Healthier New Year’s Resolutions

Happy New Year! Welcome to the time of year when many people set various goals for themselves for the year to come, including health-related objectives such as losing weight or getting in shape.

As I’ve said in previous articles on this subject, I’m really not a big fan of setting resolutions specifically for the start of a new year. The holidays put most of us at least a little bit off of our usual routines and we’re often struggling to get back to a more normal schedule and lifestyle after the holiday period. Trying to start a new health regimen in the midst of that is going to be extra difficult. I think waiting at least a few weeks until you settle back in to “normal” post-holiday life probably has a better chance of success.

But even waiting a bit to start on a grand plan of self-improvement is prone to difficulties if you try to go too big with your changes all at once. My advice is to choose one or two simple steps that you can do that won’t completely disrupt your life and add in additional steps, if needed, once you’ve incorporated those earlier changes into your lifestyle.

When it comes to health goals, I think it’s helpful to set goals around actions rather than outcomes. For example, you might set a goal to take a 20 minute walk every morning, rather than setting a goal to lose a certain amount of weight. You have a lot more control over actions than you do outcomes and when it comes to health, achieving an outcome goal often leads to discontinuing the action you took to achieve it, and then eventually losing the outcome. Health is a journey, not a destination, so think in terms of what you can and will do long-term.

It’s also important to be at least somewhat detailed with your goal. Rather than setting out to “exercise regularly,” first define what that means. What do you consider “exercise” and what’s “regularly?”

Bear in mind that any change requires time and effort until it becomes ingrained in your behavior. Some realistic planning is also in order. If you’ve set a goal to do a particular type of exercise for an hour three times per week, you have to figure out where those hours are going to fit in your schedule – and not just the exercise hours, but also the time to get to and from where the exercise is to take place, changing clothes before and/or after, etc..

Finally, allow for some trial and error. If your initial plan isn’t working for some reason, it’s better to try to revise it so that it does work rather than to give up altogether. Any change in the right direction is a good thing, so be kind to yourself and don’t try to force yourself to continue with a regimen that just doesn’t suit your life. If something comes up that completely derails your plan, try to focus on what you can do (no matter how small it may seem), rather than on what you can’t and go forward with whatever will work in the present. You can always revisit the bigger plan in the future.

I hope these tips are helpful for those of you going forward with New Year’s resolutions and that you have a healthy and happy 2026!

Until next time…

George F. Best, D.C.