A Plan for Keeping My New Year's Resolution of Better Health

As the New Year approaches, many times we reflect on the past year and all of the events that have brought us to where we are today. And it's from these experiences and failures we make our New Year resolutions. It comes from a desire to improve ourselves, and to avoid repeating the painful lessons as well as continuing with our successes. Yours truly is no different. While I strive to live a healthy lifestyle, raising my children to make healthy choices, I do admit that I have failed in certain areas. These failures have led to added weight (but nothing out of control), and a noticeable decline in my overall health. Okay so it's only noticeable to me, but it's enough to motivate me to get back on track. My number one New Year resolution is to once again be the healthy vegan I was earlier this year. Here are the 5 ways I intend to keep from slacking.

1)I will once again practice yoga daily even if this means getting up earlier. This year brought a LOT of changes and with it a lot of opportunities to make excuses as to why I could skip my practice. When I moved, I claimed I was too tired. When I was stressed, I claimed to need more rest. And the list goes on. To get back to practicing yoga daily, I will create a yoga chart so I can track how long I stretched, which poses I did and any new poses currently being worked on. The point is to keep it very simple and fill it out in only a few seconds. This way I can see at a glance my progress.

2)Daily meditation/prayer is my grounding force for dealing with the stresses of life. Again, using life's events to slack in this area, I have become inconsistent. This has led to scattered thoughts, tension headaches and trouble sleeping. To regain control of my mind, I will dedicate 15 minutes in the morning and no less than ½ hour in the evenings to calming my mind and release the day's negativity. Again, I will track this on the same chart.

3)Being vegan was an accident. It was a slow, gradual process of eliminating unhealthy foods one at a time. Every step of the way produced remarkable benefits. It was then I became lax claiming "one bite of this won't hurt" until I wasn't a healthy eater anymore much less vegan. I have already begun making changes such as opting for oil and vinegar instead of bleu cheese, choosing vegetable soups instead of those with meats and changed back to light almond milk. The changes will continue step by step until once again I am truly vegan.

4)Portion control is a huge factor in weight control. And while I usually don't overeat, I have noticed my portions slowly getting larger. Usually I eat from dessert plates however, there seems to be more an more packed on there. So I have changed to saucers once again. This means what goes on my plate needs to hold as much health benefit as possible. I will continue eating from saucers but allow for in between nibbling of a piece of fruit or a carrot.

5)According to marksdailyapple.com practicing altruism has health benefits. He talks about an in depth article by the New York Times regarding the health benefits of benevolence. While I try to practice the golden rule as much as possible, perhaps truly embracing altruism would not only aid in living healthy by reducing stress but also help someone else as well. And so that is what I intend to do. For more information check out these articles.http://www.marksdailyapple.com/health-benefits-altruism/
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/01/health/01well.html?_r=1

I think the key is to make healthy living a process. Adapting small changes one at a time. Allowing the benefits to be felt, then using that success to motivate to the next step is by far the easiest and most effective way to change. What's your number one resolution? How are you planning to achieve it? By making a plan, the chances increase tremendously. Enjoy your successes and Happy New Year!