As someone, (not your Winchester Chiropractor, Max Atkinson!) once, sagely, said – “New Year’s Resolutions are like babies – fun to make, but hard to maintain”!
However, Max points out that a single resolution, broken down into small, achievable goals to aim for in a given time-scale will be easier to achieve. Being able to celebrate small milestones along the way is more likely to lead to success than waiting to celebrate when we have attained the end-goal.
Healthier Lifestyle Resolutions
These are the most common among healthy New Year’s resolutions. Below, are some tips and links for help and advice to get you started on – and sticking to, your chosen resolution:
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Lose Some Weight
Losing weight really goes hand in hand with resolution number 2, “Get Active” as making changes to our diet to lose those excess pounds is really only half the story! If you are an otherwise healthy adult with a BMI over 25, the brilliant, free, 12-week plan downloadable from the NHS website should help you get on the right track and stay there!
- It has twelve weeks of menus planned out for you.
- You can sign up for the free, email, weight loss support.
- It has suggestions for non-food rewards for reaching your goals in your weight loss journey.
- There is a planner you can download, stick on the wall or the fridge and track your progress.
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Get active
A ComRes poll conducted in November 2015(1) placed “Exercise more” at the top of the UK’s New Year resolution list, with 38% of us wanting to be more active and 33% of us wanting to lose weight.
The British Heart Foundation has lots of tips and advice on getting more active. If the gym is not your thing, there are many ideas for getting active indoors and outdoors, Even if your mobility is poor you can still get more active with their ideas for chair-based exercises. With free fitness apps to download, ideas on getting fit for free – and lots more, there is sure to be something that inspires you! Check out the website here.
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Drink less alcohol
Have you found that your alcohol consumption is creeping up, maybe as a way to unwind after a busy, stressful day – or that you are drinking to excess on nights out with friends and perhaps putting your health and safety at risk as a result. Whatever your reason for wanting to cut down on your alcohol consumption, the Drinkaware website has all the information you need and the steps you can put in place to cut down on alcohol wherever you are.
Other Health-Related Resolutions
We have chosen just three of the most popular resolutions in our list above. Other popular resolutions you may have chosen include, to improve your diet, quit smoking, get more sleep or to reduce the stress in your life.
Obviously, Chiropractic treatment will not help you to lose weight or achieve success with any of the other resolutions we mention. However, if you have some niggling aches and pains that prevent you from exercising or being as active as you would like, if there is a biomechanical cause, Chiropractic adjustments and soft tissue work may help. If this issue is affecting you, why not contact your Winchester Chiropractor. You can book an appointment by calling us on 01962 861188.
Whatever your aim, your Winchester Chiropractor advises that to have the best chance of success, you:
- Make only one resolution and that you think about what this should be well in advance of New Year’s Eve.
- Make a resolution that is important to you; enlist the help and support of friends, family and perhaps even a healthcare professional or coach.
- Break down your goals into a series of smaller, more easily achievable goals – and reward yourself for reaching them.
And Finally …
Finally, Max’s best piece of advice is to be kind to yourself! Don’t feel you have failed because you have that extra slice of cake or glass of wine, or because you have a couch-potato day without exercising – we all revert to old habits from time to time but that doesn’t mean we have failed.
(1) Statistics quoted from the ComRes Poll are contained within this article for the Telegraph. If you wish to read the full Poll results, they are available in this downloadable PDF.
