Set Yourself Up for Success

Now that the holiday celebrations and excesses are mostly behind us, it is the perfect time to refocus our energies upon ourselves for the upcoming year and set goals for health and well-being. This is popular time to create your New Year's resolutions.  If you've had difficulties sticking to them in the past, here are some pointers for success. 

• Set Priorities - Create a 3-4 item list of what you want to change this year and put them in priority order.  Take the first item on your list and think about the steps you'll need to do to make it happen.  Work on one item from your list at a time.  In this example, let's say your first priority for the year is to walk a 10K. 


• Assess where you are now.  "You need to know where you are before you know where you're going."  Keep a daily journal of exercise/activity and/or what you currently eat for a few days, depending your goals.  Be honest!  Be accountable to yourself.  In our example, you could find a way to track number of steps or distance traveled per day to keep in your journal.


• Review your journal.  Set some short-term goals that you can accomplish in 2-3 weeks based on your priority list.  You may find that your diet and exercise have already improved because you had to write it down.  All the better!  Try to make it a long-term habit to keep a journal.  Let's say you're currently walking 4000-5000 steps per day, your short-term goal could be to begin walking 6000-7000 steps per day.  Don't try to increase your steps too quickly, if you try to set your short-term goals too aggressively, you may become frustrated and give-up.


• Progress forward by reviewing your journal on a weekly basis.  Depending your short-terms goals, adjust them if you are straying or stay the course if you are making progress.  It's important for these short-term goals to be attainable, otherwise you are setting yourself up for discouragement or failure.  For example, are you meeting the goal for 6000-7000 steps most days of the week?  If not, try reducing the number of days per week to 4 days per week instead of 7.  This is progress since you were doing 4000-5000 steps per day previously.


• Set a time frame for change - give yourself 2-3 weeks for one goal and don’t add any other goals until you’re satisfied that you have met your previous goal.  It may feel like slow progress but this is the best way to more forward and lay down new habits.  For example, continue to sustain 6000-7000 steps per day, 4 days per week for 2-3 weeks before increasing the steps per day or number of days per week.


• Congratulate - give yourself a pat on the back, buy yourself a small gift (not a cookie!) if you’ve met a goal and sustained it for 2-3 weeks. This is an accomplishment, acknowledge it.   Buy yourself a massage or new colorful water bottle for meeting your goal.


• Resolve to forge ahead - Even if you didn't meet your initial goal, re-state or modify the goal (remember - something attainable) and start again.  If you met your previous goal, set the next one and start to work on it right away.  All of these steps will move you closer to your long-term goal.  That 10K goal is getting closer as your increase your number of steps per day.


• Acknowledge Success - You’ve have already succeeded!  Just by reading this article, you are already on the road to positive change.  Contemplation and information gathering are the first steps to change.  Now set your first goal!



Happy New Year!  Be kind to yourself - negative self-talk is never productive.

Here are few reasons to see a nutritionist/personal trainer/health coach: relieve tension & stress in the body, properly train or progress in an activity, improve your microbiome, assess nutrient intake, disease prevention through evidence-based diet, and exercise, maximize exercise performance, improve sleep quality, enhance mental clarity, optimize digestion and nutrient absorption, establish long-term healthy habits, meal planning for a whole foods diet and eat in a way to sustain the planet.  Please consider Sheri for nutrition counseling and/or fitness appointments to help you develop a healthier lifestyle for you and the planet. 

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