Healthy New Year's Resolutions

A new year often represents a new beginning for many people. It may mean setting health goals, like following a healthier diet, losing weight, and beginning an exercise routine. However, the majority of people break their health and wellness resolutions within a few weeks due to their unsustainable nature and severe restrictions. Thus, they tend to make the same resolution every year.

While it is easy to start the new year with healthy resolutions, implementing them into a long-term routine can be difficult, especially when dealing with personal health. In fact, over a third of people who make new year's resolutions break them within a month¹. So why do people fail to achieve their health and wellness goals?

Most people fail to keep up with their new year's resolutions because they don't have realistic goals or a plan for success. When making life changes that lead to a healthier lifestyle, it is important to pick goals that are realistic and achievable within your lifestyle. To ensure that you implement gradual and yet significant lifestyle changes, I recommend choosing just one or two simple new year's resolutions for the year ahead.

Do you need help getting started? We have compiled a list of 13 Healthy New Year's Resolutions that you can keep and succeed at.

1. Be More Active and Sit Less

While many people believe that being active means going to the gym every day, it actually begins outside the gym. Getting more active means finding ways to move more during the day. It is especially important if you sit at a desk all day at work to incorporate these small ways to stay active. Excessive sitting can negatively affect your health. Indeed, it may increase your risk of obesity, high blood pressure, and overall mortality².

It's very easy and attainable to make a resolution to sit less, which can be tailored to suit your lifestyle. For instance, at your office, stroll around the block during your break time, or go to your colleague's desk rather than sending him an e-mail to ask a question.

Despite these seemingly small changes, they will provide huge benefits over time.

2. Aim to Eat More Whole Foods

To improve overall health, eating more whole foods is one of the easiest and most sustainable methods. Various whole foods, including fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, and fish, provide the vitamins and minerals your body requires to function optimally.

A whole-food-based diet has been shown to reduce heart disease risk factors, blood sugar levels, body weight, and the risk of certain diseases, like type 2 diabetes³. Furthermore, you can slowly and consistently increase your consumption of whole foods. You can start by eating one serving of your favorite veggie every day. If you are not used to eating vegetables, this is a great way to start.

3. Eat Mindfully

It can be difficult to stick to your diet resolutions. As we approach the holiday season, ads tell us how great the latest diet fad is, but the trick to improving it often lies in changing how you eat.

By paying attention to what you are eating and taking a few minutes between bites, your likelihood of overeating will decrease because you will know when you are full. Don't watch television while you eat and take each bite slowly. You will become more aware of what your body needs and what food you need with time.

It is also possible to practice mindful eating by substituting unhealthy foods with healthier ones. Nevertheless, try incorporating one or two changes at a time instead of giving up all your favorite foods at once. In other words, add some spinach or tomatoes to scrambled eggs if you eat them for breakfast regularly. Or, try replacing a sugary beverage with water.

After you've been making these small swaps regularly, try adding another. Eventually, a few small changes will add up to a big dietary change.

4. Eat Fewer Convenience Foods

Many people turn to convenience foods to snack or eat quickly, including cookies, frozen dinners, packaged chips, and fast food. Even though these items are tasty and readily available, they can adversely affect your health if consumed too often. As an example, the frequent consumption of fast food is associated with poor diet quality, weight gain, and a higher risk of diabetes and heart disease⁴.

Making a resolution to prepare more meals at home and using healthy ingredients will help you decrease your consumption of convenience foods.

5. Make More Time for Your Family

Making time for the family may not be on the top of people's new year's resolution list but choosing it as a goal can boost your overall wellbeing. The benefits of spending more time with your family will benefit both you and the rest of your family.

Relaxing and feeling less stressed tend to happen when parents take time for their families. Spending time with their children results in them being more cooperative, friendly, and cheerful. Additionally, children who spend regular time with their parents tend to be healthier and happier.

6. Make Self-Care A Daily Routine

Every individual defines self-care differently, but the idea is to do something to take care of yourself every day. Reflection and solitude can reduce stress and elevate your mood. Especially if you do it first thing in the morning, it can also help you start your day in a more peaceful manner.

It is especially true for caregivers, such as parents or healthcare workers. When you have a busy schedule or limited time, it may be challenging to make a resolution to engage in self-care. It is, however, well worth your time.

It's not complicated or time-consuming to take care of yourself. You can easily do this by preparing a healthy meal for yourself, reading a novel while taking tea, doing your favorite exercise, going for a walk in nature, taking a bath every week, or sleeping an extra hour each night.

What's more, you can add MyMat as self-care to your daily routine. The MyMat therapy uses pulsed electromagnetic fields (PEMFs) to enhance the bodies' self-healing capacities. Its software integrates modern scientific research with ancient knowledge about the energetic structure of the human body. Unlike other PEMF devices, MyMat connects to your cell phone and allows you to choose your programs. Having your pocket healer with you all the time is a great benefit of using it wherever you are.

7. Make A Habit of Gratefulness

You should take a few minutes every day to reflect on what you are thankful for and write it down. It helps you stay focused and positive. When times are tough, reviewing your written notes from the past can give you comfort. As well as being grateful, adults who put their gratitude into action have a greater sense of purpose and wellbeing. Whether you do it with your time or with money, giving back to your community can benefit your physical and mental wellbeing greatly⁵.

8. Improve Your Sleep Quality

Sleeping less than seven hours each night decreases activity levels and increases the odds of being obese in adults. Furthermore, they are more likely to suffer from chronic diseases, including diabetes, asthma, coronary heart disease, and arthritis⁶.

If you haven't been getting that much sleep, adding more than one hour or two to your sleep cycle can be intimidating. Start by getting to sleep 15 minutes earlier every night. Make sure you set an early bedtime in your daily schedule if you have to. Once you've managed to sleep 15 minutes earlier each night, add another 15 minutes, and so on until you've reached your goal.

To sleep better, keep your bedroom cool and dark. If necessary, close your curtains and dim the display on your bedside alarm clock, then turn your thermostat down to a cool 68 degrees. Bodytox Lavender Sleep Patches can also help you get more quality sleep.

9. Spend More Time in The Outdoors

Outdoor activities can reduce stress, elevate mood, and lower blood pressure, as well as relieve stress⁷. An easy and healthy New Year's resolution is to spend more time outside every day. It will benefit almost everyone, no matter where they live.

Short walks during the lunch hour, a weekend hike, a family trip to the park, or simply enjoying your backyard or local park are all great ways to include nature in your daily routines.

10. Limit Your Screen Time

The internet and smartphones have become vital components of many people's lives. Some studies, however, have shown that having too much access to electronic devices, especially on social media, can cause depression, anxiety, and loneliness⁸. In addition to disrupting sleep patterns, technology overuse also interferes with our ability to establish emotional bonds with others⁹.

Making a new year's resolution to spend less time on social media, watching TV, or playing computer games could improve your mood and boost productivity. In deciding to turn off your devices for a period of time each day, you're also choosing to prioritize relationships with family and friends as well as interests and hobbies that you might not otherwise pursue.

11. Focus on Being Present

According to research, being more present can improve life satisfaction by reducing negative thoughts, good for your mental health¹⁰.

Consider making a New Year's resolution to become more mindful and present in your life. It may help you feel more content every day.

By using your phone less, noticing your environment more, and listening closely to others, you can become more present.

12. Quit Smoking

If you smoke, you put yourself at a much higher risk for many health problems. No matter what resolution you make on this list, if you don't give up smoking, you are still putting your health at risk.

This is your chance to quit smoking and change your life for the better. There are many aids to help you quit today, so make this the year you stop the habit for good.

13. Stop Talking Negatively About Your Body

Body shame can result from talking negatively about your body. Women and men who engage in and hear negative body talk are more likely to feel dissatisfied with their bodies and suffer from lower self-esteem¹¹. 

Make a healthy resolution to talk positively to yourself and reduce negative body language in the New Year. By doing this, you not only gain a healthier relationship with your body, but you may also help others stop criticizing themselves negatively.

A Guide to Keeping New Year's Resolutions

Without a plan to help you achieve your goals, keeping your new year's resolution can be difficult. It is possible to increase your chances of success with your resolutions by asking yourself the following four questions:

What Are My Goals?

Specificity is key. Make sure you define what healthy eating looks like, and don't just say you want it. For example, will eating less be part of it? You may want to replace your afternoon soft drink with a bottle of water. Maybe you should take a walk every day during your lunch break, or perhaps you should join a fitness class.

What Will Be My Measure of Progress?

Defining your goal and tracking your progress will help you do this. An individual seeking to lose weight, for example, could measure their progress by monitoring the number on the scale or by checking the fit of their pants. If the goal is to stop smoking, progress can be measured by noting how much money you save not buying cigarettes or the number of days you go without smoking.

Do I Have A Realistic Goal?

The idea of saving enough money in five years to retire sounds great, but if you're only 25, you may not be able to accomplish that. Do not set yourself up for failure by setting goals you can't realistically manage on a daily basis. You might start by resolving to save $100 more a month instead of making the resolution to save enough to retire.

Where Can I Find Out When I've Reached My Goal?

One way to measure your success is to give yourself a deadline. When trying to become more active, count your steps using a pedometer and work towards a daily goal of 500 additional steps. Celebrate your accomplishment once you've reached your goal.

As soon as you achieve your goals, you need not stop being healthy. Keep setting new goals as you succeed. You will make great progress by taking small steps every day.

The Bottom Line

Even though most New Year's resolutions are only kept for a short period of time, we have compiled a list of healthy resolutions above that can be followed for life in order to improve your physical and emotional health. The way you relate to food and how you care for your body and mind profoundly impact your health.

Let's make this New Year and the years to come as happy and healthy as possible by using the resolutions in this article.