New Years Weight Loss Resolutions for WOMEN only
By Tammy Nelson. Posted on .
You may be making a list of all of your resolutions for 2011. However, if you are like most women, they may not stick. Although women make New Year’s resolutions twice as often as men, less than one half follow through more than thirty days. And most of these women will not stick to their resolution past Valentine’s Day. The reason may be the “way” that women make resolutions.
Women can learn from the way that men set goals for the New Year. Men choose a mission, then focus on the smaller ways to get the job done. Usually the mission is practical and reality driven. This, of course, does not mean they will necessarily accomplish thier goals, but there is a higher likelihood that they will come closer to their 2011 desires if they choose smaller and more manageable directives. .
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For example, the most common resolution that women make for the New Year is “to lose weight.” And yet most women will give up their goal by mid-february. Most likely their goals are too vague or are unrealistic given their current lifestyle.
Weight loss programs and health clubs do their highest level of business in the month of January. By March more than two thirds of the new comers will be gone. What does this say about those women trying to start a new exercise or diet routine? It means most of those New Year’s resolutions to lose weight are not working.
One way to really stick to a goal for 2011 is to create a vision in the same way that men create their visions. Men are mission driven. This means that they create a goal directing them concretely to where they want to end up.
Women primarily make emotional decisions when it comes to new goals. "I feel fat and therefore I feel bad" drives the decision to lose weight in the New Year. But emotionally driven resolutions are short lived. Strong emotions do not always create change. Feelings act a release valve for tension. Once the tension is relieved, the goal falls by the wayside. Resolutions can serve as a way to release frustration and expel guilt. The temporary relief of setting a resolution to “lose weight” lets a woman relax knowing she is intending to change her diet in the near future. This creates a feeling of relief, which then, in the female mind, gives the illusion that the goal is already accomplished. There is no further emotional fuel to drive the mission.
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In order for a mission to succeed it has to contain small and manageable steps that can lead to ongoing change. For example, joining a gym and attending daily exercise classes is a lofty goal if you have never exercised. But adding one or two days a week of walking around your neighborhood for at least twenty minutes will help increase cardio-vascular health and promote healthy weight loss.
If you are a woman with a resolution, make your strategy like a man sets his goals. Think reasonable and set goals that are attainable. For instance, think of a resolution as a mission toward health and well being and not necessarily to "feel thin."
