How to Make A New Year’s Resolution That Sticks

Are you getting ready to smash your New Year’s Resolution or are you embarrassed that you’re going to make the same one as last year? If weight loss is your New Year’s resolution year after year, let me help! Here’s how to make a New Years resolution that sticks.

If you’ve ever made a New Year’s Resolution before, you probably know that after a few months your strength fades and your motivation wanes.

It’s especially true for those of us who have tried making New Year’s resolutions that have to do with weight loss.

If this weren’t the case, most of us would not ever have to make these resolutions to begin with.

There’d be no need.

But the fact is that MOST Americans are either obese or overweight. This is why we continue to make these New Year’s resolution that we may or may not follow through on.

Today I want to talk about how to make a New Year’s resolution that sticks, so that next year you can make a new resolution and move on!

I have personally made New Year’s resolutions that have to do with weight loss for several years now.

However, I decided recently to commit my life to being healthy by becoming a certified personal trainer. It’s the ultimate way to break the cycle and be accountable for my health. Click here to read my tips for eating healthy at restaurants!

After years of going through the cycles of yo-yo dieting and on-and-off again exercise, I have decided to commit myself fully to this lifestyle. This is important to me because without a healthy diet and exercise, I have learned that I am not healthy mentally or emotionally. Plus, I also have two young children to set an example for. (See what I think is truly the best weight loss diet.)

That means no more compromising.

While most people cannot commit to a drastic career change like me, it is possible to make a New Year’s resolution that sticks.  

My approach on how to make a New Year’s resolution that sticks can apply to anything – not just weight loss. So be sure to keep reading!

When I say that you’re going to make a New Year’s resolution that sticks, I mean that you’re going to follow through with it. That means that after this year, you are no longer making the same resolution year after year. Instead, you are going to create lasting healthy habits that help you live your best life at all times.

If we’re being honest, some of us have lofty goals at the start of a new year.

And while it’s great to have ambition it would be even better to make a New Year’s resolution that sticks. Right?

Now that we’re on the same page, let’s ask some important questions.

How do we follow through with our goals, and how do we maintain the changes that we have created? How do we ensure that we do not revert to our old habits?

There are two major components to this.

Component 1: Self-Awareness

The first component to creating lasting change is being self-aware.

If you want to make a New Year’s resolution that sticks, you must address these two things.

In my last post I talked about how self-awareness is the missing piece on your weight loss journey. If your New Year’s resolution involves some sort of weight loss goal, p

lease read it so that you can ask yourself the important questions that I have asked.

In short, I say that self-awareness is one of the most important things you can do to make your New Year’s resolution stick because if we don’t look back on our history and unhealthy habits, we can’t expect to create new ones.

We do not want to repeat history when it comes to weight loss and yo-yo dieting. We can lose small amount of weight quickly but we don’t keep them off unless we forge new roads and create new habits that last.

Be Self-Aware When Choosing Your Resolutions

So if you want to make a New Year’s resolution that sticks, the first thing that you need to do is look inside yourself.

What you have done in the past? What worked and what didn’t?

You also need to look at your life’s challenges and see how much those things affected you and your health.

When I talk about health I am referring to physical, emotional, and mental health. We cannot address physical health effectively without addressing the other aspects of health.

The next question you need to ask yourself is how much you have allowed your personal struggles to impact your health.

The fact is that we all have struggles and we will always have struggles. So how we react to our struggles are important things to think about. If we were react to life struggles by eating, moping & laying around, we will never have health.  Or in the case of so many, we will continue to go through these cycles of making New Year’s resolutions over and over again.

So ask yourself.

How much have you allowed your life struggles to impact your overall health?

What has your reaction tended to be when life threw you a curveball?

If you were to lose all of the extra weight today would you just gain it back tomorrow?

The point is that we need to create new responses to life stressors in order to create real change. being healthy isn’t about just exercise and eating correctly it is about all of the small healthy decisions we can make adding up to overall health.

Component 2: Be Realistic

The second component to creating lasting change is choosing realistic goals accompanied by a realistic plan to achieve them. You must actually be able to accomplish the goals you set.

Maybe you’ve heard the saying that a goal without a plan is just a dream. It’s true. If you have a dream but no step-by-step instructions for how to make it happen will it ever happen?

You can’t just sit around and wait for things to happen to you. You have to make them happen yourself.

Part of the problem is setting goals that are just too lofty. Your health didn’t begin to unwind overnight. Your health won’t improve overnight.

You might dedicate a year to getting healthier, but what’s going to make that stick?

It’s important to set goals that will keep you motivated and won’t leave you feeling like a letdown because you haven’t reached them.

If I say that I want to lose 100 pounds in one year, that is a pretty lofty goal. (Especially considering that it’s not healthy for most people to lose more than 1.5-ish lbs/week.)

If I know myself well enough to know that I will be mopey and disappointed if I don’t reach that goal, should I set that goal to begin with?

All progress is good progress!

The point is that over-doing it can hinder your progress in the long run. This isn’t about overhauling your life in one night or even one month.  This is about breaking the cycle of making a New Year’s resolution to lose weight for the 10th time.

So what do we consider a realistic goal?

Is it something that is actually achievable in the designated time frame? Do we have an overall big picture goal in mind? Is it going to be temporary or will it help you stay healthier for years to come? 

A realistic goal is something that is feasible and not extreme.

The other thing to consider is that sometimes we make a goal that is too vague.  

Let’s say that I make a New Year’s resolution that just says that I want to be healthier. What does being healthy really mean? For some being “healthier” might mean losing 10 pounds.

But does this really make me healthier or does it just mean that I’ve lost some water weight and muscle mass?

It’s too general to be beneficial.

In order to create a realistic with actionable steps to become healthier, we need to set specific mini-goals with deadlines. This gives us something to work towards.

For example, if I decide that I want to be healthier, I need to choose a specific way of measuring my progress. (For many this is a number on the scale, but I beg you to consider choosing another measurement.)

A great example of a specific goal related to better health would be wanting to complete four rounds of the 21 Day Fix workouts & food plan this year. 

This goal gives me something specific to work on. Not only this, but because I have given myself a deadline, I can plan my programs accordingly. 

So – an important part of making a New Year’s resolution that sticks is having a realistic, specific goal that also has a deadline.

The reason that having a deadline is important on a schedule. It puts pressure on us to do something specific to get that to that big goal.  If you make a New Year’s resolution that doesn’t have a deadline or doesn’t have a specific goal you will be able to easily sell yourself short. 

If you want to make a New Year’s resolution that sticks, remember these things! Make a New Year’s resolution that is realistic, specific, and that has a specific deadline.

Personal trainers like myself are trained to help you create goals that aren’t too lofty but are also achievable. This keeps you from getting discouraged from feeling like your goals are out of reach. But this also helps you reach higher and higher.

Quick Recap – How To Make A New Year’s Resolution That Sticks

1. Be Self-Aware
2. Make Realistic Goals
3. Set Specific Goals

(And remember that life will never go exactly as planned.) 

I hope that this post helps you feel like you know how to make a New Year’s resolution that sticks. I know that you want to be forever changed just like the rest of us.

Let this be the last year that your New Year’s resolution involving weight loss.

If you need help with knowing how to make this your healthiest year yet check out these 35 tips.

Are you in a cycle of making New Year’s resolution about weight loss? If you’re ready to be done with this cycle leave me a comment below saying “I’m in!”