New Year's Goals

By Michelle Guerrero, RDN

Registered Dietitian

With the New Year, it is natural to have new ambitions. When it comes to health, the majority hope to try a new diet or to lose a few pounds as part of their New Year’s resolutions.

Research shows that only 22% of people stick to their New Year’s resolutions by February. This may have to do with the fact that most of us set very broad goals. Does wanting to eat healthier or losing weight sound like familiar resolutions to you? Exactly! It’s great to have the motivation to make these changes but to be successful, it’s essential to be specific and to be honest with ourselves.

Fortunately, there’s a process that can give you some direction to set clear, attainable goals. The SMART method stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-sensitive.

Specific

The first step of setting up a SMART goal is to refine your goal towards more precise accomplishments. If your New Year’s resolution is to lose weight, for example, think about what you are trying to achieve. How much weight do you want to lose? When do you plan to reach your desired weight? How will you lose it? For instance, setting a goal like “I will drink at least 8 glasses of water every day and avoid sugary drinks for the next month” addresses the question of how you will lose the desired weight.

Measurable

Establishing measurable goals allows you to track progress and determine whether the goals are being accomplished. Let’s say you’re thinking of exercising more as one of your fitness resolutions, a measurable goal would sound like this: “I will increase my daily activity by walking 20 minutes every evening and will use my Apple Watch to track my progress with daily reviews through the dashboard”.

Attainable

This step is all about reflection. Evaluate your lifestyle, past behaviors, and habits. It’s great to challenge yourself but at the same time trying not to be so ambitious. Keeping a realistic goal will prevent you from feeling a sense of failure and build consistency. For example, if one of your resolutions is to eat healthier, instead of removing all snacks from your diet, replace sugary snacks with fruits and nuts.

Relevant

To stay motivated through your health journey, your goals should fulfill a purpose. Reflecting on your core values, desires and needs will help you determine what goal is important in your life at the current moment. For a lot of people getting better sleep is one of their resolutions. A SMART goal that can help you reach that objective would be “to reduce caffeine consumption to no more than one cup of coffee per day for the next 2 months”. Making this change is relevant because caffeine can interfere with sleep and limiting it will improve sleep quality.

Time-based

Committing to a timeframe can also be helpful when setting your New Year’s resolutions. Establishing a deadline will not only keep you accountable, but it will prevent you from delaying the process of achieving your goals. If one of your health resolutions is to improve your digestion, a SMART goal would be to “take a probiotic supplement every day for 3 months to enhance gut health”.

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Don’t forget to evaluate your goals as you progress and adjust if necessary. Changes in our life can occur with time and that’s fine! Our goals can also change. Exercising patience and compassion towards yourself is an important part of being successful. And attaining success is not always reaching a goal, success is also the constant endeavor towards that goal. Remember it’s not about perfection but moving in the right direction!