Keeping Up with Resolutions

So, we’re somehow almost mid-January. Scary right? I don’t know about you, but these days, time seems to fly by at warp speed. Generally, following the first week of the New Year, everyone tends to forget about their resolutions and revert back to their old ways. Seriously, that is SO 2011… So, read on for a list of easy ways to stick to some ‘common’ resolutions that often fail because there just aren’t enough hours in a day!

1. “This year, I’m going to eat SO much healthier!”

This one is tough. There are a million reasons why people don’t eat super healthy. Maybe it’s because McDonald’s tastes a million times better than an apple. (I’m working on it folks, pattent pending…) Maybe it’s because eating unhealthily causes a reaction in your brain that makes you feel good. But, the number one reason that this resolution fails is time. By the time you get home after work, it’s so much easier to order a pizza than to plan a meal, get the ingredients, and whip it up. Plus, with pizza, you’ll have leftovers for lunch the next day… #viciouscycle.

The biggest helper I have found, is a ‘WHAT TO EAT’ weekly meal planner that I picked up at Chapters for $7.50. It doesn’t take long to fill out, and by planning your meals ahead of time you save yourself the question, “what’s for dinner?” that so often leads to quick, unhealthy, fixes. Plus, by planning ahead you can save yourself multiple trips to the grocery store and pick up everything you need for the week in one shot. Talk about killing two birds with one stone!

 2. “This Year I’m Going to Take Better Care of Myself!”

Once again, Father Time often gets in the way of this resolution. When you’re working, going to school and trying to balance family and social commitments, allocating ‘personal time’ can feel like a foreign concept that you just don’t have time for.

Maybe you don’t have two hours a day to get back and forth to the yoga class you’ve wanted to take. Maybe you can’t spend an hour getting a massage. But there are things you can do at home that will improve your overall health: Skip that random episode of TV and go to bed 30 minutes earlier each night. Ignore your neverending e-mails for a bit and take a 20 minute bubble bath. Put on some soothing music and give yourself a quick man-pedi. While these may not seem like huge leaps, making sure that you focus on yourself, even if it’s just for 30 minutes, will still make a difference. They say that you have to look out for #1 – and in this way they’re right!

3. “This Year I’m Going to Spend More Time with Friends!”

This one is near and dear to my heart! Sometimes, we’re so focused on the daily tasks at hand that we can go days, weeks or even months without spending quality time with good friends. Planning easily falls by the wayside; where the ambiguity of “we’ll get together soon!” leads to not seeing each other for weeks.

A ‘standing date’ is a great way to counteract this issue. You’ve heard Catherine and Kate mention their Book Club before – it meets once a month to discuss a book and socialize with old and new friends. Now that the Bachelor is back, (Hallelujah!) every Monday I pile around one TV with my girlfriends to watch the show. Whether it be breakfast once a month or coffee after work every two weeks, setting up standing dates will easily help you spend more time with your friends. Spontaneity is always nice, but if planning guarantees frequent friend-time, I wouldn’t trade it for anything!