8fitters Share Their New Year's Resolutions
It’s January, which means people are starting to jot down their New Year’s resolutions––if they haven’t already. At 8fit, we don’t necessarily believe you need to orient your lifestyle changes around the calendar. If you find yourself in June wanting to change up your eating habits or your exercise routine, there’s no reason you shouldn’t start making some changes if that’s when you’re ready.
That said, New Year’s resolutions work for some people. If you’re one of those people, then this is your time of year.
With that in mind, we asked some of our 8fitters on Instagram to share what their New Year’s resolutions for 2020 are. Here’s what you shared with us.
Eat healthier
This is a pretty common New Year’s resolution. And the fact that it keeps coming up, again and again, isn’t surprising, because it’s an ongoing struggle for just about everyone.
If you need help with eating healthier, we’re going to be biased and suggest downloading the 8fit app where you have access to healthy recipes and meal planning. But while you’re downloading and getting ready to sign up, you can take a peek at our story on how to eat healthy while on vacation.
You’ll never see us advocating against indulging while on vacation, but we also know from personal experience that sometimes we indulge a bit too much and could’ve just as easily said ‘no’ to that last drink or piece of pie after a filling dinner. Avoid an “all or nothing” mentality and try practicing mindful eating by packing some snacks for your trip and visiting the local grocery store while traveling.
For the rest of your everyday life, check out the 8fit app.
Spirituality
Spirituality can mean so many different things for different people. It’s a very personal thing, so we’re not going to dissect what a spiritual practice might mean for you. Rather, we’re going to acknowledge that this is something 8fitters want to develop and focus on over the year.
If this sounds like you, a great first step would be to give yoga a try. Yoga is an ancient path to spiritual growth as well as a great form of exercise that can improve all aspects of your wellbeing. Sound like something you want to try? Here’s how to start yoga and some different types of yoga you can explore.
Be persistent
Persistence is a big one for New Year’s resolutions. Some studies show that a quarter of people give up their New Year’s resolution within one week. Only 1 in 10 will stick to their resolutions until the end of the year. Such a revelation makes sticking to your resolution seem like a resolution in and of itself!
So how long does it take to develop new habits? Traditionally, people have believed it takes 21 days to develop a new habit but that number can vary wildly depending on the person and the goal. If you need some help getting started, here’s a challenge we launched last year to help 8fitters develop healthy habits.
Learn
Society tends to teach us that learning stops when you graduate. From then on, you need to focus on your work. If you do learn something new, it should apply directly to your work.
Unfortunately, there’s little incentive in 21st-century society to learning for the sake of learning but there are actually a lot of benefits associated with learning, regardless of whether or not it applies directly to your career. For starters, learning can optimize your brain chemistry for performing new tasks, it can help stave off dementia, and learning itself helps you learn faster.
If learning is one of your resolutions, start by devoting at least 15 minutes a day to the topic. Set a daily reminder on your phone and try to find other people interested in the same topic so you have an avenue to express what you’ve been learning.
Be more mindful
Practicing mindfulness––the focused act of being present––can help you in just about every aspect of your life. Mindfulness exercises can help lower stress, anxiety, pain, depression, insomnia, and high blood pressure. Mindful eating can help you pay better attention to what you’re putting in your body. Asking yourself if you're really hungry when you instinctively reach for food or journaling what you're eating and tying that to an emotional state can help you spot behavioral patterns.
If this is something you want to work on this year, try eating without distractions for starters. Another tip is to put your fork down for about 20 minutes in the middle of a meal to give your body a chance to register whether or not it’s full. You can also just trying to say no if someone offers you something––like a slice of cake at an office birthday party––if you're not hungry.
Lose weight while eating pizza
This might be our favorite resolution. Some schools of thought would have you eliminate all things that bring you joy in the name of health and fitness. At 8fit, we believe in progress over perfection. One way of interpreting that is losing weight (if that’s your goal) while still eating pizza.
You might think that pizza is inherently unhealthy, but that just depends on what kind of pizza you’re eating. Have you tried our watermelon fruit pizza? Or if you’re looking to keep it closer to a traditional pizza, we’ve got a gluten-free, low-carb pizza that takes only about 30 minutes to make.
The point is, you can definitely achieve your goals this year without giving up something as essential to one’s life as pizza.
