Helpful Tips for Keeping Up with Your New Year’s Weight Loss Resolutions

As the end of January nears, it’s a good time to reflect on your new year resolutions. Whether you’ve already gotten into a successful routine, or are struggling to get started, it’s important not to get discouraged. There’s no better time to start than now, so to help you reach your goals, we’ve put together some helpful tips for keeping up with your weight loss resolutions.

Get into a Routine

Understanding your goals and what it takes to reach them can sometimes be half the battle. If you’re struggling to get into a routine, or don’t know where to start, begin with creating a timeline for your goals. It’s important you have measurable, diversified goals for yourself so you can better track your progress. For example, one of your goals might’ve been to “exercise more”. Try being more specific and make your goal to exercise an extra day per week.

Try New Recipes

While routine with food is good, people can often feel stuck in a menu routine when trying to eat healthier foods. To combat this feeling, try starting each week off with a new recipe. There are many low-carb, healthy recipes online, or stop by a book store and grab yourself a new healthy-eating cookbook for inspiration.

Exercise in Small Ways

As we mentioned earlier, it’s important to keep your goals manageable. Getting to the gym or setting aside the time to exercise can be tough for many of us, which is why in addition to your exercise goals, make mindful efforts to stay active during the day in case you can’t fit in your exercise for the day. Some examples include:

• Park further away from the entrance in a parking lot
• Ditch the elevator and take the stairs
• Take five minutes every hour to stretch and walk around

Portion Meals in Advance

If you know you’re going to have a busy day, take a few moments the night before to prepare a healthy lunch and snack. It’s easy to make unhealthy decisions when we’re pressed for time, so having the convenience of a healthy pre-made meal will increase your chances of sticking to your goals.

Leave the Junk Food Behind

Avoiding junk food can be the hardest part for many people. Working healthier foods into your diet will make you feel better throughout the day, and keep you on track with your goals. Keep these tips in mind when shopping for groceries:

• Never go to the grocery store on an empty stomach. Eating a meal before will temper those cravings when walking through the snack isles.
• Focus on the perimeter of the store. While there are certain shelf staples in the inside isles, most are primarily filled with processed foods, while the perimeter has healthy staples like fruit, veggies, and protein.

Reward Yourself

It’s important to celebrate your goals, but also your smaller accomplishments along the way. If you achieve any of your small or bigger goals, be sure to reward yourself with something that makes you happy and reinforces your healthy commitment.

Don’t Give Up

One of the hardest parts of sticking to weight loss goals is that the results don’t happen right away. Try not to get discouraged or let go of your plan, and remember that results take time. It’s important to remember that you’ve committed to a lifestyle change, not a quick fix. To avoid feeling discouraged, check in with yourself at the end of the day. Did working more healthy foods into your diet today make you feel better? Did you feel more energized than the day before?

Another way to stay encouraged is by surrounding yourself with supportive people. Whether it’s friends, family, or a weight loss support group, having someone to talk to about your goals and accomplishments will help you on your journey.