4 Easy Ways to Add More Health to Your Life

The New Year is the most popular time for people to begin new health programs.

Everyone wants more health and vitality; and health resolutions come out on top as the most popular resolutions. But the problem with New Year resolutions is they are vague, and quickly abandoned.

In fact, a study by Strava of 800 Million activities revealed that new year resolutions are abandoned by January 19th. They call it “Quitters day.”

I was shocked to read that. Most are abandoned before three weeks are up. I always thought it was Super Bowl Sunday; when people would gather, party, eat too many wings, seven layer dips, and huge quantities of guacamole, washed down by beer and booze, only to wake up late and sluggish the following Monday and say, “Eff-it!”

But a year is long; and strategies are many. If there’s anything I learned in 2020, is that if you truly want something in your life (like more health or fitness) you must prioritize it, schedule it and make it happen.
If tidy-ness or aesthetics need to go by the way side for a few weeks, so be it.

Most resolutions or goals are general and vague; as these examples:

I want to get healthier.
I want to lose weight.
I want to eat healthier.
I want to improve my finances.

To make those goals better, get specific about how you want to improve those areas.
I want to lower my blood pressure by XX points.
I want to lower my body-fat percentage from 25% to 15% losing 20 pounds of fat.
I want to incorporate more organic produce in my diet, and drink a green smoothie every day.
I want to build my emergency reserve to $15,000.

Here follow 4 easy ways to add more health to your life in 2021.

Make it easy
Say your goal is health related. You want to get stronger, or leaner.
An easy goal will be to do two pushups or pull ups. Or, you want to incorporate a short walk after dinner each night. By easy I’m talking the minimum amount of work and effort.

Make it visible
Again with the health goal, keep your exercise mat handy (maybe even unrolled. For pull ups, I keep my bar hung over a door in the hallway.

Add enthusiastic celebration
Believe it or not, we are wired for celebration. You’ve probably heard of dopamine, the “feel good” neurotransmitter. The brain releases it when we have sex, hug, eat the chocolate we’ve been craving, and yes, even when we see notifications in our phone apps. But we also release dopamine when we celebrate a win. We might get a tiny bump of dopamine when we check off a box from our to-do list; and a bigger one if we sink a hole-in-one on the par three 4th hole.

Any victory, whether a win for the day like recording all your nutrition in a fitness tracker, or a big moment in life like closing a big deal, deserves more than a high five. Work celebration into all victories, big and small. Encourage and celebrate yourself like you would a small child learning to walk. It sounds silly, but silly is fun, and fun is

Calendar it
Know when you’re going to do your activities. In my pull up example, I started by doing a single pull up every time I leave the bathroom. It doesn’t sound like much, but the first week I did this, I did 6-8 pull ups a day. (I drink a lot of water.)

The next week I made it two pull ups after each bathroom visit. Then three, then four. It quickly builds up to a nice number!

For walking, you might schedule walks during your lunch hour, or, evening walks with your family after dinner.