5 January 2015

New year, new you?

| Lisa Martin
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New Year’s resolutions. Many of us make them year after year, and some stick, and others don’t last past January. Research has found there’s around an 88 per cent failure rate of seeing resolutions through.

Maybe you want to get fit, quit smoking, learn a language or how to cook, pay off your credit card, eat less chocolate or call your mum more.

Most years, my goal is simply to get and stay fit but I rarely think about how I’m going to achieve that aside from saying I’ll go to the gym more regularly. I never quantify it or set any goals – obviously setting myself up for failure.

Reading up on how to keep your new year’s resolutions, most sites recommend keeping them realistic and with manageable outcomes; writing down your resolutions; and telling friends what you hope to achieve so they can help motivate you. But apparently it also takes more than two months to form a new habit so don’t expect fast results.

Writing down a resolution is solid advice – it’s satisfying ticking something off your list – and it makes sense that keeping goals realistic and outcome driven will help you achieve them. I also like the idea of breaking goals into ‘chunks’. For example, getting fit is a big but vague goal. Breaking it into chunks such as going to the gym for an hour at least three times a week or running 5km in less than 30 minutes is a lot more achievable and you’ll be able to clearly see your progress as you go.

So here goes – my new year’s resolutions are to aim to go to the gym for an hour at least four days a week and try to do a fitness activity such as hiking or a walk around the lake each weekend. And I’ll aim to call my mum at least once a fortnight, and complete a minimum of one professional development course this year.

Being realistic, I know that eating less chocolate is not going to happen – you have to have some pleasures in life and hopefully I’ll work some of it off with those gym sessions!

Why not ask your friends to join you in your New Year’s resolutions? Join a bootcamp together or go to night school to learn Italian. I know that if someone is waiting for me to come to bootcamp it’s a great motivator to get me out of bed at 6am.

If you need inspiration, a quick Google search revealed that there’s plenty of bootcamps spread across the ACT, so take your pick. ParkRun – a timed 5km run at Tuggeranong and Lake Ginninderra is also a good motivator. It’s a free event held every Saturday at 8am. Get together some friends and aim to beat your time each week.

If you want to learn to cook, there are classes ranging from one day sessions at the Fyshwick markets teaching you how to cook meals from a specific cuisine, to classes spanning several weeks. Language classes are also aplenty across Canberra in languages such as German, French and Italian.

While you’re planning next year’s goals, remember to take some time to reflect on 2014. You might surprise yourself on what you’ve achieved, revel in the adventures you’ve had or new friends you’ve made, or it might help motivate you towards your next goal if you didn’t quite achieve what you set out to do.

Happy New Year!

What are your New Year’s resolutions or tips to keeping motivated to achieve your goals?

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I’ve never been much for resolutions of any kind, let alone New Year’s ones, but I’d hazard a guess one of the reasons they are so universally unsuccessful is that by the time you realise you haven’t achieved your goals, the tendency is to go ‘well, I’ve failed this year…I’ll just wait and make a new New Year’s resolution next year.”

I reckon if you have a goal just set about achieving it, the timeframe should be irrelevant.

smartsafetygirl said :

I am also planning to get fit and lose weight. I am finding mindfulness is very helpful in weight loss..anyone tried it?
got this from the website:- Mindful eating is eating in a supportive manner, using our bodies’ cues to guide us in when, what and how much to eat for satisfaction and well-being. It includes all kinds of foods that make us feel well, but that can vary from time to time as well as from person to person. For example, a hot fudge sundae may be a better choice than an apple sometimes, although some of us may not like hot fudge sundaes so we never eat them.
Mindful eating is about:

a peaceful eating relationship with food according to your body’s needs
eating to support your body’s natural healthy state
balance, choice, wisdom, and acceptance
eating consciously in a way to make our bodies feel well
being aware of our surroundings, mind, body, and spirit
being “in the moment”

Mindful eating is NOT about:

dieting
measuring or weighing food
restricting or avoiding foods
counting fat grams or calories
worrying about body size or “ideal” weigh

Anyone tried it?

As long as this website doesn’t cost/ask for any money and it helps you, fine.
I find the best way to lose weight is to go on holidays. I always lose weight. It’s being more active, food costing more when away from home, because it usually has to be bought prepared, rather than be picked from the vegetable garden, or even just cooked by yourself, so I don’t overindulge. My most recent trip was six weeks to the USA. I came back slimmer (I don’t own scales, so judge weight lose by my shape rather than weight). The food was commonly so awful (greasy) that it had no appeal to me at all, and so I didn’t snack. Have a nice holiday and lose weight.

smartsafetygirl12:13 am 05 Jan 15

I am also planning to get fit and lose weight. I am finding mindfulness is very helpful in weight loss..anyone tried it?
got this from the website:- Mindful eating is eating in a supportive manner, using our bodies’ cues to guide us in when, what and how much to eat for satisfaction and well-being. It includes all kinds of foods that make us feel well, but that can vary from time to time as well as from person to person. For example, a hot fudge sundae may be a better choice than an apple sometimes, although some of us may not like hot fudge sundaes so we never eat them.
Mindful eating is about:

a peaceful eating relationship with food according to your body’s needs
eating to support your body’s natural healthy state
balance, choice, wisdom, and acceptance
eating consciously in a way to make our bodies feel well
being aware of our surroundings, mind, body, and spirit
being “in the moment”

Mindful eating is NOT about:

dieting
measuring or weighing food
restricting or avoiding foods
counting fat grams or calories
worrying about body size or “ideal” weigh

Anyone tried it?

wildturkeycanoe7:38 am 04 Jan 15

dkNigs said :

wildturkeycanoe said :

This year I am going to watch the fireworks from somewhere other than the rooftop of the Canberra Center. In the dimly lit, twisted route to the roof there was no indication of the extra cost to get up there. Expecting to only have to pay $2 max as per the entry signage, I was shocked to see the machine demand $11 for an 18 minute stay. Thankfully the attendant on the phone had a generous new year’s spirit and allowed us to exit without foregoing a family meal’s worth of funds. Better signage and lighting would have prevented this confusion and I also must say they need to fix their broken ticket machines too.
Apart from that I am not making any resolutions as there is really very little I can change that would make any improvement to my life.

Rooftop is all day parking. Great rate for all day, terrible for 18 minutes. The signage is fine, there is even another boomgate before you get up there which most would notice.

For someone who has never been to the rooftop, let alone in the car park at all, there is not much signage to be seen and not easy to see after dark. I wondered what the second boom gate was for, thinking it was to let only office workers with special permits up there. There was nothing on the second boom gate to suggest that parking was any different to the rest of the building. Had there been, I would have spent the next 5 minutes reversing back down and around the ramps. If there are signs, they aren’t exactly “in your face” and probably designed to catch people like me unawares, raking in profit from unsuspecting shoppers.

wildturkeycanoe said :

This year I am going to watch the fireworks from somewhere other than the rooftop of the Canberra Center. In the dimly lit, twisted route to the roof there was no indication of the extra cost to get up there. Expecting to only have to pay $2 max as per the entry signage, I was shocked to see the machine demand $11 for an 18 minute stay. Thankfully the attendant on the phone had a generous new year’s spirit and allowed us to exit without foregoing a family meal’s worth of funds. Better signage and lighting would have prevented this confusion and I also must say they need to fix their broken ticket machines too.
Apart from that I am not making any resolutions as there is really very little I can change that would make any improvement to my life.

Rooftop is all day parking. Great rate for all day, terrible for 18 minutes. The signage is fine, there is even another boomgate before you get up there which most would notice.

Oh. I see you consulted Wikipedia. m ‘k.

“Research has found there’s around an 88 per cent failure rate of seeing resolutions through.”
What research was that?

The view from the lake by the kiosk wasn’t bad a few years back, Also, convenient free car parks.

wildturkeycanoe10:40 am 01 Jan 15

This year I am going to watch the fireworks from somewhere other than the rooftop of the Canberra Center. In the dimly lit, twisted route to the roof there was no indication of the extra cost to get up there. Expecting to only have to pay $2 max as per the entry signage, I was shocked to see the machine demand $11 for an 18 minute stay. Thankfully the attendant on the phone had a generous new year’s spirit and allowed us to exit without foregoing a family meal’s worth of funds. Better signage and lighting would have prevented this confusion and I also must say they need to fix their broken ticket machines too.
Apart from that I am not making any resolutions as there is really very little I can change that would make any improvement to my life.

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