Gold Star Resolutions
The New Year is a great time to initiate healthy changes, but too often we lose our resolve before Valentines Day. Are you trying to lose a few pounds, decrease the amount of medication you take for high cholesterol or hypertension? People who are most likely to succeed at their resolutions create what I like to call “gold star” resolutions. They focus on discrete objectives that have a definite timeline. Think back to when you were in elementary school or had a sticker reward chart at home. If you read your 5 books per week or made your bed every day, you got a gold star. When you choose your New Years resolutions, they should be just as specific. You should be able to track your progress with a sticker chart. Instead of saying “I want to lose weight,” say “I want to lose 10% of my body weight by Memorial Day” or “I want to get back to what I weighed before I had children by the end of the school year.”
Once you’ve picked a specific objective with a timeline, think about whether it’s realistic. Lots of people resolve to go to the gym every day after work, but inevitably life gets in the way, they miss a day, and they discard the entire resolution. A better strategy is to set yourself up to succeed. Creating healthy habits is not an all or nothing proposition. You don’t have to go from being a couch potato to being a professional athlete. Is going to the gym 3 days a week or 4 more likely to happen? Is it a little bit more than what you’re doing now?
Think, too, about why you’re not already doing the New Years resolutions. What’s stopping you right now? Identifying potential obstacles and coming up with strategies to overcome them also improves your changes of keeping your resolutions. Do you want to eat more vegetables but don’t because they take too much time to prepare? Try hitting the deli salad bar or take advantage of pre-cut vegetables at the grocery store. Build in some vegetable prep time on Sunday, so you’ll have a refrigerator full of vegetables ready to cook during the week. If you can brainstorm solutions in advance, you’re more likely to reach your goal.
Just like when you were a kid, you should build in rewards for achieving certain milestones. For example, if your goal is to exercise 4 days per week, treat yourself to a massage when you’ve gotten 20 gold stars for exercising 20 times. If you’ve cut back your soda habit to one a day for two months, use the money you’ve saved on the soda to take yourself and a friend ice skating.
Keep checking back for more tips to keep you healthy. Full disclosure: my 2013 resolution is to post three times per week (not every day, which is completely unrealistic for me).