Health Resolutions and How to Stick to Them

New Year, New You: Health Resolutions and How to Stick to Them

It’s that time of year again, a fresh start and great intentions to change your life in the year to come. New Year’s Resolutions are a great way to focus your attention on the things you want to improve in your life and health resolutions are particularly popular, but did you know that most New Year’s resolutions don’t even last the month of January?

Here, we’ll look at why health resolutions fail, what you can do to set realistic health goals for yourself this year and how you can transform your life and your health with commitment and determination. Whether you are aiming to get fitter, run a marathon or lose weight, we’ll help you to develop strategic goals that are achievable and measurable, and then smash them!

Making Health Resolutions that Work

It’s human nature to want to improve your lot and make changes that make you feel healthier and happier. However, it’s not an easy process and making these changes is likely to be a lot more successful if you take a few important steps. We recommend:

1. Be specific. A generalised goal such as ‘lose weight’ or ‘start running’ can be unhelpful as it can feel overwhelming and leave you unsure where to start, especially if you have a long list of vague goals like this. Instead, try to focus on one or two goals that mean a lot to you and get specific about exactly what you want to achieve. Decide on your realistic healthy weight and set that as your goal, or commit to completing a Couch to 5K programme to give yourself a specific challenge with an endpoint. This makes your goal measurable and gives you a much better chance of getting to where you want to be.
2. Make realistic health goals. Setting goals is pointless if they are unachievable. For instance, if you have a busy life and you are dreaming of running a marathon, it is unrealistic to say that you want to train for two hours every day, as you simply won’t find the time to fit this in and will instantly feel like a failure. Being realistic about your goals means looking at your life and setting goals that will be possible for you to achieve, giving you a better chance of a successful outcome. For instance, if you know you will be able to manage three training sessions of thirty minutes per week to begin with, make this your first goal and work on your strength, speed and stamina in this time, and then increase the length of time you run for as you can do so.
3. Break your goals down into manageable chunks. ‘Chunking’ is a very useful tip to make your goals achievable, and it’s easy to do. Giving yourself a big goal without any idea of how to get there is not helpful and makes it difficult to see the steps you need to take to get to your desired result. It can help to write your goal down and then break it up into manageable chunks that you can tackle within a realistic time frame. For instance, if you want to start running, you might follow the Couch to 5K programme, which can be downloaded for free from The Irish Heart Foundation and other organisations, which gives you a weekly plan to gradually increase your running and build up towards your goal effectively.
4. Hold yourself accountable. Holding yourself accountable is an essential life skill and working towards goals is a great place to practice it. It can help to find a friend or relative who is also working towards a goal and make an agreement about holding each other accountable. Check in daily or weekly with a phone call, text or email to keep updated about your progress and encourage each other to keep moving towards your targets. You can make a detailed plan about the way you will approach your goals and work with your accountability partner to stay on track as you tick off the milestones on your path.
5. Incentivise yourself. It’s only human to need a little incentive now and then, and you can make the most of this knowledge to ensure you achieve your goals. Incentivise your progress by taking time to reward yourself with a treat or positive feedback each time you tick off a milestone. For instance, if you have managed to run for the first time, perhaps you can reward yourself with a book or film you have been hankering after, and when you can run for twenty minutes, perhaps a nice meal with a friend could be a good way to reward your efforts. Of course, the real incentive is improved health and well-being, lower risk of disease and increased energy and zest for life, but small encouragements can be a great way to motivate yourself along the way!

It can help to write down your goals, broken down into manageable chunks, and the incentives that will help you to achieve them. Decorate your goal sheet with some inspiring words or quotes and display this somewhere prominent to keep you accountable, and get started on smashing those milestones!

Health Goals

Your health matters, and making New Year’s Health Resolutions to prioritise it can be beneficial in many ways. Whether you have decided to stop smoking, transform your diet or start exercising, you can get support from us at Gray’s Pharmacy. We know that lifestyle changes can have a huge impact on your short-term and long-term health and we are always happy to help you to make changes, whatever the time of year.

We offer a range of services that may be useful to you as you plan your goals, and making use of our professional expertise can make all the difference in achieving them. We can help with:

Smoking cessation. It can be very hard to give up smoking, and enlisting the right help can make a big difference. We have an experienced team who can offer you a range of tools to help you to achieve your goal and our specially designed Smoking Cessation programme is highly successful. Stopping smoking is one of the best things you can do for your health, so pop into Gray’s Pharmacy and book your initial consultation with our Smoking Cessation Advisors to get started. If you are only setting one New Year’s Health Resolution this is one we highly recommend. Get started today – Make an Appointment!

Weight management. Many people aim to lose weight to benefit their health, particularly at New Year’s, and getting professional support with this can be extremely helpful. We use a BMI (body mass index) measurement to establish whether you would be considered underweight, overweight or obese and advise you on lifestyle changes, supplements, dietary considerations and products that can help in your weight management. Most people find that a combination of dietary changes and exercise is the best way to manage their weight successfully in the long term, and we will be delighted to help you achieve this.

Nutrition. Nutrition is the key to your health, with a healthy balanced diet as the basis of your lifestyle. We can suggest dietary changes that will suit you and your family and you will soon see and feel the results. We recommend a whole-food diet that includes all food groups and avoids processed foods where possible, and we have a great range of nutritional supplements to support your body and ensure you are getting exactly what you need. A simple tip is to get the whole family involved in food preparation, as it’s much more likely that children will be willing to try food they have helped to create. You can spend time together finding recipes and meal planning, perhaps allocating a day for each family member to cook if you have older children or teenagers, or giving each person a share of the food budget to plan meals for a day. Fun challenges such as this can make the whole process more enjoyable and you can all enjoy the health benefits as you learn life skills together.

Visit our experienced team at Gray’s Pharmacy

Our friendly, experienced team is always available to discuss your healthcare and health resolution needs and offer advice and support wherever we can. We offer services including diabetes care, ostomy care and vaccine services, as well as online services that allow you to book consultations or order healthcare and other products online. We can talk to you over the phone or face to face when you visit our Irish independently-owned community Pharmacy in Castletroy, Limerick.

We have a great range of health care products in-store and online, as well as personal care and beauty products, haircare products and gifts. We aim to make it easier to care for yourself and your family and we have healthcare solutions for all ages, including infants, children, adults and the elderly. We’ll be here to support you whenever you need us and we’re always happy to offer advice and information about any health queries you and your family may have. Happy New Year!