Tips to Help your New Year’s Resolutions Stick in 2025

The New Year has begun! Have you made any health goals for 2025 yet?

There is no better investment than one made in improving your health, so here are some tips to help you achieve those worthwhile goals you’ve set.

1. If you want to change a bad habit:
   1. Tell someone you’re making a change. They can help keep you accountable and be a source of support while you are in the process of making the change.
   2. Surround yourself with supportive people. Support often makes all the difference in achieving a goal. We all know of people who “peer pressure” us into making wrong choices, so now is a good time to avoid those folks!
   3. Change your routine. Let’s say you want to stop smoking, but you frequently hang out with co-workers who smoke on their work breaks. Try doing something different on your breaks – going for an indoor walk around the building, getting a cup of coffee, etc.
2. If you want to exercise:
   1. Schedule time on your calendar to exercise. Just like you schedule your doctor and hair appointments, schedule time to exercise so that you will keep that time free.
   2. Set small achievable goals. If you don’t exercise at all right now, it’s not reasonable (or safe!) to set a goal of exercising 5 times per week starting next week. Perhaps your first goal could be to take a walk once a week. If you’ve been consistent after a month, then consider setting a new goal of adding a 2nd day of exercise per week by doing an exercise video on YouTube.
3. If you want to change your diet:
   1. Plan ahead. This is the single biggest tip I give to my patients. You don’t even have to chop up your veggies ahead of time! Sit down once a week and think about what your scheduling for the upcoming week looks like. What days are you going to cook at home? What days are you likely to need to get a meal on-the-go? What are you going to make and take for lunch? What can you grab for breakfast that doesn’t take too much time to prepare? Go to the grocery store and buy what you need for the week.
   2. A meal does not need to involve cooking. A cup of yogurt in the morning could be all you need. A salad for lunch usually involves no cooking.
4. If you want to lose weight:
   1. See #2 and #3 above!
   2. Don’t forget about your mental health. Are you not enjoying life as much? Are you feeling worried about things out of your control? Just not feeling like yourself? These are good reasons to make an appointment with your primary care doctor.
   3. Focus on what you can control and forget about what you can’t. Elements of diet, exercise, sleep and mental health are controllable, so focus on those, instead of the pounds on the scale!
5. Overall Tips:
   1. Don’t be too hard on yourself. It is normal to have a few stops and starts along the way. For instance, if you start drinking again after stopping for a while, just set another quit date and try it again!
   2. Visit your primary care doctor! It’s no big surprise that I recommend this since I am a family physician, but there are additional tips, and even medicines that can be prescribed to help you stop smoking, quit drinking, lose weight, etc. It’s hard to know if these medicines are right for you based on TikTok reviews or TV commercials. That’s why you should talk to someone who knows your health history well, like your doctor.

If you are in the Columbia, SC area and in need of a new primary care physician, Noreta Family Medicine is accepting new patients! We are a Direct Primary Care (DPC) office. We focus on spending more time with you at your visits, allowing easy ways to communicate with us, like a HIPAA-compliant text messaging app, and transparency in pricing (we charge a monthly fee to our patients). Feel free to call us for more information: 803-667-4190 or visit our website to see how it works: NoretaFamilyMed.com.