By Stamford Health Clinical Nutrition Staff

Happy New Year! The start of a New Year has long been associated with making New Year’s resolutions. Resolutions often include “eat healthier”, “exercise more”, and other vague, generic ways to improve our health in the coming months. The challenge with these resolutions is that they’re hard to stick to.

Why? We often set lofty, broad goals for ourselves with no clear-cut way to achieve them. We may tell ourselves we’ll become gym regulars, but how will that happen? Here are some tips on how to work towards your goals.

Start by setting SMART goals for yourself

Specific – write down exactly what you want to achieve
Measurable – if you don’t have a way to measure your progress, how do you know if you are achieving your goals?
Attainable – keep goals realistic
Relevant – set goals that are specific to you and areas that you want to work on

For example, instead of setting a resolution to “eat healthier”, write down a goal of “this month I will include 2 more servings of leafy greens into my meal plan each week”.
Monitor your resolution, whether it is writing it down each time you eat a serving of leafy greens or crossing off a to-do list.
Hold yourself accountable. Tell people about your goal. You’ll be more likely to stick to it if you know there’s somebody checking in on you.
Find a friend – you’ll have more fun if you can bounce ideas off of somebody or plan a walk together.
Check out the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics’ website, EatRight.org, for more helpful tips!