New Year, A New You

Did you make some New Year’s Resolution for 2021?  Are you keeping to them so far?  Do you choose something different every year, or is it the same New Year’s Resolution every year?  Does it feel a bit like Ground Hog Day?  And do you achieve your goal or see your New Year’s Resolution through to the end of the year?  Did you know that most people set a new year’s resolution and fail to keep to it?
Polls run for Bupa and YouGov show that 32% of Britons make a New Year resolution and guess what.  Losing weight and getting fitter are the top priorities.
For years, no actually, for decades, I had the same two New Year’s resolutions.  And yes, you’ve guessed it.  They were;

1. Lose Weight
2. Get Fit

So clearly, I was among great company, because that’s what most other people were choosing.  But I was one of the great failures.  66% of people who make a New Years Resolution break it within the first month. Why is that?  For me, it was because I was concentrating on the wrong thing.  I was focusing on the scales, not on the quality of food that I was eating.  I was trying to eat as much as possible and still lose weight without thinking about the nutrition that I needed.  I was trying to go from zero exercise to being a marathon runner in one day, and being massively disappointed when I failed.
When it comes to diet and nutrition, people want a miracle cure and ask too much of themselves.  They either try to make too many changes or make changes that are too big.  And so, we set ourselves up to fail.  Healthy eating is a lifestyle choice, and it starts with small changes and no dieting.  When I stopped concentrating on diet food, I started to lose weight.
Since 2008, my new year’s resolution has been To Be Kinder to myself.  And when I am kinder to myself, I forgive myself when I am not perfect, or do not make the ideal food choices.  I also find that by being kinder to myself, I am also kinder to others.  Oh yes, and I am several stone lighter too.