SMART Health Resolutions for 2022

As 2021 comes to an end, these few last days of the year are a great time to reflect on the past year. As you reflect, take a personal inventory of the good and the bad, in order to identify the areas that can use the most improvement. Then, list the top 5 to 10 goals to accomplish this upcoming year.

Chances are that some of your resolutions will resonate with some of these:

1. Exercise more

2. Eat healthier

3. Lose weight

4. Quit smoking

5. Spend more time with family and friends

6. Travel more

7. Read more

It is no secret that from most of the new year´s resolutions that are set out at the beginning of the year, only a few resolutions get fully accomplished. According to the Journal of Clinical Psychology, about 64% of people who made New Year´s resolutions, did not accomplish them.

This fact should not be discouraging; however, because with proven tools, the right mindset, and encouraging support, we can beat these odds!

Check out these SMART tips to make the most of your 2022 health resolutions:

Let us take the lose weight resolution as an example:

1. Specific - lose 5 kg of fat to reach my ideal body weight.

2. Measurable - make your goal measurable (1 Kg loss per week).

3. Attainable - avoid aiming too high or too low (more than 1 kg loss per week is unhealthy).

4. Realistic - losing 0.5-1 Kg a week sounds like a good idea

5. Trackable - track your progress over time (weigh yourself every week with the same scale, same time), identify what can be improved each week, and implement the changes.

Remember to break larger goals into smaller steps. The way to eat an elephant is always one bite at a time, after all.

Make change gradual. For example, instead of making one sweeping and drastic shift overnight, focus on a smaller goal first, e.g. eating a healthier breakfast on the first week. Then, after successfuly accomplishing this, the next step can be to add to the healthier breakfast a healthier dinner for the second week, and so on. Gradual change is easier to implement.

Most importantly, let us not get discouraged if we deviate from our goal a couple of times. The important take away here is to make gradual, lasting changes by learning why we went wrong, and implementing corrections as we go along.

Lastly and most importantly, social commitment is a powerful tool to make sure we accomplish our goals, by making of us responsible and accountable to another person.