It’s now almost the end of January, and I want to say that there’s no reason why you have to feel that if you haven’t started to tackle your goal of healthy eating and weight loss yet, there’s no hope. Of course there’s hope. The year has 12 months, and you can’t lose 30 lbs. (or 10 or 100 or anything in between) overnight anyhow.

How I personally pursue resolutions

For starters, I see New Year’s resolutions, like any other goals, as promises to myself, and when I don’t keep them — if I’ve not kept them for reasons I can’t justify after the fact — I see that as a sign I’m not living in full integrity with what I want from my life. Do I really want goal X to happen? If yes, then what are the steps it will take to get there? If not, then maybe it’s time to find another goal instead or just relax temporarily and wait till the universe tells me what I need to work on next (which is always something worthwhile and comes when I least expect it).

I started making resolutions a number of years ago, and my method has worked well for me. I write down my vision of where I want to be in a year to hold myself accountable (by hand — not on a computer! this is critical!) and then check back periodically to see where I’ve gotten. If something’s not working, I adjust and move on, rechecking progress at reasonable intervals.

I’m sure that this sounds very reasonable and simplistic, and let me tell you — it is! If it were hard, I’d never manage it!

I don’t think that something must necessarily be complex, though I too have been caught in that trap myself. As in, “Geez, that sounds too easy to work.” Yup, in my former life, I allowed this reasoning to keep me from doing many, many things that I now would do in a heartbeat. But then, if you’ve either been reading this blog or my posts, you know that I am a firm believer that tiny, simple steps in the right direction are the most painless way for us to make lifestyle changes that stick, and if that isn’t a simple solution to an otherwise major challenge, I don’t know what is (and yet most people just try to jump right into something new, whether it be their diet or anything else, and then wonder when a few days later they find themselves unable to continue — for many of us, that’s just far too abrupt a change initially).

Getting back to resolutions, so many people don’t follow through on them. And just why is that?

Sometimes it’s because they aren’t realistic about their goals. Sometimes they aren’t realistic about the steps in between getting started and reaching that goal. Sometimes they aren’t committed wholeheartedly (which is more necessary the harder the challenge you’ve set for yourself). And some don’t have a clear picture of what they want to achieve to begin with.

How are you doing on your own resolutions? If you’re reading this blog, it isn’t a stretch to think that you’re wanting to spend 2009 eating more healthfully than you did in years past. How’s it going? Remember — all it takes is a single meal (yep, just 1 meal) to improve your diet. And once you’ve eaten one better meal, it’s easier to eat another one, and so on and so forth. Mess up on a meal? Just eat right the next time. When you look at it that way, it’s much easier to see your progress and know how much you’re doing right.

Let me know how you’re doing with your resolutions, and keep in mind that if you need help getting there, a coach like myself might be just what you need to get on track and stay there.