Making New Year’s Resolutions That Stick
The holidays are finally over, and I hope you had some great times with friends and family. If you are like the majority of people around the world, then you probably ate and drank a little too much during the last few weeks. Personally, I know I ate way too many sweets and other rich holiday food.
With the new year officially started, although cliche, this is the perfect time to get back on track and start making those positive lifestyle changes. Remember that it’s never too late to change your diet and lifestyle regardless of your age. Any little positive change can have a dramatic impact on your overall health.
Positive Diet and Lifestyle Changes
As you plan what you want to change this year make sure to avoid blanket statements such as “I want to eat healthier this year” or “I need to get back on track with my diet”. These types of statements offer little direction and once the motivation is gone, you’re back to square one.
Instead, focus on specific changes that you want to make throughout the year. You can start with an overall goal such as wanting to lose weight, gain muscle, reduce disease risk, or simply feel better. Once you have your overall goal set, take the time to really figure out what small actions you can take throughout the year to achieve that goal.
By focusing on these smaller goals you have clear direction on what you want to do and can actually achieve within a given timeframe. Once you achieve one goal, you can move on to the next smaller specific goal.
This will help prevent early burn-out and increase your chances of achieving your overall end of year goal. Take for example the people who join the gym every January to get healthier. After about 2-3 months the initial motivation is gone. Without any clear direction and smaller goals to achieve along the way, the gym now has become a burden and eventually they stop going.
Some great focused goals for anyone:
Reducing your simple sugar intake to no more than 20-30g/day.
Avoiding simple sugars on a daily basis besides on special occasions.
Reducing your intake of ultra-processed foods by 50% or more.
These include items such as hot dogs, chips, microwavable meals, dinner kits (Hamburger Helper), sugary cereal, canned soup or anything else that does not resemble the original food item.
Reducing your low-nutrient starchy foods to less than 20% of your meal.
These include white flour products such as white bread and dinner rolls, white rice, potatoes, etc.
Increasing your vegetable intake to be at least half of your meal.
Increasing your protein intake at every meal to a minimum of 20-30g/meal.
Increasing your fiber intake at every meal by choosing vegetables, legumes, fruits, whole grains, nuts and seeds.
Reducing your saturated fat intake (to no more than 5% of your daily fat intake) while increasing your poly- and mono-unsaturated fat intake.
Once you have your specific goals chosen, set a date by when you’d like to achieve them fully. This can be 1 month or several months from now. Make sure to give yourself enough time to successfully make and adapt to these changes.
Once you have reached a goal date assess how you are doing. If you achieved your goal then you can move on to the next goal for the year. If you struggled with achieving your goal, take some time to reflect on what you struggled with. Once you have figured out what kept you from achieving your goal, make the appropriate changes and attempt it again.
Keep in mind that some changes will be easy while others will be difficult to make stick. Being persistent and making adjustments along the way help improve your success.
If you want help deciding what nutrition and lifestyle goals would be best for you this year or simply need some help achieving your goals feel free to contact me at dietitian2go@gmail.com or schedule an appointment.
Written by: Adam Skowyra MPPD, RDN, LD
