Do you shudder to look in the mirror after Christmas? Do you promise yourself that by this time next year you will be back in your old jeans, showing off your six pack and happy as Larry - only to find yourself making the exact same promises 12 months later?
Most people create New Years resolutions around things that they want to stop doing: 'I want to stop eating junk food'. 'I'm going to watch less TV'. The wording tends to be in the negative: 'I want to stop...' I'm no longer going to....'
The problem is that it causes us to continually focus on what we are depriving ourselves of, making our resolutions a real chore. They become something that takes a lot of work and effort to maintain. We also tend to make a resolution once a year and forget about it, often we don't even write it down let alone remember it in our hung over haze in the morning.
So how do you write an effective New Years resolution for better health?
First of all, make sure that you are covering all the bases. I suggest you pick one resolution in each of the three areas of health: eating, thinking and moving. Pick something very small and manageable. Start by picking the things that are easiest for you to change and that you are prepared to change for the rest of your life. There is next to no advantage to making a change if you don't maintain it. And remember it will be much easier to make the big changes later once you have some momentum.
Secondly, make sure your resolutions are worded in a way that excites you. Talk about what you are going to do rather than not do and set it in the present tense as if it has already happened, i.e. 'I am loving eating 3 pieces of fruit every day'. 'Walking for half an hour every day makes me feel great'.
Thirdly, you need to make sure that you act on the resolution, so write it down and place it somewhere you will see it every day. Research shows that if you do something for three months you are highly likely to do it for the rest of your life so keep working at it. At the end of the three months, assess your progress. If you have achieved your goals, great. If not, decide whether that goal is still the easiest for you to achieve or pick another easier goal. Either way select 3 new goals and start the process again. If you repeat this four times in 2009 just imagine where you will be by the end of the year!
So plan an extra big celebration for 2010 so you can flaunt that brand new six pack and that favourite pair of jeans.
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