Now that you know what NOT to do for New Year’s resolutions, let’s talk about how to do it right! In order for your resolutions to be effective, they need to be specific and realistic. Always run them by a friend, since they can tell you if your goal is realistic for you or not.
Short term goals are ones that you would achieve in a week or a month. Long term goals are ones that take 4 months or longer to achieve. Long term goals require several short term goals along the way. Most New Year’s resolutions are long term goals. They are often not achieved because appropriate short term goals weren’t set along the way. Most of the time I recommend short-term goals to start with.
Let’s get started!
Hopefully you’ve picked one or two areas to work on. Remember, 3 at the most! One of mine is to plan meals ahead of time. So my resolution will be:
- I will plan meals weekly.
I picked the time frame of weekly which is realistic for me. It’s also measurable; I will be able to tell if I met my goal or not.
To keep track of my progress, I will type up the weekly menu and save it. In order to achieve this goal, I should identify what time I’ll plan the meals and when I plan to shop for groceries. By writing down the steps in achieving the goal it helps me to see what things I need to do to move towards reaching the goal.
- Identify a place to keep the menu so that my husband and I can both know what needs to be made. (DONE!)
- Create a weekly grocery list.
- Seek out new recipes for any foods we have a lot of in the pantry.
More Ideas:
If your long term goal is to increase intake of fruits and vegetables, you would need to set several short term goals to meet that.
Here are some things that might help:
- Make a list of fruit/vegetables snacks that you like and put it on the fridge as a reminder.
- Sign up for healthy recipes to be sent to your email (the American Institute for Cancer Research has health-e-recipes).
- Try a new way to prepare a fruit or vegetable once a week.
- Sign up for a healthy cooking class.
- Shop for fresh fruits and vegetables twice a week.
- Keep fresh fruit out in a bowl on the counter or kitchen table.
- Keep track of fruits and vegetables with this nutrition tracker.
Here are some other specific and achievable healthy eating/ wellness resolutions:
- I will do 30 minutes of physical activity 5 days a week.
- I will eat fruits and/or vegetables 5 times/day.
- I will eat fruit with breakfast 5 days/week.
- I will Drink 8 cups of water daily.
- I will not drink more than 36 oz. of soda per week.
- I will try cooking a new healthy recipe once a week.
I would love to know what goals you are setting this year and would be happy to give you feedback, if desired. Feel free to email them to me!
For cancer survivors, you may want to do some research on whether there
are specific recommendations regarding lifestyle and survivorship for
your cancer. I would be happy to meet with you individually or at one of my regular classes.
I hope to see you soon!
– Julie
