Healthy New Year’s resolutions are common among most, however, they shouldn’t just involve saying no to the donuts and getting on a treadmill.
It’s that time of year again-healthy new year’s resolutions are on everyone’s mind. It’s the beginning of January when we all set crazy goals and expectations for ourselves to become better people, lose weight, exercise more, keep in touch with family, or anything else that you meant to get around to last year and didn’t. I think anyone can admit, New Year’s resolutions are hard. It seems that every January begins with this untamable need to stick to our goals- the motivation is fresh and in high supply. Slowly, that supply trickles down until we are suddenly in mid February and we are almost back to where we started on December 31st. The good news is, that this is completely normal! I don’t want to generalize anything here because there are people that truly accomplish New Year’s Resolutions- and kudos to you folks! For many though, myself included, maybe the truth is that we are not setting ourselves up for success.
Set Yourself Up for Success – Set Achievable Goals!
Adopting the resolution to ‘lose weight’ is probably one of the more common goals that people set for themselves in the New Year. While this is a great goal to have in mind, it is far to broad and vague to last throughout the entire year. Especially for you Business Travel Lifer’s whose schedules are constantly changing and fluctuating. Yes, having a general plan for the whole year is a great idea, but work through that plan on a month to month basis. As trips come up, work schedules change, or holidays roll around, tweak your goals to make sure that achieving them is realistic! Focus on the WHY over the WHAT. There are reasons that you want to better yourself in the New Year- and that should be your driving motivation over everything. At the beginning of each month, take a pen and piece of paper and physically write out your goals. Studies show that when you do this, you are more likely to accomplish! Even writing goals down week by week or day by day could make a huge difference in your efforts!
7 Healthy New Year’s Resolutions…
1. Pledge to Prep (when you aren’t on the road)
Prepping your meals can make a huge impact on weight loss/health efforts for the coming year. Make it part of your Sunday routine to cook for the week. Separate your food by day so you can grab it in the morning and go. It is a great way to ensure you stick to your goal of eating healthy. It helps prevent you from being so hungry during the day and then going to get a sub or fast food for lunch. For example- I did not prep for this week and right now I’m sat at a restaurant eating a large sub while I write this. Hey- you win some, you lose some. We all know the feeling of getting home after a long day of work- meal prepping allows you to come home to delicious, healthy food that is just waiting to be eaten!
2. Say NO!
You’ve just come home from a business trip and you have a friend ask you to grab drinks or get dinner. Set a goal to say no every once in awhile, use the time you have at home to spend it with family, or simply use it at a time to recuperate. As you all know, travelling can take it out of you- physically, mentally, emotionally. Go in to 2017 knowing its OK if you can’t always please everyone in your life! Make time for you and your family.
3. Anticipate Your Exercise
Make an effort this year to look into future trips and anticipate opportunities to exercise. Even if it’s just taking a stroll around an airport that you happen to be traveling to or from, doing some yoga, or finding an actual gym at the airport.
4. Reward Yourself!
The rewards from accomplishing goals are sometimes instantaneous and sometimes appear further down the road well after you have completed them. For 2017 resolutions, and your month by month goals, set up rewards for yourself! For every weekend you go without drinking (or eating out, whatever it may be)- give yourself some sort of reward. Try to go all of January without alcohol. The reward? A tasty, expensive bottle of wine to enjoy when February (finally) rolls around.
5. Meditate.
Start small. Meditation is not a simple hobby that everyone can pick up right away, so don’t set your expectations too high. Try meditating once a week for 5 minutes. Then slowly increase it to two times a week, and so on. It sounds like nothing, but as you get into it you will see why this is a realistic goal to set for yourself. Meditation is proven to reduce stress! Try some of these apps to help you get started.
6. Time for Bed!
I know this sounds childish but setting bedtime reminders on your smartphone is actually gaining popularity! How many of you have set resolutions to increase the amount of sleep you get at night? The new iPhone update has a new program called “Bedtime” where you can enter in the time you hope to be in bed by on a weekly basis and it will notify you when you have 30 minutes until bedtime. Regular sleeping schedules are healthy and will drastically contribute to achieving your healthy New Year’s resolutions!
7. Travel for FUN!
We know that business travel is a huge part of your lives, but what if you made a resolution to travel for fun every once in awhile in 2017? It is beneficial to break out of your usual routine from time to time and take a week to recharge your body by experiencing something new and exciting or just taking some time to relax. Even if you just add some personal time onto the end of a business trip, it is a great way to find peace among your hectic, busy life. The concept of Bleisure is becoming more popular among many road warriors out there, maybe 2017 is the year you incorporate it into your vocabulary!
What goals and resolutions do you have for the coming year? Comment below!
Business Travel Life
Business Travel Life is an online resource supporting the road warrior lifestyle. We give business travelers the tools they need to maintain their wellness and productivity when traveling. The topics we cover include business travel tips, travel workouts, healthy travel hacks, travel products, general travel tips, and industry trends. Our goal is to make business travel a healthier experience – and to make healthy travel practices more accessible to all road warriors.
