New Year’s Resolutions

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January 3, 2009

By Crystal Dupré / publisher The Meridian Star Sat Jan 03, 2009, 10:16 PM CST

It’s hard to believe but the New Year is here. For lots of people, New Year’s Day meant eating traditional foods such as cabbage and black-eyed peas and watching football games on television.

Many people start the New Year by promising to do something to better themselves. Unfortunately, some of us will have given up on our resolutions before the last of the leftover cabbage hits the garbage disposal.

Because of our past failures, many of us have given up on making New Year’s resolutions – the old “my New Year’s resolution is not to make any New Year’s resolution.” So, to help our loyal Meridian Star readers, I decided to do a little research on ways to help us make and keep New Year’s resolutions.

Help from the Net

Just type in “New Year’s resolutions” on any search engine and you will get thousands of pages of hints, suggestions, and advice on making and keeping your resolutions. Many of the same tips kept appearing from one website to another, so I suppose those are the most generally accepted bits of advice. Here, in no particular order, are 10 tips to help you make and keep your 2009 New Year’s resolution.

1. Don’t wait to make your resolution. The longer you put it off the more likely you are to avoid the process all together.

2. Make only one resolution. Two out of three people who make resolutions make more than one. The more battles that are lost, the easier it is to give up on all the resolutions. To increase the chances of success, focus all your efforts on just one resolution.

3. Make your resolution realistic. Many resolutions deal with sacrifice, so make sure you are up to the task. If it took you five years to pack on those extra thirty-five pounds, don’t believe that you will lose the weight in three months through crash dieting or some pill you saw advertised on television. You are about to make a drastic change in your eating habits, so think about whether you are up to the task. Perhaps you may want to start by just giving up the “super-sized” meals.

4. Plan to succeed. Making a resolution is easy. Coming up with a plan to keep the resolution is more difficult. If your resolution is to lose weight, decide how you are going to achieve that goal, how you will deal with temptation, and plan your steps to get back on track if you can’t resist the buffet line.

5. If possible, break the resolution down into smaller steps. Keeping with the weight-loss theme, have a weekly or monthly goal. Dropping two pounds a month is a lot more realistic -- and healthy -- way of losing weight. If you want to quit smoking, try slowly cutting back instead of quitting “cold turkey.”

6. Put your resolution in writing. Get out your pen and paper and write down your resolution and your motivation for making the resolution. Write down your steps to achieving your goal as well as your plans for getting back on track if you have a setback. Post this paper someplace where you will see it just about every day.

7. Tell people about your resolution. Get people to support you and deliver you from your temptations. Find others who have the same resolution and you can motivate each other to succeed. If one of you suffers a setback, the others can help you back on track.

8. Tough it out. Several different sources all stated that it takes 21 days to start a new habit or break an old one. One source even said it takes six months for the new habit to become part of your personal lifestyle. Give your resolution enough time to settle in. This is the time your support network is most needed.

9. Celebrate your success. But be reasonable! If you lost five pounds, don’t celebrate with a quart of Blue Bell ice cream. Instead, treat yourself to a new outfit, go to a movie (hold the popcorn), or do something else you enjoy.

10. Review and modify your goals on a regular basis. If you are not meeting your goals, don’t give up. Instead, change some of your tactics and try again. If that doesn’t work, you may want to modify your goals to keep them realistic and achievable.

Now, get out there and make that resolution stick. Good luck, and Happy New Year from all of us at The Meridian Star.

Crystal Dupré is publisher of The Meridian Star. E-mail her at

cdupre@themeridianstar.com.

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