Make Health Your New Year’s Resolution

After two months of holiday celebrations and an overabundance of food, many people feel the need to set New Year’s resolutions for their health, including losing weight or getting more active. Sadly, these goals are often abandoned before the end of January. Why is it so hard to stick to a New Year’s goal? There can be many reasons, but the bottom line is that change is difficult.

Most people have good intentions when setting a goal, but they usually don’t truly consider the commitment, effort, or accountability involved and may not feel a genuine desire to make a change. The required changes may also be unrealistic or unsustainable. Often, there is no backup plan when a goal isn’t working, and it becomes easier to give up and go back to the usual routine. Once the goal is abandoned, a sense of failure for not succeeding can also lead to feelings of depression and low motivation, resulting in an apathetic outlook.

To be successful, instead of making drastic changes, set health goals that are simple, reasonable, and attainable for the life you have now. It’s vital to examine what might actually work with a common-sense approach, and include regular monitoring to evaluate and refine your goal. Setting smaller, more sustainable health goals means the change becomes part of your life and is done automatically and consistently. Start small and build more over time. Enjoying the process also helps tremendously!

For ideas and input, we’ve polled HopeHealth staff to add their advice and tips. We asked, “What’s one simple thing a person can focus on in the new year for better overall health?”

Setting goals requires time to develop an effective plan. Decide what’s important and realistic. Sharon Black, Director of Integrative Health Services, recommends to “set realistic goals and create a consistent routine.” Choose one or two simple goals for healthy eating and being more active.

Physician Assistant Alan Barrett shares simple, effective strategies: “Instead of overhauling your entire routine, focus on making one small, sustainable swap in your daily routine at a time. Easy changes include committing to drinking a glass of water first thing in the morning before coffee, or adding one extra serving of vegetables to your dinner. Small changes are much easier to maintain than a drastic resolution, and those small, positive actions build the foundation for significant, long-term improvements in your overall health.

Caitlin Guess, Registered Dietitian, suggests, “Focus on changes that help you build structure, not restriction. Spacing meals and snacks out every few hours and including both energy foods (like grains or fruit) and protein foods (like nuts or cheese) not only improves health, but it can also make a huge difference in how you feel day to day.”

Set a goal of getting more steps in and start where you can. Taking a 10–15-minute walk during the day, parking farther away, or using the stairs instead of the elevator are all simple ways to add more steps to your day. While 10,000 is the accepted standard, even hitting 2,000 or 5,000 will make a difference for your health, depending on your fitness level.

Once you set a goal, explore how it can work best for you. Take time to determine how a goal can fit into your life. Write it down or talk to a friend about it. If you need accountability, enlist someone who can provide positive support and check in with you regularly. Think of your goal as an experiment, try it out, and be flexible. For example, if the goal is to drink a glass of water in the morning before coffee, an option would be to place a water bottle by your bed. Try it and see how it works, then tweak if needed. For example, if you keep forgetting to drink it, placing a note by the coffee pot may help it work more effectively. Goals often need a few tweaks to integrate effectively into your daily or weekly routine and become a habit.

Monitor progress and adjust as needed. Check in regularly to assess your progress. Be sure to review any benefits, such as feeling better, having more energy, or increased endurance. Continue editing goals, and if you’re struggling, consider developing new strategies or setting a new goal. Check in with honest analysis and flexibility, and keep moving forward.

Setbacks are normal. Changes in schedule, illness, holidays, and other life events can disrupt a habit. Instead of giving in to guilt or shame, use the tools of analysis and figure out how to get back on track, even if it’s in a new way. Sonda Jett-Clair, Disease Prevention Coordinator, recommends, “We all experience setbacks. Any time you get thrown off course, pick yourself up, brush it off, and start again.”

Celebrate all wins, no matter how small. Instead of looking at what you haven’t done, focus more on what has been accomplished. If you do half the goal during a tough week, it’s still a win. Building on the positive inspires more confidence and inspiration to continue with the goal.

Fill your cup. Seek out activities that promote overall mental health and nourish the soul. Replenish your positivity and well-being with enjoyable activities. Dr. Joseph Hoyle encourages engaging activities for all ages. “Visit the Florence County Museum at least once this year. Look for family or reading activities once a month for small children, painting classes for older children, and volunteer opportunities for adults.”

Choose kindness. In various forms, kindness can boost morale, reduce stress, improve mental health, and ultimately create a ripple effect of positivity. Focusing on being contagious with kindness not only will improve our well-being, it can contribute to a more compassionate and harmonious world!

Goals are about progress, not perfection. Small steps to promote overall health add up to big changes over time. Create a plan to establish effective and sustainable health goals that will last throughout 2026!