SO YOUR RESOLUTIONS HAVE FAILED – NOW WHAT?

By JOANNE HENSON   

 

You’ve had a few weeks now to work on that New Year Resolution.  How’s it been going?  If you’re like 90% of the population, probably not as well as you’d hoped.  Only one in ten people make a permanent success of their resolutions.  If you’re on track, well done!  If you’re not, you’re part of a big majority!

But seriously, if you are struggling, or if your good intentions have already crumbled, don’t despair.  There are reasons why so many New Year Resolutions fail:

• January is a miserable month anyway – the festivities are over, the house looks bare after the decorations have been taken down, and it’s cold and dark.  When you start restricting the things you enjoy you’re making a miserable time of year even harder
• Many resolutions are overly ambitious, particularly where weight loss targets, healthy eating plans and exercise sessions per week are concerned.  Yes, it would be great to lose half a stone by February 1^st, to get to the gym four times a week, or to eat no junk ever again, but in reality you’ve got to have a life.  Ask people why they failed to stick to their resolutions and often they’ll say, “Life got in the way”
• People often make the same old resolutions and embark on the same old course of action every year – joining slimming clubs is a prime example of this.  Do you tell yourself that this year it will be different, and this time you’ll find the willpower you’ve never found before to stick with the same old plan?  In fact if a plan hasn’t worked for you the first time around, it’s not likely to work for you this time around

So what do you need to do to do to get back on track and give yourself another chance of success?

• Firstly, stop beating yourself up.  Being hard on yourself won’t get you back on track, and blaming yourself will only make you less likely to succeed next time around.  You can do this!
• There is no such thing as failure, only feedback.  Learn from your experience.  Take a long, hard look at your resolution, your approach and what you most struggled with.  For instance, if you said you were going to go running four times a week, but you didn’t go out because it was cold and wet, what can you learn from that?  Not that you have no motivation, but that you simply don’t like cold, wet weather; or perhaps you just didn’t have any warm or waterproof running clothes.  If you resolved to detox during January, but found it impossible to sit with your friends in a pub and drink mineral water all night, what does that tell you?  Not that you have no willpower but that a 100% perfect detox regime is impractical for anyone who enjoys a healthy social life
• Give yourself honest feedback, but make sure the feedback is about the plan, not you.  Identify why the plan didn’t work for you, not why you weren’t able to force yourself to stick to it.  So dramatically cutting calories to hit an ambitious weight loss target isn’t going to work for a foodie, and early morning exercise isn’t going to be easy for someone who loves to hit the snooze button in the mornings  –         Now, with your new insight into what is never going to work for you, put together a list of what would work for you.  For instance, you joined a really great gym but you’ve hardly visited because it’s proved too far to travel to after a hard day’s work, so you now know that convenience is a priority for you.  Armed with that knowledge, you might chose to join the less flashy but perfectly adequate local gym.  If you’re struggling with a diet which requires you to spend your Sundays preparing meals for the week ahead because you like to do things with your kids on Sundays, you know you need to find a diet which doesn’t need hours of preparation
• Be realistic.  Gradual weight loss which results in a smaller dress size by Summer is far better than a failed attempt to drop a dress size by Easter
• Get support and advice.  Support can come from your partner, family or friends.  Ask them to help make things easy for you, and to cheer you on.  And if you’re not sure what to do, ask an expert – book a few sessions with a personal trainer or nutritionist.  It will be a worthwhile investment if you learn the most effective ways of achieving your goals
• Be kind to yourself.  One slip up does not have to equal complete failure.  Be on track 80-90% of the time and you’ll get where you want to be.  A couple of unhealthy meals in a week won’t completely undo all of the other healthy eating you’ve done, and if you’ve missed a workout, just get the next one in as soon as you can.  If you have a bad day, just make the next a good one, and you’ll be back on track.  You’ve only failed if you choose to give up totally.

Finally, remember this: permanent change is hard, and many people have several attempts at things before they finally succeed.  So take time to understand the reasons you’ve struggled so far, stop blaming yourself, make some changes and take your time.  Then get ready to congratulate yourself when you reach your target!

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Joanne Henson is a health and weight-loss coach, specialising in helping people with a history of failed diets and fitness regimes to change their relationship with food and exercise for good.  From unhealthy beginnings she overcame her own obstacles and now motivates and inspires others to become the healthier, leaner, happier people they’ve always wanted to be.

Joanne is the author of ‘What’s Your Excuse For Not Eating Healthily?’ and ‘What’s Your Excuse For Not Getting Fit?’  Both are available on Amazon in Paperback and Kindle format.  www.joannehenson.co.uk

Follow Joanne on Twitter: @Joannemh and @whats_yr_excuse