New Ways to Procrastinate – New Year’s Resolutions

Have you kept the last year resolutions? We can predict your answer. The fact is that resolutions are very difficult to keep for a long term. Many of us give up their goals before the end of January.

“Pre-resolutions allow us to let go of the false belief that delaying the start date of our health journey is somehow going to result in us reaching our goals more efficiently,” says Mariah Heller, a certified strength and conditioning specialist and creator of Pain-Free Fitness.

Set your goals before the holidays

If you want to lose weight or just keep you current weight, you should start before the holidays. Not only you will need a routine, but holidays are a hard time to keep to your plans. Being a stressful time, you may tend to overeat and it is well known that the period between Thanksgiving and New Year a lot of us put on weight.

For these reasons, starting now with a specific pre-resolution beats making yet another throwaway New Year’s resolutions list.

Prepare for the change

Before you can even begin to pursue your resolutions, “you need to mentally and physically prepare yourself to take action,” says Samuels.  Research shows you’re more likely to keep to your plans on a long term if you have a nutrition and fitness routine throughout the year.

For example, if you want to ‘lose weight,’ you’ll need to prepare healthy meals you’ll actually want to eat (Read: not bland chicken and broccoli). Your pre-resolution: Create a list of aliments you actually like and think about easy recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Keep your focus

By now, you surely know what your resolution is. You’ll just need to find the right way for you to make your desire a reality. “This takes the power out of an arbitrary endpoint and places it on the healthy practices you want to adopt,” explains Heller.

Find the best support

If you goal is to lose weight, find a certified personal trainer, health coach. He/She will make your like a lot easier. Rather than going it alone next year, though, set a pre-resolution to find the people who will make you want to show up for your sweat sesh all year long. Research shows sweating it out with other people gives you a greater mental health boost than working out by yourself (in particular, team sports, cycling and activities at the gym, like group fitness classes, help ward off bad days). 

Find your balance the whole year

The holidays can be especially challenging because of its temptations like alcohol and sweets, but like in any other day of the week, you should look for balance and don’t overdone it. Taste what you like, but be careful with the quantity. After the holidays, keep to to 80/20 rule and your health and figure will surely help you.

Don’t make resolutions, make a balanced plan for the whole year.