5 Tips to Stick with your New Year's Resolutions!

5 tips to help you stick with your New Year’s resolutions!



Are you planning on making any New Year’s resolutions for 2011? Are you one of those people who typically gives up on your resolutions after just a few months or weeks? Would you like to increase your chances of following through on your resolutions?

Why is it so hard to create lasting changes in your behavior? It’s because your brain is hardwired to resist change. When your brain tells you to stick with the same old habits, you need to fight back. It takes time to overwrite old neural pathways with new ones. These five tips will help you retrain your brain so you can stick with your New Year’s resolutions.

1. Don’t try to change everything at once. Rather than making a resolution that is so lofty it is virtually impossible for you to achieve, choose one or two specific behaviors you want to change.

2. Believe you can do it. If you don’t believe in yourself, you will never achieve your goals.

3. Reward yourself for the small successes. When you reach a goal or are following through on your resolution, reward yourself. If weight loss is one of your goals for the New Year, find rewards that don’t involve eating or drinking—a warm bath, a good book, a hike with a friend, for example.

4. Don’t swap one bad habit for another. Don’t stop eating cookies but start drinking diet sodas. Don’t quit smoking but start guzzling coffee all day long. Replace your bad habits with good habits.

5. Get back on track—setbacks don’t mean failure. Like I said, change is hard, so don’t beat yourself up if you have a setback. Just acknowledge that you had a setback and get back onto your program the next day.

Personally, I am very guilty of #1...I try to make too many changes at once and end up giving up! But this year I'll try harder to ease into all the changes I want to take on. Wish me luck!

Here are a few of my 2011 goals...

Eat healthier (eat less sugar, drink more water)
Exercise more (usually I only workout during warm months)
Be more organized
Take more time for myself (i.e. facial,massage,etc.)
Learn to say "NO" (that's a difficult one for me)

Here's to 2011, I wish you all the best for a wonderful, happy and prosperous New Year!