How to Keep Healthy New Year Resolutions – When you make New Year’s resolutions, physically nothing changes. You are still you, and you’ll wake up on New Year’s Day still the person you were on New Year’s Eve. You may be slightly hungover if you’ve had a good time the night before.
You may feel a renewed sense of purpose. But it’s mostly because the New Year changeover is a symbolic one, not a physical one. It’s symbolic in that the change at New Year symbolizes the turning of a page. It’s the fresh page of a new book that smells really good, and there’s a whole year stretched ahead of you that is blank. This chapter hasn’t been written yet, and you get the chance to write the chapter that matters most to you. Most people make New Year’s resolutions that they can stick to because they know that it will feel nice to tick off some goals as they go through the year.
Health resolutions tend to be quite popular. People want to start the year on a high, given that they’ve just finished it on a low with alcohol or parting with their friends or smoking outside. If this is you and you want to put some healthy resolutions in place for 2025, let’s take a look at some resolutions that you can stick to.
- Lose some weight. Ah, the most popular New Year’s resolution, shedding the pounds and transforming your body to your very best self where you want it to be. The body positivity movement has potentially allowed you to slack a little bit to think that. Your discomfort in your body right now is absolutely fine, but those weight loss injectables do look tempting, and if you know you can get your weight down to a healthy BMI, you’ll be able to stave off potential issues developing later in life. You don’t want to develop type 2 diabetes or have to deal with any joint trouble or heart trouble, so losing some weight is a great resolution. It’s just not easy to do it alone! To stick to this resolution, make a point of asking for help from your GP.
- Swap your eating habits. Eating healthier is again a nice idea, but you need to go slowly with this one. If you want this to be a success, then swap your habits for healthier ones. Instead of drinking full sugar Coca-Cola for example, swap to the diet version. If you want to cut down on your caffeine, then gently ask for 1/2 strength coffee each time you get one. You can start cutting back and you’ll feel better for it. You could also challenge yourself to include a fruit or a vegetable at every meal, no matter how small. You can choose to stop snacking after a certain time of the night. There are lots of small things you can do with your eating that do not have to be a drastic change, such as switching everything you eat to cabbage soup.
- Start moving your body more. This one is often one that people rally against because the gym is a busy time in the new year. Everybody’s had the same idea to sign up to the local gyms, which means that they’re going to be packed with people for the first few weeks of the year. And then it starts to lighten up as people let go of their New Year’s resolutions. The one thing to remember is that you don’t need to go to the gym just to move your body. In fact, you can just add an extra walk every day for half an hour. The goal is to make sure that you are moving your body at least 30 minutes every single day. So adding 1/2 an hour walk with your headphones in and listening to a story or a podcast or your favourite artist can really help you to get out there and get moving.
- Cut down on your alcohol consumption. Drinking less is easier to do if you gently cut down rather than starting out the year with a dry January. Some people choose to start with dry January after an indulgent few weeks over Christmas and New Year, but you don’t have to do that if you don’t want to. Choosing not to drink until the weekend is also not a good plan because that just includes binge drinking. Instead, try to cut down how much you’re drinking when you’re on a night out. If you’re having a glass of wine, have a glass of water with it. If you would normally go through 4 to 5 glasses of wine, aim to stick to two or three. It’s those small and gentle changes that will stick for the long term. Cold Turkey may not be the way to go for you.
- Speak to a counsellor. When it comes to stress management, you need to speak to a counsellor, so book in some therapy sessions. Your doctor should be able to get you a limited amount of free sessions for this year. This can help you immensely with your mental health and stress management. You can’t stick to a healthy diet, regular exercise, or anything like that if you don’t have somebody helping you with your mental health.
- Let go of smoking. Whether you smoke cigarettes or you vape, kicking the smoking habit is one of the best things you can do for your health. No, it’s not easy, and if you tried to quit before, you may already know that. But instead of doubting your ability to make it stick, start looking at how you can cut down. Small changes, remember?
- Resolve to cook more. A good resolution for your health is to start cooking more and getting less takeout. If you’re on a first name basis with the delivery guy, then you need to start looking at cooking with healthier ingredients. There are plenty of options for recipe books, YouTube videos, and even TikTok videos that can teach you how to cook step by step meals that are easily stored. There really isn’t an excuse to say you don’t know how when there are plenty of learning materials at your fingertips – quite literally.
- Work on your work life balance. The effects of working too much are very real and burnout is so common that people are starting to quit jobs just for a break. If you’re dealing with a lot of stress, speak to your boss and see whether or not you can work on working from home or cutting down your hours.
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