We bring it on ourselves. The pressure of picking a resolution and the extra pressure of trying to keep it.  Perhaps it’s the idea of starting fresh with a clean slate.  Maybe it’s the non-stop vision of Valerie Bertinelli, telling us that we too could lose 40 pounds in a month eating all our favorite sweets.  Whatever it is, resolutions seem like a good idea when we are coming up with them, but they are always (ALWAYS) hard to keep.

While perusing one of my favorite magazines, I came upon an acronym that made the whole idea of keeping resolutions actually plausible.  The idea is to set goals that are SMART:  Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-Based.  So how do we accomplish this?

Well, for the next 3 days I am going to give tips that will help you keep that goal of yours.  First tip: try the buddy system.  Pair up with another person seeking a similar goal as yourself and support each other on an ongoing basis.  If your goal is to eat healthier and more organic foods, go shopping together once a week and share recipes.  Join an organic food delivery program.  Your buddy should provide feedback – acknowledge each other’s accomplishments, challenge each other when you are slipping and perhaps tweak your intentions as needed.  You may find that having someone available to you who understands what you need to keep your resolution may ACTUALLY help you KEEP your resolution.

My buddy is my husband. Our resolution is boring.  We want to get fit and STAY fit. So when I am sitting on the couch reaching for the remote, he is to encourage me to get to the treadmill and walk for 30 minutes, and he will join me on the stationary bike.  And we aren’t waiting until January 1st. We started yesterday.  One day down, a lifetime to go.

Tags: Exercise, New Year, resolutions

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 29th, 2009 at 5:14 pm and is filed under Exercise, Health Concerns, Stress Management & Lifestyle. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.