By Jessica Schieber:
As I am working today December 30th, 2015 and I have the TV on. Every commercial that comes on has one theme, gym memberships and weight loss programs. It’s New Year’s Resolution time!! I read an interesting statistic that only about 40%-60% of people make New Year’s Resolutions, and only about half or less of those keep them throughout the year.
The concept of making a New Year’s Resolution goes back nearly 4000 years to Babylon and the idea that they would reaffirm oaths to their gods each year around spring for a good harvest. Then we see the tradition continue in Rome around 300 BC where we see it move to pledging oaths to the Roman god Janus. Janus was the ancient Roman god depicted with two faces because he looks to the future and the past, beginnings and transitions. Early Christians used the tradition to reflect on past mistakes and resolve to improve upon those for the year ahead, which is the widely accepted application of the tradition today. With all that history said, if few people make them and even fewer keep them why do we do it?
I don’t know if you are like me, but every year when I set a resolution, come the middle of January when I was back to eating chocolate or watching too much TV, I spent another month of self-loathing not understanding why I couldn’t do something so simple. Well, the short answer is, a life change is not simple! Added to the difficulty of implementing a sometimes drastic lifestyle change, we add all sorts of pressure, by thinking about it for weeks, having a specific starting date, and then publicly plastering it all over Facebook. So what is the solution?
Stop it!! Stop making these big resolutions when you are setting yourself up to fail! I think about my transition to Paleo. I knew I needed to make a life change. I thought about it for quite a while and it still felt daunting. My poor health and poor eating habits didn’t just happen overnight, but over 20 years of putting junk in and getting junk out. If you know anything about a Paleo lifestyle, it is a complete change, eliminating dairy, grains, soy, beans, refined sugar, and anything super processed. Needless to say, to someone who loved fast food and anything covered in cheese, this seemed like a pretty big mountain to climb. So imagine for a minute, if I, who obviously had little will power and even less self-esteem over my weight and health, had waited months to start, plastered it on social media, and tried to take on all of those changes at once! I would have accepted a quick defeat and ordered a pizza to eat away my worries. Instead, after I thought about the big change I wanted to make, I didn’t wait until January 1st to start. I also had a few keys to success that I think is applicable to any life change.
- Don’t wait! When you are most motivated take the first steps! If you wait, you are bound to over analyze and talk yourself out of it. What is one small thing you can do today to start your journey? My transition to Paleo didn’t include me eliminating everything at once, but rather one thing at a time before I moved on to the next. Start with one little thing. Take a walk, take cookies off your shopping list. Whatever it is, the important thing is to start when you have momentum.
- Be realistic in your goals. You didn’t get into the situation overnight, or even only in a year. I suggest setting 2 goals, short term and longer term goals. When you reach your short term goal set another one. The more you reach the short term goals, you will build momentum to keep going. For instance, set your first short term goal to exercise (walk, gym, whatever makes you happy) for 30 minutes a week, when that is easy, set your next to 30 minutes a day until you look forward to going to the gym. Then maybe your long term goal is to lose that 20lbs. The smaller achievements will keep you focused.
- Reward yourself when you reach milestones! Did you meet your short term goal of exercising 30 minutes a day for over a month? Buy yourself a new workout shirt! Hit that 10lb mark and your jeans are too big? Have a little splurge and buy a pair that make you feel great.
- Have a support system! You don’t have to overshare on social media to hold yourself accountable, because most of us have hundreds of friends, and the most communication we have with them is hitting “like” on their newest cat video. Instead, find a smaller group of like-minded people who don’t shy away from speaking the truth to you! It also helps if they know enough about how to get past your struggle to give you good alternatives. A couple work friends and I would get together for a quick walk over lunch every day. They kept me accountable to getting active. My mother in law teaches Paleo classes, she challenged me to stay the course!
- Finally, recognize and appreciate not only your achievements, but your journey. It sounds fluffy I know, but a good friend would tell me constantly how good I was looking as I started to not only feel better, but lose weight. My response was always, “no I don’t” or “I still have so much to lose”. Her so simple, but thoughtful response was, “STOP IT. Just say thank you.” I thought and thought about that. We are much harder on ourselves than we are on others. Treat New Year’s Day like the early Christians did, and reflect back on your journey the previous year. What was important to you? What did you achieve, and how did you feel about it all? If you had a misstep, did you just keep going? When people praise you, say thank you, and stop there. Never forget to praise yourself.
Don’t go resolution crazy or you will make yourself nuts. Start small, and start now. You got this!!
