How to Make Your Weight Loss Resolution Stick
You may be starting this year with several goals in mind, including eating better and losing weight. You wonder how you can ensure these goals stick around past this month.
The trick to keeping New Year’s resolutions, including the ones related to your health, is by creating new habits.
Habits aren’t formed overnight. They are a result of repeated actions, even on days when you don’t feel like doing it.
The team at New Life Center for Bariatric Surgery in Knoxville shares the following strategies that can help you form these new habits:
Break your goals into smaller, actionable steps.
If you want to eat better this year, you may want to start by adding a serving of vegetables in each meal, instead of doing a total meal overhaul. If you want to start exercising, you may want to allow at least 15 minutes of your day to be active (no matter what activity it is). And you can increase your duration and intensity from here.
The sense of achievement from doing these smaller goals propel you to move forward to bigger steps, leading ultimately to your goal.
Find an accountability buddy.
Whether it’s family, a trusted friend, or a coach, having an accountability buddy can make a difference. This person would check on you from time to time and would not hesitate to give you a nudge when you’re veering away from your goal.
Write down your big WHY.
Why would you want to lose weight? According to personal development experts, we are more motivated to change our habits if we know our biggest why. And don’t just stop there. Write your reasons for wanting to lose weight and post it in places where you can easily see them.
Learn each step of the way.
Life’s not perfect and your journey towards achieving your goal may come with bumps and challenges along the way. Instead of looking at yourself as a failure, own it, learn from it, and move forward.
When these things happen, talk to yourself the way you talk to a dear friend – no harsh words but more words of encouragement.
Reward yourself.
Survived a month without soda? Or losing your first pound? Celebrate it! No matter how small it may seem to you – progress is STILL progress!
Reward yourself with non-food items. To make it more exciting, you can set up different tiers of rewards or prizes for each goal you tick from your list.
Making changes can be daunting but you can do it!
New Life Center for Bariatric Surgery is part of Premier Surgical Bariatrics in Knoxville, Tennessee. New Life is affiliated with the Parkwest Center for Bariatric Surgery, an Accredited Comprehensive Center under MBSAQIP.