Getting Healthy in the New Year

Is getting healthy on your New Year’s resolution list? Do you have a goal to lose weight, eat more salad or exercise more?

Most people do. The New Year inspires a sense of possibility and new beginnings. That sense of wiping the slate clean and starting fresh can be an effective motivation tool.

Making a resolution doesn’t create change though. Sustained action does. You may have experienced this for yourself. After a while, the motivation fades away. The sense of possibility and a fresh start is replaced by the distraction of old habits and a busy life.

We lose the mojo to continue.

A resolution isn’t meant to last. Use your resolution for what it is – a kick start, the fire under your pants that gets you running, it can be the proverbial carrot on a stick that leads you down a new path.

By February, most New Year’s resolutions have fallen to the wayside. Yours may, too.

That’s ok. Wellness is a journey, not a destination. Make a resolution to recharge your journey in 2012. Then consider these five points to keep your momentum going:

1. Announce what you want. Be accountable. Focus on a result. Eating salad everyday for lunch is an action, not a result. It may be part of a plan to get healthier, but if it leaves you craving a snickers bar by 3:00 and binging all weekend on burgers and fries, it’s not going to get you the result you’re looking for.

2. Make a resolution that will give you a boost of adrenaline and motivation. Hire a coach or personal trainer. Join a kick-start program or follow a 28-day plan.

3. Look for all or nothing thinking and nip it in the bud. When your resolution begins to wear down, take what you learned and adjust for sustained change. Don’t let switching out a salad at lunch for a burger and fries be reason for giving up on eating healthier in 2012. Learn from it and tweak your actions. For instance, are you tired of salad? Maybe you want something warm? Or you need a bigger breakfast. Maybe you need to plan for the occasional burger and fries (and if you do, enjoy every bite!).

4. Perfection has no place when you are living an authentic life. There will be ups and downs, successful days and challenging ones. Integrate your vision into all aspects of your life. Account for an ebb and flow.

5. Get clear on why you want to be healthier. Want to be healthier so you can have the energy and vitality to enjoy your life? Start enjoying it now. Nothing kills a resolution faster than feeling deprived, unhappy and jealous. Having a plan, and the desire to live it, will allow you to reap the benefits of a healthier life.

Share your wellness journey. Use the comment section below to announce your resolution.

Here’s to a healthier and happier 2012!

Cydney Smith

Cydney Smith is the founder of Mompreneur Wellness. Mompreneur Wellness offers coaching programs, nutrition education and retreats. A book on her spirited nutrition approach to wellness will be published in late August. She works with women who are creating a lifestyle for themselves that includes pursuing a flexible career or a creative endeavor, often entrepreneurship, while they are raising a family. Through working together, they explore the interplay between food, nutrition, core beliefs and creating success in their life- however they define that. She offers a simple, whole foods perspective to support her clients on their wellness journey.

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