New Year’s Resolution Success

Mastering New Year’s Goals

Setting goals at the start of the year is a common practice, but maintaining the commitment to these resolutions is often challenging. Research indicates that only 8% of individuals successfully stick to their New Year’s resolutions. If you’re determined to achieve your goals, here are proven tricks to help you stay on track.

1. Eat More Veggies: Read a Magazine
   • Research from Brazil suggests that regularly reading encouraging articles about health and nutrition can increase vegetable consumption by up to 70% each week. These articles stimulate the brain’s self-control center, encouraging healthier food choices.
2. Lose Weight: Bet on Yourself
   • Create a diet pool with friends and reward yourself with “fun money” for meeting weight loss milestones. Mayo Clinic found that women in a diet pool were twice as likely to stick to a diet and lost four times more weight.
3. Worry Less: Try ‘Balloon Breathing‘
   • Practice ‘balloon breathing’ by taking slow, deep belly breaths (about 4 per minute). This technique stimulates the vagus nerve, sending calming signals to the brain. Inhale, feeling your belly expand like a balloon, and exhale as it slowly falls. Practice for 3 minutes, twice daily.
4. Quit Smoking: Inhale Black Pepper Scent
   • Sniffing black pepper can help curb smoking cravings. Turkish researchers suggest that three slow, deep sniffs of black pepper can calm the craving center in the brain within 60 seconds, providing relief for up to an hour. Consider using black pepper essential oil for an on-the-go option.
5. Get More Sleep: Bedtime Sip
   • Drinking 6 oz. of pineapple juice in the evening can increase blood levels of sleep-inducing melatonin by 266%. Pineapple is rich in easily absorbed melatonin. Additionally, a warm bath 90 minutes before bedtime can help you fall asleep faster.

Incorporating these tricks into your routine can enhance your chances of successfully achieving your New Year’s resolutions.

_{Repurposed article originally published in First for Women}