How to set New Year’s resolutions for your health that will actually work!

GuestExpert
GuestExpert Staff Posts: 3
edited June 2017 in Health and wellbeing
Note from BCNA: The following is a guest post, the first in a series we're bringing you this year.

Dr Helen Donovan is a health psychologist specialising in initiating and maintaining long-term health behaviour change. Her experiences encompass:
  • health coaching with individuals and groups
  • developing, implementing and evaluating workplace health behaviour change interventions
  • program management of health promotion programs
  • lecturing in health behaviour change at Deakin University
  • training fitness professionals in the health coaching methodology.
Helen is also a group fitness instructor and loves to continually update her knowledge on the interplay between the biopsychosocial aspects of health.

Helen was also on the team behind Revitalise with BCNA.

How to set New Year’s resolutions for your health that will actually work! 

New Year’s Eve has been and gone and with it comes the cultural ritual of setting resolutions for the New Year. This year, let’s do it together, and let’s make them useful.

So why don’t NYs resolutions work? Commonly, we set broad goals without clear parameters (I want to get fit/lose weight/sleep better/stress less). Then we get busy in life, and they slip to the back of the queue of life’s priorities. Or we start off with massive, impressive efforts, but the lifestyle changes required to maintain these efforts are actually TOO great, and don’t fit into our day-to-day routines. So they only last a short while and we feel like we have failed. But actually, it’s just our plan that has failed! 

It’s easy to forget that consistent, steady, small steps are generally the most successful way to sustain long-term change. Here’s one tiny little example -  cutting out just 2 teaspoons of sugar a day is FOUR KILOGRAMS in a year. Picture four kilograms of sugar. You might choose to do that by halving your morning glass of OJ, reducing sugar in tea or coffee, having one less sweet biscuit each day, or cutting down on dried fruit. That one tiny little change, if done consistently, gives you a significant result! Imagine if you start combining a few of these tiny little changes – a little bit more activity every day, a few minutes of relaxation to decrease your stress levels, some extra sleep… Where are the little steady changes that will add up to noticeable results for you? 

So, let’s do it differently this year, step-by-step. You can use the attached worksheet to easily think through each step.

Note: If you don’t have at least eight minutes right now plan the small, steady steps to improve your health, put a reminder in your diary/phone to come back and do it at a better time!

Step 1: Motivation

We are HIGHLY unlikely to make a long term change, unless we have clear motivations. Not only do we need to highlight these to motivate our planning, but we need to plan ways to keep them in our consciousness day-to-day. Take a few moments and write down your motivations for improving your health – be comprehensive! If you want to have more energy/get fit/lose weight/stress less, how will it feel when you improve your health in this way? What else will this impact on (your family, your relationship, your work, your role-modelling to your kids?)?  Now where can you put this list so that you see it regularly? 

Step 2: Options

What are all of the possible ways you could progress toward your goal? Often we automatically jump to one option, which is often something we have done before and may or may not have succeeded at. Take a moment and think really broadly. What have you done successfully in the past? What have you always wanted to try? What have you heard others speak of favourably? What are the things that might be daily options? Weekly options? Things you could do with the support of a partner/friend/family member/work colleague? When you review your list, which options do you feel most ready to try?

Step 3: Specific actions

Overarching goals are motivational, but they don’t get us results – it’s the specific, regular actions that yield results! Pick one, two or three specific actions that will help you to move toward your goal. RESIST THE TEMPTATION TO PICK MORE THAN THREE!

Integrating changes into your routine takes consistent effort, and if you are working on more than three things at once, you are much less likely to succeed. Think about how you are going to remember these specific actions next week or next month. Is there anyone who you can ask to support you with your actions?

The SMART acronym is a good way of thinking about detailed actions – specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound. For example: Starting today, I will put a recurring reminder alert in my phone every Sunday to prepare my lunches for the week ahead (then it comes back to motivation – when that alert goes off, are you going to follow through? If not, how can you enhance your motivation in that moment OR pick a different action that you are confident you will follow through on!).

Step 4: Track your success 

We all respond well to positive feedback. What system(s) can you initially use to track your success so that every time you go to bed on time, or go for your planned walk, or prepare the healthy lunches for the week ahead you can give yourself a big gold star! Make this a part of your plan. Tracking your actions not only feels good, but it helps you to keep your awareness on your goals and to become more aware of the decision points in every day. Do you have existing routines that you can build this tracking into (e.g. diary, calendar, phone alerts, online app, or health tracking device)?

Step 5: Review your plan

Build a review into your plan. If you get a week or a month down the track and you realise you haven’t followed your plan, or you started it and then tapered off, create a revised plan B! Sometimes we are overly ambitious initially, or unrealistic, or we try something and find it doesn’t work in our life at the moment – or we just forget to initiate the plan! Set up a concrete review time. You can put a note in your diary, an alert in your phone, or try the website FutureMe.org to send yourself an email into the future!

When making your plan remember – YOU ARE YOUR BEST HEALTH COACH! You know the areas that are going to make an improvement to your health, and you know best what works for you! If you love doing things with others, think about ways to integrate that into your plan. If you’re not a morning person, try not to set up goals that rely on change that is going to conflict with your daily preferences. Look for the ways to strengthen your goals, and build them into a long-term routine. They don’t have to be perfect.

What’s the next small step for you?
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