How to Stick to Your Health Goals in the New Year

As the new year approaches, you are ready to finally become the healthiest person you 
can be! Setting these health goals is the easy part. The challenge comes in when you 
need to stick to your goals. No matter what your health goals are, from losing weight to 
drinking more water or completing a fitness routine, these tips can help you stay 
consistent with reaching your health goals.


Be Realistic with Your Goals

As with any other type of goal, your health goal in the new year needs to be realistic. 
This includes the type of goal, the details of what the goal is, and how much time you 
are giving yourself.

For example, setting a goal of wanting to eat more fruits and vegetables every day 
starting on January 1st is a realistic goal. However, switching to a completely raw, vegan 
diet right out of the gate might not be realistic for you. 

If you want to lose weight, make it a realistic goal of no more than 1-2 lbs lost a week. If 
you want to lose 30 lbs in a month, you are going to be very disappointed, and 
extremely unhealthy and malnourished if you try to reach this type of goal. 


Make Sure You Commit

Once you have set your health goal, make a commitment to yourself. There are different 
ways to have intention with your commitment, from getting a new journal to write about 
your progress, to adding different deadlines to a daily planner. This is also a good time 
to think about a support system and finding people to be accountable to. 


Set Deadlines and Schedules

Deadlines are wonderful when it comes to reaching your health goals! Instead of losing 
steam after a few weeks into the new year, the schedules and deadlines give you 
something to keep checking on. For example, if you have fitness goals, you can have 
mini goals, like running a mile by the end of month one, running 2 miles by the end of 
month two, and so on. 

Think about your health goal and how you can split it up into smaller goals, then set a 
schedule for each of those goals that is realistic and attainable.


Find the Best Way to Stay Accountable

It is often difficult to keep up with your goals if you are not accountable in some way, 
whether to yourself or to other people. Here are some ways you can be accountable in 
order to stay motivated with your health goals:

Tell a friend or loved one about your health goal.
Start logging your progress in a journal or planner.
Talk about your goal and progress on social media.
Start a blog to keep track of your health goal.


Focus on Lifestyle Changes

The best health goals are not short-term or temporary. They are going to improve your 
daily habits and become lifestyle changes in one way or another. Goals like exercising 
more, spending more time outdoors for the vitamin D, drinking more water, improving 
your nutrition and losing weight aren’t just about the short-term results, but long-term 
lifestyle changes. This is what you should be focusing on.

