Ahh, the New Year. It’s time to dedicate yourself to losing weight, going to the gym, eating right, drinking green liquid concoctions, you know—the works. New Year’s resolutions haunt you, and you feel obligated to make one that seems reasonable, but you shoot too high and fail come February. There are a million cliché health resolutions that people seem to make and advertisers capitalize on, but if you read on, you won’t fall prey to them.

1. Lose Weight

You know this resolution like the back of your hand, don’t you? January hits along with your guilt for eating all those baked goods. What do you do? You make a resolution to lose your paunch, but it fails. Don’t make a ridiculously insane resolution to lose weight if you’re not committed or want to lose said weight in two days by starving yourself: it won’t work out, and you’ll just slump into a period of blue nihilistic depression. Instead, set a realistic goal to slowly chip at the weight you may have gained over the holiday season, like a pound or two a week. Besides, reducing your caloric intake too drastically will put your body into starvation mode and lower your metabolism, making it nearly impossible to lose weight.

2. Go to the Gym Every Day

Working out, exercising, moving your body, are all great ideas, but life gets in the way most of the time, hindering you from doing them. Making a resolution to work out every day when you haven’t stepped foot in the gym for years is a disappointment waiting to happen. I don’t mean to be Eeyore here, but in all honesty, your grand plans will probably dysfunction at some point during the year. You can shoot for working out every day, but don’t be upset if you miss a day, get sick, or are simply too busy because that’s life.

3. Go on a Diet

You look left and right in January, and you’re uncle, aunt, grandma, and best friend are all on diets. Don’t fall into the diet trap! Don’t get wedged between starvation and binging, absorbed in an endless circle of weight loss attempts. It’s not worth it. You’re a brave soul to try and diet, but they often fail without proper Support and dedication. It’s a cliché anyways to make a commitment in the New Year to diet and lose weight. Just abide by a plant-based diet, and you’re sure to lose undesired weight or be healthier.

4. Only Eat Healthy Foods

This resolution goes along with the previous one. You can’t expect yourself to consume only healthy foods if you just started eating better because you still have the taste of those old foods and you’ll get cravings for said foods. Allow yourself a cheat day. Don’t forbid yourself of certain foods. You’re bound to overindulge or binge and then beat yourself up for it.

5. Go vegan overnight

I applaud your effort to forgo meat for more plants, but you need to understand that quitting cold-turkey is difficult for some people. I did it easy because I never appreciated the taste or thought of eating meat, but my mom is still in the process of consuming less animal products all the way from last year. So, make this your resolution for the New Year, but be realistic about your expectations, and if you slip up, I won’t judge you or call you a bad vegan because I know how it’s like.

6. Run a Marathon

This is not a bad New Year’s resolution to make, but then again, none of these on the list are bad. Optimism gets in the way of everything. Don’t get your hopes up too high because it will end badly. Be true to yourself, are you in good enough shape to run 26 miles? Are you willing to commit to working out to get in shape? If you haven’t run in a couple of years, and you want to run a marathon in May, then you might want to rethink your resolution. A smart idea would be to make running a marathon a goal of yours, something to work towards gradually throughout the year.

7. Drink a Green Juice Every Day

Green juices are great—you get a dose of green goodness in every sip, but they don’t always taste that great, especially when you look at the color of the beverage you are ingesting. Instead of drinking one of these concoctions every day, why not slowly implement them into your routine.

8. Get More Sleep

This is an important cliché resolution. It may seem silly, but seriously, sleep is paramount to your overall well-being. The cells in your body regenerate as you sleep, so depriving them of this time makes them angry like Mr. Potato Head in Toy Story. Don’t spaz out like that spud, and go to sleep early! But, be realistic about it, just like every other resolution on this list; set small goals to get more shut-eye, say twenty minutes more a night and work up to an hour more. Remember, slow and steady wins the race!

9. Be Organized and Less Stressed

So, you want to be more organized and less stressed, well that’s a great plan! It seems cliché because many people try to be less stressed and what not, but they never act on it. If you go along with this cliché, then you’re bound to fail and end up more stressed. It’s like when you organize your cupboard and then you can’t figure out where you put crap—it frustrates you. So, instead of getting all wound up, take advantage of a yoga class and de-stress yourself with shavasana.

10. Remedy or End Toxic Relationships to Remain Sane

You may have a family member or a significant other that always ruffles your tail feathers when you talk to them about stuff, and they stress you out. You need to change this. You make a resolution to change those relationships, but you end out in the same old rut. You only see them during the holiday season, and you get anxious just thinking about the holidays. Instead of making this cliché resolution, like I said, take it easy, and slowly chip at these toxic relationships.

Image Source: Jeff Golden/Flickr