Break the mould. Get ahead. Start those resolutions early!

December 15th, 2021

The custom of making New-Year’s Resolutions comes around every January… and believe it or not, for most people it’s NOT a positive thing! Why? Surely setting a positive goal and trying to stick to it should be applauded, right?

Wrong. We all know, deep down, that the chances of keeping up those crazily ambitious resolutions wanes by February leaving you feeling like you’ve ‘failed again’. This inevitable sensation serves only to fuel that dreaded ‘All-Or-Nothing’ mentality… which is responsible for many good intentions never getting the chance to succeed, before they are discarded.

Here’s a better way.

1 – Let’s be honest about what it is you’re trying to achieve. Would you be better served by doing nothing towards that goal until you hit January the first? Or is there something small, positive and ‘definitely doable’ that you can start TODAY?

2 – Let’s be realistic about your long-term goal. If that goal is fat loss, perhaps the goal for the end of 2021 should be to not gain any weight for the rest of the year!

3 – More brutal honesty to keep ‘The Grinch’ at bay – can you achieve this without dampening your enjoyment of the festive season? (Yes, you almost certainly can!) There are thousands of ‘background strategies’ that you can have going on which keep you enjoying the food, flavours and drinks of the season, without the outrageous excess. And if outrageous excess really is your thing, are you up for doing that just two nights per week rather than five (for example) to keep one eye on your goal?

4 – It’s incredibly easy to overeat at this time of the year. Avoid guilt by ‘swimming with this tide’ rather than against it. One way to ‘do better’ here is to make sure that your plate has more protein on it than normal… and aim to eat this first, alongside your abundance of vegetables. This small simple shift ensures you feel fuller earlier (with less calories) and get key nutrients in. This is a recommended strategy for reducing bloating, and that familiar Christmas feeling of being ‘over-full’.

5 – Alternatively, you could resolve to eat absolutely anything you fancy… but also commit to eating everything much slower. I have scores of testimonials from clients and friends who have embraced this with (to them) surprising results. Why not give it a go this season… start gently at 10 chews per mouthful – every mouthful – and see what happens…

6 – Think ahead. Write down, or discuss with a friend what you think your New Year’s resolutions will be this January. (Better yet, recall what last year’s were!) Then, ‘halve the impact’: whatever the resolution was, halve it and start it now. This is powerful… half of what you thought was originally needed to ‘succeed’ is more than enough to move you in the right direction… and much more likely to be done consistently.

Let’s do things differently this year. There should be no guilt around your food and drink now, or ever, for that matter. There’s also no need to feel like you need to completely miss out on fun to hit your targets. Postponing all mindfulness of where you’d like to be, in favour of a ‘dry January’ is repeating the cycle of ‘feast and famine’ and frankly, how has that worked for you thus far?

Start now. Start small. And when the next person asks you what your ‘New Year’s resolutions are, hopefully you can honestly say “they’re not that dramatic… and I’ve started them already”. This way lies success.

Start as you mean to go on this year – book that free Health & Nutrition Audit as let’s work together to help your good start to the year evolve into meaningful change.

Ayo Williams

The Lean Dad Project