Photo credit: ShareHows.com Most of us have an inert desire to be healthy, eat right and exercise regularly. But in reality, only 34% of professionals in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region state that they have excellent health, according to the Bayt.com Happiness and Wellbeing in the MENA Survey, July 2013. The New Year comes with new possibilities and gives us the avenue to explore our health goals. We take this time as an opportunity to completely transform ourselves and our fitness regime. It’s not the intention to remain healthy that matters, but the commitment to stick to your goals. Here, the experts at Bayt.com share five tips to keep your health resolutions on track in 2015:
Your great health plans might not work out if they’re unrealistic. It’s impossible to make a huge change in your life in just one day; it has to happen gradually. What you can do is replace your daily routine with small, healthy substitutes on an everyday basis for a greater chance of success.
Everything becomes instantly more legitimate when written down, and the same applies to your health resolutions. Note down all your health-related achievements in a given day. The Bayt.com ‘MENA Professionals’ Health and Eating Habits‘ poll, March 2012, reveals that 32% of professionals in the MENA don’t consider their eating habits healthy. List the good and bad things you ate on a particular day. This will serve as a motivating factor to eat right in the future and will give you a sense of accomplishment.
SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic and Time-bound. It’s essential to apply the SMART rule to your health goals. If your goals are missing any of these elements, they might lose their practicality. For example, a good SMART goal would be “To work out every day for 20 minutes in the morning by doing simple exercises at home throughout the next month.” The length of your exercise can increase gradually every month in a SMART manner.
The power of having a partner who has the same health resolutions is incomparable. The Bayt.com ‘MENA Professionals’ Health and Eating Habits’ poll reveals that 45% of professionals in the MENA exercise every day, and having a buddy is definitely important. Indeed, a buddy will motivate you to do your best and even be strict with you when you’re not following your goals, and vice versa.
You don’t think twice before brushing your teeth at night, so why do you think twice before keeping real and actionable health resolutions in the New Year? It’s probably because you’re not making them a part of your daily life. If you skip a few days in-between, it will break the process of developing a good habit as most habits are formed in 30 days. Be completely committed during the first month of maintaining your resolutions and the rest will follow naturally.
