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Last fall, I had a frightening and eye-opening health scare. Never did I imagine that after a routine gynecological exam I would hear the words “you need surgery.” I was told I had cervical cancer and, thank goodness, we caught it early. I didn′t want to add stress to my already worried husband and family, so I turned to food to cope in the following weeks. Take-out was my best friend, and I sometimes found myself ordering not one over-indulgent dinner, but two ... with dessert on the side. I knew my behavior wasn′t healthy for my body or my mind, but it was comforting to me.
After three months and one very painful surgery, I was given the all-clear on my health. But I′d gained 25 pounds of stress weight, plus some other unhealthy habits.
This past January, I thought, “Perfect timing, it′s the new year! I′ll make some resolutions.” Cut to February, and I′d already broken all my resolutions. I′m not alone though; according to U.S. News, about 80 percent of resolutions fail by the second week of February.
But as my mom (pictured with me above) always said, “We only get one body, be good to it.” So in an effort to put my health first, I′m still on a mission to make 2018 my healthiest year yet. Resolutions aren′t working for me, clearly, and don′t for many others, so maybe the key is rethinking how I go about making healthy changes.
I want my new goals to last longer than a year. I want habits to be formed. I want a lifestyle change. So I turned to some brilliant experts to help me. Here′s what I′ve learned so far about why resolutions often fail and what you can do to stay the course, no matter where or when you start:
Start small and keep it simple.
Originally, I pressured myself to work out every day and then I beat myself up about it when I didn′t stick to the plan. But registered dietitian Jackie London explained to me why this strategy doesn′t work: “While you might be motivated to just sprint right out of the gate, we always lose steam once the motivation wanes and real life gets in the way,” says Jackie. “Adopting an all-or-nothing approach sets us up for failure because we haven′t made habits out of smaller changes that work for us—the ones that ultimately lay the ground work for a healthier lifestyle overall.” Instead, start with the smallest, easiest thing you can think of doing right out of the gate, and commit to doing that for just one month.
“The key is to have an overarching goal with a set list of specific, attainable objectives that you can establish for yourself in smaller, realistic, actionable chunks,” adds Jackie. “It′s so much less intimidating (and so much more exciting!) to get started on something new when you don′t have to think about the whole year ahead of you and you can just focus on one small task, one month, week, day, and even hour at a time.”
Get specific.
When I first set out to make changes, I didn′t give myself enough direction. I wanted to wake up early, lose weight, and eat healthier. But that didn′t provide a roadmap to guide me. “The most common mistake we make when goal-setting is having a highly general end goal without a game plan,” says Jackie. “Avoiding this comes with getting super specific about what you really want—if it′s weight-loss, make it something quantifiable (and that doesn′t mean it has to be scale-focused or quantifiable with a set number!).” It just has to be specific to you in a manner in which you feel comfortable. For some, that might mean, “I want to lose 20 lbs. this year and lower my blood pressure by 10mmHg,” and for others, it can be as simple as, “I want to feel comfortable zipping, buttoning, and wearing my favorite pair of jeans without feeling self-conscious.”
