Huntsville-based health coach Ellen Smalley offers a fresh approach to crafting New Year’s resolutions that are realistic, sustainable, and designed to last beyond February.
As 2024 comes to a close, it’s a tradition as old as time to create New Year’s resolutions, many including fitness and wellness goals. However, as any veteran gym user can tell you, January produces crowded gyms that thin out by mid to late February as motivation wanes and time, stress, and other priorities push to the top of your to-do list. Year after year, thousands of people cycle through this pattern, hoping this will be their year to make lasting changes, but are disappointed yet again. But what if this was your year? What if failure was NOT inevitable?
Before you commit to the same resolutions with the same, stale plan you have been using, consider your new goals through these three lenses:
1) Do you have a plan?
Often, we come up with broad goals such as “I want to lose weight” or “I want to run again,” but at the first sign of trouble, we begin to lose steam. When you have a comprehensive plan, you are likelier to stick to it and experience more success. While crafting your resolution, test it against the SMART goal acronym. SMART stands for:
Specific (I want to run without stopping)
Measurable (I want to run a 5K without stopping)
Achievable (I can’t run now, but I would like to work up to running)
Realistic (I want to start training now and be able to run a 5K in under 35 minutes) Time-bound (I want to do accomplish this in six months or less)
When a goal is too complicated or easy, we lose motivation when working towards it. Finding that “just right” place ensures that we see progress, which increases motivation and fuels your brain to say, “You are doing it! Keep going!”
2) Does your plan realistically work for you and your lifestyle, schedule, etc.?
I can’t emphasize this step enough! You may have a goal to go to the gym for an hour every day after work, but your kids have lessons or practices after school until dinner time (or later). You want to incorporate more new vegetables into your diet, but you also have specific dietary needs to consider, making incorporating new foods a significant challenge.
When setting goals for yourself, you want them to be “bite-sized” and realistic. Bite-sized means that you can take small, achievable steps towards your goals. In our vegetable example, try one new vegetable that works with your dietary needs instead of overhauling your diet. Realistic means that if you don’t have an extra hour in your day to go to the gym, how much time can you spare? Can you work out at home if a gym membership isn’t feasible? You don’t need to strive for perfection, only progress. If your plan isn’t sustainable, you won’t succeed!
3) Will you need support to carry out your plan?
Whether you need your spouse to pick up children so you can work out or a friend who can hold you accountable for taking action, we all need help occasionally. Talking to friends and loved ones can hold you accountable, and you may get someone to join you, too! If you are unsure of safe ways to exercise or how to make changes that stick, you can always seek out professional advice from a personal trainer, dietician, or health coach.
Being healthy doesn’t have to be complicated; by creating a realistic and sustainable plan that works for your unique circumstances, you can make strides toward the life you want to live!
Ellen Smalley is the owner and certified Master Health and Wellness Coach at Creekside Health Coaching, which focuses on helping parents and professionals who work with neurodivergent children improve their health and outlook on life. She graduated with a Bachelor’s in Health Promotion and minored in Nutrition at The University of Alabama. She also earned a Master’s in Exercise Physiology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. In Birmingham, she interned as a cardiac rehabilitation exercise physiologist, a position she also held at FirstHealth hospital system in Pinehurst, North Carolina.
Ellen has also been a full-time physical education teacher at Randolph School for 18 years. In addition to physical education, she teaches executive function skills to middle school students.
