Wednesday, January 30, 2013

My thoughts on New Year's resolutions

It's a little funny that I'm posting about resolutions when it's almost Feburary and many people have already given up on their resolutions.

I've never really been a fan of New Year's resolutions.  I saw from a young age how infrequently people were successful with their New Year's resolutions, whether it is losing weight, getting in shape, quitting smoking, or other things.  It's the YMCA effect, they Y is super busy in January because people are all excited about getting in shape and losing weight, but gradually (or frequently quickly) how those new people stop going to the Y to exercise.

I think many times people try to make resolutions that are dramatic changes from what they are currently doing.  I think a much better approach is too make regular small sustainable changes that you can successfully accomplish.

Many people that make a New Year's resolutions of getting in shape will try to go all out and not eating any junk food or candy and trying to exercise everyday . . .this is almost certainly a recipe for failure you'll almost certainly go back to some of your old habbits at some point, feel like you've failed, and give up.  We are creatures of habbit and once we start doing things regularly it's hard to change that.  Instead I'd recommend making a couple small stustainable changes to start with; for example: exercising two times a week and only have fast food 3 time a week (instead of 5 or 6 times).  You'll be much more motivated to continue to your goal if you are able to succeed, even if it's a smaller acheivement.

Then once your new behavior has become a habbit for you and isn't too difficult look at what you're doing and pick a couple new things to improve on, maybe reducing the amount of soda you drink and walking up the stairs instead of taking the elevator.  These small changes will add up and it won't feel hard or that you're having to make big sacrifices.

For 2013 I'm planning on making a couple small resolutions every month, that will help me get faster.  My January resolutions were to eat more vegestalbes and work on being able to do track stands.  I've been successful at getting much better at both, which is really cool.  For Febuary my resolutions are to always have healthy snacks available to eat at work and get better at bunny hopping.
 

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