Yes, I'm Jewish, but that's not going to stop me from glomming on to the "12 Days Of" theme.
My 12 Days?
12 Days of Resolutions. 12 resolutions that will help steer you towards a healthier lifestyle, whether you've got weight you'd like to lose or not. 12 resolutions that are each in and of themselves extremely straight forward and doable. Some might involve doing, others simply thinking, and if any of them don't seem useful to you, skip on to the next.
Which brings me to my first recommended resolution:
Day1: Like Em!
This one's pretty straight forward, and pretty darn easy too. Simply put? For any of your coming year's resolutions or lifestyle interventions, resolve to only start ones that you think you'll actually like.
What do I mean?
Too many people make far too dramatic, broad, general, or strict resolutions, and are then surprised when a few months later, their resolutions are barely a memory.
It's this phenomenon that pays the bills at every gym in the world - people take a flying leap at a far too aggressive and/or time intensive program and surprise, when they get sick of trying to bite off more than they can chew, they stop chewing.
Weight wise, the more weight you want to permanently lose, the more of your lifestyle you're going to have to permanently change. Trying to adopt changes you don't like is a sure fire way to ensure that they're not going to be permanent.
So this year, resolve to like them. Analyze each and every resolution through the lens of, "Can I keep happily keep living this way"? Because if you can't do it happily, you're probably not going to keep doing it.
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Well said Yoni! I can't agree more. As you said, the problem with most resolutions is that people tend to "bite off more than they can chew." I often use the old "how do you eat an elephant?" analogy. The only successful strategy is to do it "one bite at a time" and to ensure that you've fully digested each bite before you move on to the next. We all know what happens if we try to digest a huge meal all at once! Long term, lasting change only comes about by taking baby steps (or bites!), and sticking with them until they become permanent habits. People are much more likely to stick with things that they like. Looking forward to the rest of the resolutions!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the very interesting series. My experience says that it takes 21 days to break the habit or to make a new one. So far I did manage to make&break a few important. And for the 2012 a have a couple of new resolutions that will make for the long lasting happiness.
ReplyDeleteHabits probably take more along the lines of 1-3 years to form.
ReplyDeleteThe 21 days?
Perhaps enough to form a comfortable behaviours, but habits are things that persist automatically, without thought, even in the face of major life upheavals, and there's just no way that 21 days lends itself to that.
21 days is enough to acquire the habit of flossing once a day. (I know, I've done it.) It's not enough time to completely overhaul one's lifestyle.
ReplyDeleteWith regards to actually liking the resolutions, you don't always know whether or not you'll like it until you try it. I set goals from time to time (not tied to the New Year) and often the ones that were the most successful were for a limited time frame. "Try it and see how it goes" kind of thing.
For example, I decided to do the "Couch to 5K" running program. I had never been a runner before and wasn't particularly attracted to it, other than as a way to burn more calories than walking in less time. But I decided to commit to it for the duration of the program. During those 9 weeks, it turned out that I actually enjoyed it, and I am now in love with running regardless of calories burned. If I had not liked it, I would have had to try something else. But if I hadn't tried it for just 9 weeks, I never would have known that I would be running regularly and really truly loving it!