Local News

Sticking With Your Resolutions

Tue, 02 Feb 2016 08:41:16 CST
According to the Statistic Brain Research website, out of the 45 percent of people who usually make New Year's resolutions, only about eight percent achieve their goals. If you feel as if you might not be part of the eight percent this year, there may be some things you can change to get back on track with your resolution. University of Illinois Extension Nutrition and Wellness Educator Lisa Peterson says to make sure your resolutions are specific.

“What we do at the Extension, is we use something called SMART Goals and that's how I lead off with looking at resolutions or any type of goal. A SMART Goal is something where you're looking at - is the goal Specific, is it Measurable, is it Achievable, is it Results focused and then is it Timely, so do you have a time line for it? So that's a great way to start looking at those resolutions is looking at – how specific am I being? So thinking: 'I want to set a goal to be healthier.' Well, what does healthier mean? Am I going to be eating a little bit better? Am I going to be being more active? So being specific.”

Peterson says another thing to ensure New Year's resolution success is to set mini goals.

“With New Year's resolutions we often say, 'I'm going to eat more vegetables.' Well to be more specific with that, you could say, 'I'm going to have at least one vegetable with lunch everyday for the next week.' So it's something that is specific and if you set it for a week, setting those mini goals will help, because it will make you feel better because once you achieve one of these mini goals, you're more likely to stay consistent with it because you're already achieving a goal.”

Peterson also says finding an exercise buddy, a support group or someone to keep you accountable is a key to successfully achieving your New Year's resolutions. For more information on sticking with your goals, you can contact the University of Illinois Extension at (217) 532-3941 or go to the Extension Website.

Thomack 2/2/16