Rethinking Resolutions

New Year’s Resolutions can be a tricky subject. For some, the start of a new year brings about a sense of hope and excitement, a clean slate, and the feeling that anything is possible. For others, starting a new year may bring about stress and anxiety, the pressure of feeling like they need to change everything all at once. 

For many, New Year’s Resolutions can look like losing 20 pounds or hitting the gym five days a week. The problem is, that one of the reasons New Year’s Resolutions have a very low success rate is that our lives and our bodies aren’t actually set up to allow these sorts of resolutions to happen. If you are getting limited movement during the day as it is, then jumping straight to a high-demanding routine is setting yourself up for failure. 

We often see folks overly restricting their food intake to lose weight. However, not only is that damaging to mental health, it can have other adverse effects. In fact, severe calorie restriction slows down your metabolism, leading to the storage of calories as fat. Additionally, it can result in the loss of valuable muscle mass, reducing your body’s calorie-burning capacity, since muscle burns more calories than fat. Meanwhile, the added stress triggers your body into a “fight or flight” response, further slowing down the digestive system and directly impeding weight loss. 

So for 2024, what if the focus was on building a solid foundation of health and wellness, creating healthier habits in the most critical aspects of life? Having a good foundation then lays the groundwork for all of the goals and resolutions you previously might have had to be successful. After all, no structure becomes the beautiful, magnificent structure it is without a solid foundation for it to be built upon.

And the thing about building a foundation is, it doesn’t happen overnight. You can take the entire year to figure out what that foundation is for yourself. Be patient. You’ll be shocked by how good it can make you feel to know that you are taking care of yourself in the most important ways. And the even better news is that without focusing on the specific goal of losing weight, you will realize that it may happen anyway when you nurture your body. Now take a deep breath. Can you feel the pressure melt away from having to accomplish some intense goals that may not be right for your body? 

While you’re building your foundation this year, give yourself grace. It’s going to be a lifelong practice that we need to allow to evolve. You’re going to have days where you feel like you’re crushing your goals and all the things go well. And then you’re going to have days where nothing goes the way you want it to. It’s a journey with a lot of ups and downs. That’s just life. But whenever you can, take the time and make the intention to do the fundamentals, these small things make the biggest difference. Here’s to a year of taking care of you!