Five Reasons Why Your New Year’s Resolutions Suck

Written by: Ava Elliott, Marketing Intern and Future Dietitian

Reviewed by: Devon Kroesché, MS, RDN, LDN

New Year's Resolutions get a bad rap - just because most fail before February doesn't mean yours has to! Andrew Wade, CEO and Founder of Case Specific Nutrition joins Devon Kroesche, Registered Dietitian (RD) and Marketing Director of Case Specific Nutrition to tell you why your New Year's Resolution SUCKS, and how to make a better one. Read below for a recap or click here to watch.

1. You view it as a chore.

• Nobody likes chores.
• If this resolution should make your life better, why do something that makes you miserable?
• Instead, choose habits that you enjoy. For example: exercise – movement is the goal of your exercise. How do you like to move? Maybe you go for walks with your dog or play pickup basketball with your friends.

2. You don’t have a why.

• Having a good why behind your resolution is a necessity for change.
• Why are you choosing this goal and how does it make you feel?
• Is improved health going to decrease your knee pain so you can play catch with your kids?
• Choose something that is important and do it for you.

3. It’s too vague.

• Vague = VAPID Goals are Vague, Amorphous, Pie in the sky, Irrelevant, and Delayed
• Maybe you are choosing to eat more veggies, but how often? When? Why?
• Set SMART goals that are Specific Measurable Attainable Realistic and Time sensitive
• Now to change the “eating more veggies” to be SMART: include veggies at lunch and dinner, daily. This will set a timeline and make the goal more realistic. You can look up recipes to add more veggies to your day.

4. You don’t have a plan.

• If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.
• What do you want to accomplish and how will you look get there? Make a plan.
• Going back to the goal of exercise, do you have gym membership, or will you go for weekly walks with a friend?
• SMART goals will help you build a plan.
• RDs help evaluate their client’s stages of change and assess how ready you are to make a change.
• Often times, people get stuck in the preparation phase because of a lack of plan.

5. You have not identified your cheerleaders.

• Making changes and going against our normal habits of day-to-day life can be a challenge. Identifying your cheerleaders will help you succeed.
• Professionals, like RDs at CSN, are part of your team.
• In your house, identify your cheerleaders: spouse, family members, loved ones.
• In your life, identify your friends and people you spend time with. They are the people you’ll make plans with and will support you to help you stick to your new habits.

Those are all five reasons why your new year’s resolutions suck, but let’s flip it around to...the five steps that you need to take to make a New Year’s resolution that will last.

1. Find something you do not view as a chore.
2. Find your why.
3. Make it SMART.
4. Make a plan.
5. Identify your cheerleaders.

If you’d like to work with one of our RDs as your cheerleader, please email scheduling@casespecificnutrition.com to schedule an appointment and begin working on your new goals.