Ciao Wellness Friend,
I hope this e-mail finds you safe and well.
Today is January 1st, 2024! Can you believe it? We made it through another year. Whether 2023 was great, full of challenges, or both, we are the lucky ones that got to ring in 2024. That's enough to celebrate!
The beginning of a New Year usually brings with it a long list of resolutions that we promise and re-promise to fulfill, only to give up our good intentions three weeks in.
Take exercising for example. As a regularly going member of a gym in my neighborhood, while living in the US, I saw the gym crowded the first three weeks of the year only to drop down to "normal" levels before February even arrived. Sticking with new habits is hard! We all have those areas in our life that provide more of a challenge than others.
I love New Year's Resolutions, just ask my siblings! We always gather around, whether in person or online, and share our endless lists.
Mine always includes exercising 5-6 days/week and learning French.
In reality, I work out 3-4 days/week and only in 2023 did I start learning French again! I hired a tutor half of the year!
Anyway, this is not a note to say all resolutions are futile and useless, although research suggest they're ineffective. Honestly, I still love them and enjoy creating them! However, there are other habit building modalities that can help us enact change, improve our eating habits, etc.
In previous newsletters I've talked about Habit Stacking - check out Atomic Habits and The Slight Edge books. One modality of change that I love is accountability! A challenge with an accountability group is more like to be met. As humans, we love connection and with accountability accomplishing a goal is more enjoyable too.
