Every year people all over the nation celebrate the new year. They eat, they drink, and some of them don’t remember their last day of the year. But, starting on January 1, millions of Americans all over the nation start their day off right. Some have just one New Years resolution they come up with, others have as many as six or seven, but all in all, no matter how different the resolutions are, every years stats are still the same.
Fact: Within the first thirty days of the new years, almost 30% of Americans have already gone back to their old lifestyle habits.
Fact: Out of the billions of Americans living in this country, only 8% stick with their New Year resolutions.
Opinion: Stick by a few simple rules and you might be one of the ones to beat the odds of the 92% of the people that give up.
Just about everyone comes up with the biggest known New Years resolution that is so common to every American, losing weight and getting healthy for the New Year. Although it seems like an awesome opportunity for people to live a more healthy and clean lifestyle, not everyone follows through with it. In order to prevent from giving up so easily, this year, take a different approach to the same resolution you have been trying to never give up on in the past. Here are three simple ways to eat clean, workout more, and live a healthy, positive life!
Step 1. What diet? It isn’t going to be a diet, so don’t call it that. One of the major reasons why so many people give up eating healthy so early within the New Year is due to the fact that they use the word diet in such a confined, narrow way. Many people’s problem in not following through with their New Years resolution in eating healthy is that they live by the phrase, “all or nothing”. And while sometimes that could be a great outlook to certain things, it isn’t the best motto for eating clean. So many people start their New Year off by eating only vegetables and small portions. They think they can only eat 1,000 calories a day, and if they cheat then they have to just give up due to the “all or nothing” rule. Slip ups are going to happen, that isn’t your fault, its human! Instead of trying to eat little to nothing every day, come up with delicious, flavorful meals that are healthy for you. Wake up every morning and say to yourself, “today, I am going to do the best I possibly can”. By enabling yourself to think positively, you are more likely to have a more proactive and healthy start to your day.
Step 2. Climb your way to the top! Many reasons why so many people fail at their New Year resolution of getting healthy and working out more is that they burn out way too early in the game. As soon as it hits January 1, people are in the gym for two, three hours working out, doing cardio, lifting weights…lifting more weights, eating a snack, and then hopping on the treadmill for another 45 minutes. They think they are doing themselves a favor by busting it in their first workout of the year, but that is what happens to always be the problem. People wake up the next day not able to get up out of their bed from being so sore, they give up on working out for that day. That day turns into the next day, which turns into the next four months. By starting off easy and then working your way up to harder classes, and doing more cardio, your body’s endurance becomes so much stronger. So for step two, climb your way up the mountain, don’t tumble down it.
Step 3. Fall down three times, get up four! So many people fail at trying to eat healthy and get in better shape for their New Year’s resolution because if they fail at something, or cheat on their diet, they are afraid to bounce right back to eating healthy again. Everyone has a cheat day and everyone gives into the temptation of having that chocolate raspberry cheesecake, or that brownie sunday, or the “it’s Saturday, I just want to relax on my day off”. There is nothing wrong with that. But, learn to get right back on that horse when you fall down a couple of times. After eating something unhealthy, don’t worry about it, just pick right back up where you started. Eat the grilled salmon and asparagus for dinner. Make yourself an egg white omelet for breakfast, and best of all learn to never give up!
Once you start to see the improvements you were looking for, you’ll realize how much potential you truly have. You’ll look forward to sweating it out at the gym every morning. You’ll love how much more energy you have throughout the day. And most importantly, you can tell yourself that you were the one to never give up on that New Years resolution that just about everyone else did!