9 Top Tips to Help You Stick to Your New Year’s Resolutions

We are now well into the new year and if you aren’t already lacking motivation when it comes to keeping your resolutions, you might find yourself falling back into bad habits pretty soon.

Avoid adding to the broken resolutions pile from years gone by with our tips to stay motivated.

 

Set targets

Rather than choosing a generic ‘I want to get fit,’ goal, why not make a more specific goal such as ‘I want to be able to run a 5 miles without stopping within 10 weeks.’ You’ll be more focused as you’ll have an actual target to aim for.

 

Choose reasonable goals

If you know you won’t be able to complete your resolution, don’t do it. It’s all well and good to say you’re going to cut chocolate out of your life, but you’ll feel worse if you fail than if you had not bothered at all. Instead of completely giving up chocolate, try saying your New Year’s Resolution is to cut down the number of bars you eat a week.

 

Lay the foundation

As you probably know, embarking on a journey such as a New Year’s Resolution is not easy. You’ve probably been told to just get on with it, that it’s better to launch straight into it like ripping off a plaster. Don’t! The best thing to do it build up to it. For example, if your goal is to exercise for an hour a day, start off at ten minutes and increase it by five every week or two until you reach an hour.

 

Have a cheat day

If you’re on a diet, have one or two days a month where you can eat anything and everything you want. If you’re waking up earlier, have a couple of days where you can sleep in an extra hour. By having set days to look forward to, you’ll feel more positive and won’t feel as pressured, meaning you’ll be less willing to give up.

 

Keep a diary

Writing down your thoughts and feelings about how the change is going will help you along your way. If there is a day when you feel like giving up, you can always flick back to a day when you were feeling positive about it and that should change your perspective.

 

 

Distract yourself

If you are working to completely cut a bad habit out of your life, try taking up a new hobby to keep your mind off of it. Need inspiration? Check out our list of hobbies that can be done in the comfort of your own home here.

 

Replace your old snacks

If the diet already looks doomed because treats are too good to avoid, you can have the best of both worlds with Nairn’s Oat Biscuits. With 40% less sugar than the average biscuit and four delicious flavours to choose from, you can satisfy your sweet tooth and keep the bathroom scales happy too! Available in stores including Waitrose now.

 

Think positively

Don’t go into this thinking of what might happen if you fail. Instead, try to think only positive thoughts. Make it so it’s not all about you, if that helps. The way you view your resolution can go a long way to how successful you’ll be at achieving it, so instead of viewing it as a negative sacrifice, view it as a positive change instead. For instance, if you are giving up smoking, change it from ‘Give up smoking,’ to ‘Give up smoking so I become healthier, am able to run around with my kids, and live a long life.’ You’ll be surprised at the difference it makes!

 

Reward yourself

Make sure you give yourself little pats on the back when you’ve completed or your resolution. However, be very careful! If your goal was to stop drinking, it’s best not to go all out with the alcohol. Instead, try celebrating with a trip to the theatre, magazine subscription, or a new outfit.