Happy New Year to you and your family! I hope you have had a wonderful holiday season filled with family, fun, cookies (well maybe it’s been too many cookies hahaha), and memories.
It’s hard to believe it is 2019! I was at a concert last weekend and the person next to me asked how many times I had seen the band. I told him it was too many to count as my first show was in college in 1999 and I’ve been going to shows every since. He made this surprised look and said, “Wow, 1999?! I was only 8 back then.” So, I felt super old after that! Thanks random concert dude lol.
But, looking forward to a new year always fills the mind with excitement, new possibilities and goals, maybe for some it’s starting over with a clean slate. And another year just means we are just getting wiser not older, right? Sounds good to me!
New Year’s resolutions are common around this time, but you hear a lot about them failing. Why is that? I think it’s because we tend to set a really lofty or large resolution – something that is really hard to achieve – or else it is something we try to do without the proper strategies in place to make it successful. To reduce this failure rate, setting a resolution should really be something we can easily achieve and build upon as the weeks and months go on. That way we will be staying successful and motivated along with achieving our goals. I’m all in for that!
This philosophy is called One Simple Change and its effectiveness is backed by research. Start with thinking of one positive activity, nutrition change, mindset, etc – make is SUPER small, simple, and ACHIEVABLE. If you can’t easily achieve it, you made your change too big and need to make it smaller.
Let’s take water drinking for example. If your new year’s resolution was to drink 8 glasses of water a day because you have read all of these great health benefits that come with drinking more water and currently you only drink 2, all of a sudden drinking 8 a day would be challenging and hard to keep up consistently. Then, after a trying to do this huge change and you’re struggling, you are probably just going to give up after a while. Don’t beat yourself up about it though – it’s crazy hard to make such a 180 in your habits!
How about this way (the one simple change way) instead: If your end goal is to drink 8 glasses of water a day and you currently drink 2, set your first resolution to drink 3 glasses of water a day for week 1. Then week 2, increase to 4 glasses a day. And so on for week 3, 4…you get the idea 🙂
Stay successful by keeping the change small and achievable, but keep moving in a positive direction towards your end goal. Research shows that small changes produce the biggest long-term results and actually aid in changing or re-shaping your habits. It’s a win-win! You can plan to make a new change or keep building on a change each week. Imagine if you started today – – where would you be 4 weeks from now? It’s amazing what you will be able to achieve.
The next step to making your resolutions happen is to write them down. Putting pen to paper (or the notes app on your device, journal, or whatever works for you) makes it real and helps with accountability. I would challenge you to take it a step further and tell someone your resolution so they can help keep you accountable Better yet, send me an email with your resolution and your first one simple change – I would love to hear all about it!
Let’s make 2019 the best year yet!!
Also don’t forget to schedule your osteopathic manual session to get you and your family off on a positive wellness path. Have support along your journey and also don’t let pain or issues with how your body is functioning get in the way to achieving your best feeling self – manual osteopathy can be a very effective tool. Keep in the loop and stay connected on the Superior Wellness Facebook page. We also have a Shred10 group starting soon on January 7th which will jumpstart your way to healthy habits – I’m so ready for a reset after the holidays with our fun healthy revolution group. Thanks for an awesome 2018 and looking ahead to 2019.
Peace, love, & vegetables,
Dr. Lori
