Stats don’t lie. Stats say that “people who explicitly make resolutions are 10 times more likely to attain their goals than people who don’t explicitly make resolutions.” (Statistic Brain). So it’s time to buckle up and start setting goals.
Here are the top 10 new year resolutions that people make:
- Lose Weight
- Getting Organized
- Spend Less, Save More
- Enjoy Life to the Fullest
- Staying Fit and Healthy
- Learn Something Exciting
- Quit Smoking
- Help Others in their dreams
- Fall in Love
- Spend more time with the family
But these are quite vague and not so specific. Perhaps if you try to have these goals as your new year resolution, you could have a healthier life:
Run X no. of miles
It’s easy to say I’m going to lose weight, but what are you going to do about it? The first place to start is to go for a jog every day and try to cover a certain number of miles, depending upon your capacity and stamina. It’s going to be tough for few days, but once you get the catch of it, you will realize the change. Also, you might want to increase the number of miles by the end of the month to keep pushing yourself and continue throughout the year. Apps such as Runtastic Pro and Google Fit comes in handy to keep track of your daily records.
Eat according to calorie
Running is just a small part losing your weight; much of it comes from what you eat. It’s time to cut out the burgers and oily dumplings you’ve been eating junk food, and time to maintain the calorie you eat per day. Depending on your age, gender, weight, height and activity you need to perform each day, a number of calories you need to eat to lose your weight varies. You can try here to know what’s the optimum calorie for you.
Calorie Counter and Diet Tracker app can help you to keep track of your daily journal too.
Sleep more
In modern, busy world, people often neglect sleep. It’s been said that 40% of Americans do not get recommended hours of sleep, according to usnews.com. But the optimum hour of sleep is very essential if you don’t want implications such as depression, memory loss, lack of concentration, among others. Starting 2017, keep sleep into your daily plan. Lack of sleep has also been linked with obesity and Type 2 diabetes.
Go on X no. of Hikes
Beyond the physical realm, it’s also imperative to connect with nature and find spiritual healing. The best way to do is to go on hikes. Hikes can do wonders to your physical as well as your spiritual self. Get your travel bags ready and plan for the hikes you want to do. Have a list of places you want to go for a hike this year, and start cutting it off from your list.
There are other things that you need to do too. If you want to quit smoking, you must do it in decreasing pattern. You know that you can’t quit smoking just like that. So if you are smoking 10 per day, cut down to 5 per day, then to 2 then 1 per day, and start decreasing until you finally leave the habit. Same goes with drinking. More importantly, if you want to stay mentally healthy, connect with your friends and families. Researchers have shown that people who have strong social ties live longer (according to health.com).
Finally, be honest with yourself. Even if you have the resolution, you need to keep it, and you can only do so if you are true to yourself. What you do to keep the resolution intact is for you and only you.