Time for Those New Year’s Resolutions!!
Kate Irwin • January 9, 2021
Forget those all or nothing goals and embrace small changes
How many of you created New Year’s resolutions this year? It is a common theme around the holidays to reset your focus, make lofty goals and try to improve yourself. While the sentiment and desire to improve is a positive one, the actual resolutions can quickly have a negative impact on you and your ability to actually reach your goals.
When we think about resolutions they tend to be all or nothing goals that may seem to be realistic, but put a lot of pressure on you. When we start to make goals around our health with the same premise, they become achieved or not achieved, good or bad, done or unfinished. But the thing is, our health isn't all or nothing! Aiming for 5 workouts a week but only being able to get 1 in doesn’t mean that one workout wasn’t beneficial to your health. This becomes especially evident when your New Year’s resolutions are centered around nutrition.
Nutrition resolutions typically highlight weight loss, sugar detoxes, cutting out processed foods or eliminating whole food groups. Extreme goals such as these are not sustainable and can hinder you reaching any of your nutrition goals. Strict guidelines as a means used to reach your goals tend to have the opposite effect. They can cause you to give up more quickly, and prevent you from seeing the positive effects.
Although it is one week into the New Year, it isn’t too late to save yourself the disappointment from those New Year’s resolutions. I want you to look at the goals you made for yourself and think about reframing them to allow you more success. The objective here is to be able to appreciate the efforts you put in and how they can affect your health. Some examples would be:
I am going to lose 15 pounds - Instead
- I am going to make healthier food choices while aiming to move my body at least 20 minutes each day. Each healthy choice I make will get me closer to my goal weight.
I am going to cut all sugar - Instead
- I am going to aim to eat mostly unprocessed foods, with at least 2 servings of vegetables a day. Each time I choose a fruit or vegetable over a processed high sugar food, I am having a positive effect on my health.
I am going to workout 5 days a week - Instead
- I am going to workout each week, minimum of 1 workout a week, with a goal of 5 days a week. I understand that even one workout will have a positive influence on my health, make me feel better, and improve my fitness level.
Our overall health is not an all or nothing measurement. Each time you workout, choose fruit and veggies, go for a walk, or choose a healthier option, you are making a positive difference on your universal health and well-being. It’s also important to know that if you ‘slip’, it isn’t going to undo all of your hard work. The real goal is to make healthy choices more often!
If you are wondering how to make these new healthy changes in a sustainable way, it may be time to think about joining our 10 week nutrition reset program starting in mid February. This is a simple to follow program, where we give you not only small changes to make to help you lose body fat but also help you make choices that are going to positively affect your overall health. Focus on things like water intake, gut health and sleep. Email
kate@novahealthclub.com
for more information!
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