How to Make Your New Year's Resolutions Successful

It's Christmas Day, and most people are involved with their friends, parties, shopping, gifts, holiday meals, and family get-togethers.

Losing weight is far down the list of important activities -- as is probably exercise, not drinking, and so forth.

But by next week, it will be 2008, and 100 million Americans will be making New Year’s resolutions. You know, the usual: I’m gonna quit smoking. Oh yeah, I want to lose some weight. I want to exercise more.

How many people will make these resolutions, only to make the same ones next year, and the year after that?

According to a study done by the University of Washington, to make your New Year’s resolutions successful you should do the following:

1. Have a strong initial commitment to make a change. Are you really committed to the goals you’ve put before yourself? Is change what you really want? Have you made the mental decision to change before declaring a resolution? For a resolution to have meaning, you have to want to do what you need to in order to change.

2. Have coping strategies to deal with problems that will come up. You will make mistakes. You will not always meet your objectives. Sometimes, you will fail. You cannot get so disappointed in yourself that you give up. If you do, you will end your resolution before yuo've really had a chance to get started. So, you need to really allow yourself the chance to fail, in order to succeed.

3. Keep track of your progress. The more monitoring you do and feedback you get, the better you're chance for success. It’s been scientifically proven that, with respect to weight loss and exercise, you’re more likely to succeed if you keep a journal. It could be as simple as a list of the foods you ate, or exercises you did. Or it could be writing out your feelings about your daily experiences. Maybe you want to do a combination of the two. Of course, you could write your journal the old fashioned way, with pen and paper, or you could use a word processor, but that would make the second part – feedback – a little more difficult. Try creating a personal blog in a community geared toward health and weight management, like Iowa Avenue.

Feedback can come in many forms; inspirational motivations, just a pat on the back, or maybe you need a good swift kick in the behind. Whichever it is, you will have friends who will be there for you, and you can return the favor.

After all, it’s about a healthy lifestyle!