Good morning, friends!
Let’s talk New Years Resolutions. For most of you, today means back to the daily grind. It also means a fresh start after the indulgence of the holidays. I’m all for people making decisions to change their lives in a healthy way, but I’m not a big resolution person. I know that resolutions really work for some, but for me resolutions have always been a bit too broad and overwhelming. As I hope I’ve shown on this blog, I believe much more in the power of small daily actions, or intentions. I find that setting smaller daily or weekly goals vs. broad resolutions really helps with making healthy living a lifestyle change vs. a quick fix — or a huge overwhelming goal that is never reached.
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Here are some examples of how to turn a broad resolution into a more specific action.
Resolution: “I will exercise more this year.”
Daily/Weekly Action or Intention: “I will schedule at least three workouts into my calendar every week.”
Then every Sunday, schedule exercise into your calendar in a very specific way — e.g. Monday morning 7 a.m. run, or Wednesday night 6:30 p.m. Zumba class. Over time, scheduling your workouts will become second nature. I always take this approach — I find if something is in my calendar, it makes it much easier for me to just do it vs. trying to figure out when to fit in exercise last minute. Another great approach? Sign up for a race and create a training plan!
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Resolution: “I will lose weight this year.”
Daily/Weekly Action or Intention: “I will eat at least one vegetable every day.” or “I will choose brown rice or whole wheat pasta instead of white rice/pasta.” or “I will eat a healthy breakfast 6 out of 7 days of the week.”
Again, I think setting a more specific daily or weekly action will help to make the overall goal more reachable.
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I know this approach might not resonate with everyone, but I find that taking broad, sweeping resolutions and working them into weekly or daily intentions can help with making them seem less overwhelming. It will also help to translate them more into action and make healthy living more a part of your daily life, vs. something you try to fit in when you can.
What do you guys think — are you more of a resolutions person or a daily intentions person? I’m clearly not trying to act like an expert in any of this, and obviously changing your life for the healthier is a lot easier said than done, but I just thought this new approach to resolutions might help some of you to translate your resolutions into action.
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Did you set a New Year’s Resolution? What is it? And if you like the idea of daily intentions, what are some examples of how you can turn your original resolution into daily action? You can do this! 🙂
For more examples of daily actions vs. broad resolutions, check out my inspiration for this post: the Anti-Resolution Campaign!
(photo source)
Want some more health tips? Check out some of my previous related posts:
- How to make time for health when you’re busy
- How to Make a Recipe Healthier (includes a printable healthy ingredient substitution flyer!)
- One Small Change I Made to Improve My Health
- How to eat healthy on a road trip
- What I Buy When I Grocery Shop
- How to stay healthy while traveling
- How to Love Exercise (or at least not hate it)
- How to stay fit on vacation without a gym
- My tips for feeling satisfied and eating healthy
- Reader’s tips for feeling satisfied and staying healthy
- Use Greek yogurt instead of sour cream and mayo & other healthy tips!
- How to pack lunch in 5 minutes flat
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p.s. Speaking of incorporating fitness into your daily life, remember when I wrote last week about that gorgeous yoga studio in Adams Morgan called Stroga? Well, there’s a Living Social Deal for it today — 10 group yoga or fitness classes for $39. Sweet! Just bought it; it’s good through July 6, so I should have plenty of time to put it to use since we’re moving back in May! Yoga is so crazy expensive in D.C. so I’m excited.