3 Tools that are proven to help you reach your health and weight loss goals in the new year

I love December for many reasons, but one of the main reasons is because it’s the time of year when we start thinking about the future. What will 2022 look like? What do I want to accomplish in the next year? These questions fill me with excitement, especially because I’ve uncovered three tools that help me set and reach my personal, business and health goals each year.

I know not everyone loves setting New Year’s Resolutions, and if you’re in that boat it’s probably because you’ve set resolutions for years, only to realize that you reach December without accomplishing them. I have felt that frustration and disappointment too! In fact, last year I felt this way too! I felt like I had worked my butt off only to fail miserably.

The problem wasn’t the goals - it was how I approached the goals! In 2021, I evaluated what went wrong in 2020 (other than the obvious 2020 issues. Bahaha!) and I realized, just like everything else in life, it was a mindset problem.

If you want 2022 to be the year that you set goals and accomplish them, then I need you to change how you set your goals, how you think about your goals and how you go about achieving those goals.

You have to be able to dream about your goals.

The most exciting part of setting New Years Resolutions, and any goal, is the dream. Without really meaning to we begin to picture what our lives will look like when we accomplish our goals. That’s where all the power of goal lives - in the dream.

The dream is the good part. And we want to skip to the good part, right?

Most of the time, you’ll hear people say, you can’t skip ahead, you have to plow through all the work to get there. But for right now, I want you to skip to the good part. I want you to close your eyes and dream about what life would look like if you achieved your dream.

• What does it look like now that you’ve accomplished your goals?
  What does it feel like to accomplish that goal?

• What does it sound like now?

• What do you think about yourself after accomplishing this goal?

I need you to create a rich picture of your life once you’ve reached your New Year’s resolutions. Because that feeling, that excitement, that’s what is going to help you stay committed to your goal all year long.

You have to believe in your ability to reach them.

I want you to ask yourself this question: Do I believe in my ability to reach my goal?

Answer yourself honestly. It’s OK if the answer is no! Sometimes we have this beautiful dream that we want so badly, but we don’t believe that we can achieve it. 

There are a lot of reasons why we may not believe it, but essentially it boils down to “I’m not good enough.” Anytime you think that you’re not good enough, or not worth the time/energy/money it would take to accomplish your goal, what you’re really experiencing is a limiting belief.

Limiting beliefs are thoughts, beliefs, actions, etc that prevent you from growth. For example, say you aren’t very good at crafting. You think that you’re just not a crafter and you’ll never be able to do crafts. That’s a limiting belief. 

The truth is that if you put the time, energy and resources into learning how to craft you could do it! You might not be Martha Stewart right now, but that doesn’t mean you can’t ever craft with the best!

The same is true of your health. 

Maybe you’ve told yourself that your whole family is overweight, and that’s just the way it is. That’s a limiting belief.

Maybe you’ve tried every diet out there and you lose weight, but gain it right back, so you’ve told yourself that you can’t stick to a diet. That’s a limiting belief.

Maybe you hate running and you’ve told yourself that exercise just isn’t for you. That’s a limiting belief. 

All of these things (and whatever thought just crossed your mind) can all be changed! It takes a lot of faith in yourself to do it, but it can be done. 

The best way to start believing in yourself is to start keeping promises to yourself. If you promise yourself you’re not going to grab fast food on the way home tonight, then honor that. Small steps like that are going to be monumental in creating belief in yourself.

Each time you honor that promise - to choose water instead of soda, have a veggie at every meal, get up and work out - you start to become the person who is worthy of the success you want. Also, you were always worthy of that success, but as you keep promises to yourself you create the proof that you’re looking for right now. 

When you put in the work, you achieve your goals.

Dreaming and believing are essential to achieving your dreams. But so is putting in the work.

Real change doesn’t come from changing everything in your life immediately so that you can reach your goals. Read change and the real work you need to do comes through two things: habits and consistency.

Create habits that take you toward your goals

When I commit to something, I jump all in and give it everything I have, which can seem like a great quality, but sometimes it sets me up for failure. When I make a commitment, I get in this all-or-nothing mindset and if I can’t live up to the standard I’ve set for myself, I give up and call myself a failure.

But the truth is, that we aren’t ever going to be perfect - especially when we’re first starting out. If you want real change to come from your New Year’s Resolutions, then you need to start small. You need to create daily habits that will lead you to your goals.

I love this quote from James Clear in his book Atomic Habits, “Success is the product of daily habits - not once-in-a-lifetime transformations.”

You have to start your journey by creating the habits that will build up and lead you toward your goals.

After you’ve decided on your goal and you’ve dreamed about what it would look like to get to that goal, I want you to decide what habits you would need to establish to accomplish that goal.

Your dream life is going to depend on creating healthy, productive habits that serve you! When you know what those habits look like, you can start incorporating them into your life.

For example, when I started my health and weight loss journey, I knew I needed to get in the habit of meal planning and prepping. So, I set aside time every week to do those things. Now, I don’t think twice about meal planning or prepping! I know that on Friday I’ll spend 30 minutes deciding on meals, creating a grocery list and shopping online for my groceries. It’s so ingrained in me that I don’t have to think about it anymore!

Habits are the building blocks to achieving your dreams. Start creating the habits you need to succeed.

Do 1% better every day

Consistency is the key to building your habits, but remember, we don’t have to be perfect at these new habits right away! A lot of time if we feel like we’ve fallen behind in our habits or we mess up, we’re tempted to throw in the towel. Instead of striving for perfection, I want you to try and be 1 percent better each day.

There is no way you’ll ever go from couch potato to 5K in a week Don’t make those kinds of expectations of yourself! Instead, aim to be just a little better each day.

Taking each day at a time and trying to take just one more step towards your goals is going to help you build confidence. 

Any goal you’re working on isn’t going to have linear results. You’re not going to progress at a perfectly steady pace. You’re going to have ups and downs, twists and turns, failures and successes.

If you give up when you’re in a dip, a low spot, or when it feels like you’ve failed, you’re never going to achieve your goal. You have to keep striving to be 1 percent better. If you continue pushing yourself for that incremental change, you’ll eventually pull yourself out of that dip and you’ll start ascending again.

Sometimes when we’re in the thick of the challenges, it’s hard to see what’s coming up next. This is where a coach or mentor can help. I see this with my Macros Made Easy Mamas all the time. They feel like things are changing fast enough, that they’re in a plateau or that this just isn’t working for them. But I’ve been in their shoes. I’ve helped hundreds of women who’ve been in the exact same place. I can look at their data and see that they’re so close to the next level.

If you’re struggling to see the next step or level, then get a coach. Find someone who can help you gain perspective and keep you on the right path. It makes all the difference!

Your consistency to be 1 percent better will pay off. Don’t give up too soon.

If you’re ready to turn your dreams of being healthy and happy into reality, then I want to help you! Schedule a free discovery call to get started.

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