Health goals are a common theme for new year’s resolutions. Here’s how to keep them.
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A new year provides a clean slate, giving rise to all manner of New Year’s resolutions.
Each year, health goals figure prominently on lists of things people want to improve. In a Forbes Health/OnePoll survey for 2024, common goals included improving fitness (cited by 48% of respondents), improving mental health (36%), losing weight (34%) and improving diet (32%). (Respondents could select more than one answer.)
“Losing weight, exercising more and eating healthier foods are popular goals, and they’re all interconnected,” says Dr. Adam Gonzalez, a licensed clinical psychologist and the founding director of the Stony Brook University Mind-Body Clinical Research Center.
Unfortunately, setting the goals is the easy part. Only 9% of Americans who make New Year’s resolutions wind up keeping them, according to Ohio State University. Research has shown that 23% of people abandon their resolutions in the first week alone.
Here are some suggestions to ensure you’re part of the 9% who keep their New Year’s health goals.
SMART HEALTH GOALS
“Be careful about how you’re setting your goals,” says Dr. Gonzalez, who is also the vice chair of behavioral health in Stony Brook’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health. “Goals should be ‘SMART’: S is for specific, M for measurable, A for attainable, R for relevant and T for time-based.”
The time frame can include both short-term and longer-term goals.
“For instance, ‘here’s what I want to achieve by next week, three months from now and a year from now,” says Dr. Gonzalez. “Once you set your goals, you can start planning how you will go about achieving them.”
SMALL CHANGES
As chief of preventive and lifestyle medicine for the Katz Institute for Women’s Health at Northwell Health, Dr. Penny Stern focuses her practice on the pillars of lifestyle management, which include physical activity, whole-food/plant-predominated eating, restorative sleep, stress management, limiting alcohol, avoiding tobacco, and forming and maintaining social connections and relationships. Many people can improve their health by making small changes in one or more of these interconnected areas.
“Many people do not get enough physical activity or sleep,” says Dr. Stern, who is board-certified in both preventive medicine and lifestyle medicine. Both the American Heart Association and the American College of Lifestyle Medicine recommend 150 minutes of physical activity each week. “People who get that amount of activity generally do better across the board. It helps with weight management, lowers blood pressure and improves sleep.”
Restorative sleep underpins everything else, she adds, and are vital to one’s health goals.
“People who don’t sleep enough are at greater risk for problems such as obesity, diabetes, cardiac issues, depression, car accidents and immune system suppression,” she says.
Lifestyle medicine physicians generally recommend a plant-predominant, whole-food regimen, which emphasizes fruits and vegetables as well as whole grains, lean proteins like chicken and fish, and minimally processed foods.
“People shouldn’t try to make too many changes at once,” says Dr. Stern. “Big changes come from small changes; if you try to do too much, you may very well get overwhelmed and won’t be able to stick to it. When you are able to keep up the changes, they will become habits.”
Some possible changes to make your health goals attainable include:
- “Make a plan to be more physically active,” Dr. Stern says. While the 150-minute recommendation translates roughly to 30 minutes five days a week, “it doesn’t have to be 30 minutes all at once. You can break it into three- to eight-minute bursts of activity.”
- “Walking is a great exercise for people who do not have mobility issues. If you’re worried about walking outside in the cold, snow and ice, go to a mall and walk indoors, or walk on a treadmill,” says Dr. Stern. “You can also walk in place while you’re on the phone or when commercials are on TV.”
- Pay attention to when you start to feel tired — and get into bed within the hour. “People start to get tired a lot earlier than they are willing to go to sleep. Eating meals late along with the light from screens (cell phones, laptops and televisions) can delay sleep onset. Alcohol, while initially sedating, interferes with quality sleep later on, causing arousals and preventing deeper sleep.”
- Commit to reading food labels and avoiding foods with long lists of unnatural ingredients. “When you read labels, it’s eye-opening to see how much sugar, salt and chemicals are in processed foods,” says Dr. Stern. “Once you start reading labels and pausing to think about the things you are putting in your body, it will become a habit.”
- Find a primary care physician and see your doctor yearly. “Have an annual checkup to keep up with the recommended screenings,” Dr. Stern says.
- If you smoke, making a plan to quit is a great resolution. “Smoking is probably the single worst thing that people can do for their health,” Dr. Stern says. “Nicotine is so addictive that it takes the average smoker seven attempts to stop. But when people do stop, they feel better almost immediately.”
- People who are isolated are generally not as healthy as those with social connections. A great way to form connections is by doing volunteer work. “Volunteering encourages people to get out into the world,” says Dr. Stern. “You benefit from having people who need you.”
- Drink lots of water. “Many people walk around semi-dehydrated,” Dr. Stern says. At the same time, stop drinking sugary drinks, which are full of empty calories.
- Don’t keep junk food in the house. “If it’s not there, you can’t eat it,” Dr. Stern says. Get rid of things like chips and candy and buy fruits and vegetables to have as snacks.
BUILD ON SUCCESSES
When making a change, start with small health goals and build on your successes, Dr. Gonzalez says.
“If your goal is to start running and you’ve never run a mile, don’t set a goal to run five miles,” he says. “Maybe run a quarter-mile, and once you accomplish that, move up to a half-mile. You’ll increase your confidence around your progress and be more likely to stick to it if you see your successes.”
GET SUPPORT
Having social support for your lifestyle changes can help keep you on track.
“Having people around you who will motivate you and work with you to help you achieve your goals is an important piece,” says Dr. Gonzales. “Let those around you know what your goals are. Joining a group where other people have similar goals can also be helpful.”