Resolutions #notfail

It is the third week of January and most people who have made a resolution to change have given up.

65% of people say they make resolutions and the day that people tend to give up?

January 17th.

This is according to the popular fitness tracking app Strava. They reviewed 108 million users and found that January 17th is the most common day people give up on their resolutions.

It doesn’t have to be this way

In fact, if you made it past January 17th you are 40% more likely to still be practicing your new habits 6 months from now!

Here are three ways to stick to a new routine and three reasons to keep at it.

Have a plan.

Not a plan B. Having a plan takes the decision making out of changing a habit. Commit to your plan for a short time, 30 days is long enough. Then evaluate: is this working? Is it the right plan? What do I need to adjust? Don’t give up on your goals, but be flexible about your strategies.

Be accountable.

Accountability can be as simple as checking off your workout on a calendar. Have some type of visual reminder of what you have done (or not). Join a group or make an exercise date with a friend, pick whatever accountability system works for you. Having a coach is a good one 😉

Have a long term vision or goal.

What is it that you want to achieve? Write it down, where you can see it and read it daily. What is the driving force behind your desire for change?

If you are struggling with your New Year’s goals here are three new reasons to stick with it:

If your goal was to lose weight:

That is great news for your health and for your brain. New research from Iowa State University has proven that excess fat and inadequate muscle tissue is bad for our brains.

Less muscle and more fat makes not just our muscles, but brains inflexible.

In a study of more than 4,000 middle-aged men and women, the researchers examined the amount of lean muscle mass, abdominal fat, and subcutaneous fat participants had, and how these were related to fluid intelligence.

Fluid intelligence is not related to chronological age but is the ability to reason, adapt and transform information in real-time to problem solve.

They discovered that not only did the participants with higher amounts of body fat and less muscle have reduced fluid intelligence, it also affected their immune function. The participants with higher BMI (Body Mass Index) also had higher levels of immune system functioning in the brain. Higher levels of immune cells in the brain have been linked to decreased mental cognition.

If your goal was to run:

This is really good for your heart, especially if your goal is to train for a long run. Research published in the American Journal of Cardiology has found that especially for first-time marathon runners, long-distance running improves arterial flexibility.

What is arterial flexibility? Well, imagine you left your garden hose out in the sun all summer, the hose would be stiff and brittle. This is what happens to your arteries when you don’t exercise and eat poorly.

The improvements, which were the equivalent of four extra healthy heart years, were seen in the slowest male runners with high baseline blood pressure.

Arterial stiffness contributes to cardiovascular disease, dementia and kidney disease. The runners recruited for the study were not running more than 2 hours a week previous to their training and reduced their blood pressure and arterial stiffness to the equivalent of 4 healthy years.

This study proves that it is possible to reverse damage to the cardiovascular system from lifestyle factors in 6 months of consistent exercise.

If your goal was to eat more plants:

Excellent! Most people are fiber deficient and fiber only comes from plants. Not only do plants fill you up, thanks to fiber they are extremely nutritious.

A plant-based diet might also help you avoid getting sick.

In new research done only on mice, because we can’t give people E Coli, mice fed a plant-based diet were not as susceptible to gastrointestinal infections from E coli. Researchers believe one reason is due to the diversity and number of gut bacteria in mice eating a plant-based diet.

Need help starting to eat a healthy vegan diet? Join my course here.

Want to know more about changing your habits? Read How to change, easily.

Change your mind, change your health,

Shayla