Is it too late to re-evaluate your New Year Resolutions?
Absolutely not!
Something you set out to achieve in January, may not be relevant now, or your perspective on it may have changed. Your New Years Resolutions should always be relooked at throughout the year to make sure they’re still important to you.
Resolution Vs Intention
This year I’ve decided to call them my New Year Intentions (rather than resolutions). A resolution is defined as “a firm decision to do or not to do something” which implies that you can fail at it. It’s human nature to not like failing, so if we mess up our New Year Resolutions, we will most likely give up on them completely. How many of your New Years Resolutions have you managed to stick with this year so far? I bet not many people can say all of them?
However, an intention is defined as “a thing intended; an aim or plan.” which almost takes the pressure off. Your intentions are a list of things you’d like to achieve, and have a plan to achieve, but if you mess up one day, you haven’t failed. And by not failing, you feel you can just try again the next day, week or month.
This might seem a bit fussy, but the psychology of our mind is a complex thing, and simple language adjustments can make a huge impact on your actions.
This has been the first year (ever!) where I’ve picked healthy and sustainable New Years Intentions, and STUCK TO THEM!
Usually, I either don’t pick anything as I know I won’t stick to it, or I choose ones that ultimately make me feel rubbish (looking at you scale weight…)
So I’m going to share with you some of my health Intentions for the year ahead and beyond.
Healthy Intentions for 2023
1) Drink 1 pint of water every morning before I leave the house.
This habit is such a good one for my health and to be quite honest, a relatively easy one.
I fill a glass the night before so it’s ready to go and drink it through the morning. Some days I end up chugging it as I run out the house for work, and other days I leisurely drink it over the course of the morning. Either way, I ensure it gets drunk!
Once I’d got into the habit of drinking my pint of water in a morning, I added onto this goal and have now also got into the habit of filling my 1L bottle and drinking that through the day too, then finishing the afternoon off with another glass of water and enjoying a herbal tea after dinner which covers me for more than enough liquid for the day!
2) Complete 1 strength training session a week minimum alongside the classes I teach.
Now this one is where a lot of people feel they fail as they’ll go all out and opt for 3+ workouts a week. I knew there’d be weeks I couldn’t sustain that, so I thought about it sensibly and picked a minimum of 1 (alongside my taught classes). I knew I could do this sustainably (and then add any extra in on the weeks I can – which ultimately makes you feel even better as you’ve gone above your goals!)
In terms of actually doing it, this intention is an easy one as I have my programme set for our 30 minute circuit (woo!) but I got into a really bad habit last year of ‘not being in the mood’ for a workout at the end of my busy shifts, and then not wanting to come into work on my days off (even though I love it here, I do need a day away hah!) But since the New Year, Caroline and I have been motivating each other, and we have completed at least 1 extra workout every week since! Even when I’m not in the mood at the start, I ALWAYS feel so much better for it afterwards (in both mind and body!)
3) Getting 1 hour outside each week.
This one was written with Poppy in mind as I had originally wanted to do a 5K each week. I knew this was unrealistic as it would have to be on my days off so I’d either have to find childcare or take Poppy with me (and I mean she loves to walk but that might be pushing it lol!) So I changed it to a 1 hour walk each week (it’s important to remember that our intentions will be different at different stages in our life! A 5K wasn’t right for me now, but it might be next year.)
Poppy and I do lots of activities but I want to make sure we’re getting out in the fresh air and moving. I aim to have at least a solid hour outside in one go – a trip to the park seems to be a Poppy favourite at the minute! I always feel so much better after some fresh air and seeing some greenery, I’m definitely glad I live in Yorkshire!
No matter whether you’ve already binned off your resolutions, or whether you’re still hanging onto them. Why not sit down and have a think about: WHAT you’d like to achieve and HOW you can realisitically get there. Start small with things you know you can do (like when you make a to-do list and pop things on like ‘brush teeth’ just so you know you’ll tick something off…please tell me everyone does this?!)
If you’re struggling, come and have a chat with us – we can help you come up with some goals that are achieveable!
Much Love,
Hannah & Caroline xx