a small and harmless part of a virus or bacteria. The vaccine gives your immune system an opportunity to make antibodies against the virus. A vaccinated immune system responds more quickly and effectively when illnesses are introduced. What's more, when we all get vaccinated, we decrease the likelihood that anyone will get sick. If you are unsure about whether you or your children are up to date on their vaccinations, call your primary care provider’s office.

Your third line of defense is living a healthy lifestyle. It is clear that the same things that help the rest of our bodies function also improve the strength of our immune response. Likewise, things that hinder our bodies' ability to function compromise the immune system.

Regular exercise might be the most powerful way to maintain a healthy immune system. By increasing heart rate and blood flow, we allow the cells and substances of the immune system to move through the body freely and do their job efficiently. Similarly, things that slow the movement of cells and substances, like smoking or drinking alcohol in excess, may decrease the body’s ability to function and decreases the immune response, as well.

Getting adequate sleep may also positively affect the immune response. Chronic sleep deprivation has been shown to decrease the beneficial boost in immunity from vaccinations.

Our emotional state, too—whether we are stressed, lonely, or depressed, for instance—affects our immune response so much that a relatively new specialty called psychoneuroimmunology now studies the connection. One pioneering study, conducted in the early 1980s, found that college students operating within a stressful 3-day exam period had fewer of the cells that fight tumors and viral infections. In simple terms, the students almost stopped producing immunity boosters and infection fighters.

Finally, physicians have concluded that eating a mostly plant-based diet—including fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, whole grains, and lean protein—supports overall health and may also support immunity. Nutritious foods include important vitamins that the immune system needs to function, such as beta carotene, vitamin C, vitamin D, and zinc. Note, however, that supplements that claim to improve immune function have not yet been shown to do so to the extent necessary to protect against infection and disease. It is better to eat whole foods that are rich in vitamins rather than take supplements.

Always consult with your provider before making changes to your exercise plan or trying a new supplement and if you have any medical concerns. Physicians and the other professionals working in their offices also provide help for developing a plan for a healthier life. Call your primary care office or 802-447-5007 to find a primary care provider.

Healthy habits, like those that protect your body from disease and infection, are not always easy to adopt or maintain. Perhaps knowing just how important they are to maintaining a healthy immune response will provide the extra motivation necessary to make them a priority.

Kim Fodor, MD, is an internal medicine physician at SVMC Internal Medicine.

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