Happy and Healthy New Year!
If you’re making a New Year’s resolution to lose weight, be more fit, or get in shape, good for you! Being active and healthy is great for so many reasons: you’ll feel better and be happier, you’ll sleep better and be sick less often and you’ll be more productive! But it’s not easy... I’ve always said, if it were easy, everybody would do it.
Instead of making a resolution for a year (and only keeping it for a few weeks or months), why not make a resolution for life? Sounds difficult, but by making small, manageable, and permanent changes to your lifestyle, not only can you reach your fitness goals much faster but you can continue to lead a healthier, happier life.
Keeping a ‘Bowl of Change’
The idea is simple: on small slips of paper, write down changes that you want to make in your lifestyle. The changes can be as small as “read the food label on all your foods” or as big as “stop drinking soda.” Fold the pieces of paper and put them in a bowl. Pick one of the papers from the bowl and try to incorporate that change into your life. When you feel you’ve become successful at that one, take another slip of paper from the bowl. It doesn’t matter how long it takes to make the change stick - it’s important that the new behavior becomes a part of your life before you attempt to make another change.
I’ve come up with a list of changes that you can resolve to make in your life. You are free to pick and choose the ones that apply to you. There are a lot of simple changes, but I have thrown in a few difficult ones that you may find quite challenging. If you pick one of these out of the bowl and feel you are not ready to make the change, or if you’ve tried it but can’t seem to make it stick, feel free to put it back and select another one. By the time you draw that tough one again, you may be more prepared to tackle it.
Here’s a handy PDF with some great ideas to get you started. All you need to do is print it out, cut into strips, fold and toss them into your bowl. Good luck and Happy New You!