It is about that time of year again, when we do a quick self-assessment of the year about to end and commit to doing a better job of it in the year about to begin: making New Year Resolutions. I am right out there with you! Maintaining a regular pattern of deliberate physical activity has become my Waterloo. But I digress…..

The 3 most popular areas for resolutions are weight loss, general health and physical activity/exercise. One of the main reasons our resolutions start out strong and then fail by mid-February is that we tend to bite off more than we can chew (so to speak). Let’s make it easy(ier) on ourselves and combine 3 into 1: Wellness! After all, none of us really want to use that high-deductible insurance policy. So here are some strategies rather than resolutions for 2015. Feel free to pick, choose or ignore if you come up with something better on your own:

• Aim to reach and maintain a healthier weight. For many of us, losing 10# may not get us to our “ideal” weight but is enough of a drop to improve cholesterol, blood pressure and blood glucose. Prevention is better than any expensive pill.
• Get your stress under control. Learn to meditate or just focus on your breathing several times a day. Guess what? Those stress-related hormones coursing through your body cause your blood pressure AND blood glucose to rise. The same for your weight and cholesterol if you eat to cope with the stress.
• Eliminate “all or nothing” thinking. We are not perfect. We are a work in progress. One slip does not become a relapse unless we let it happen. Get back on track before the negative voice in your head convinces you that you are a failure. Because  you are not a failure, you are simply human.

This year I am going to be accountable to a Fitbit. I’ll let you know how it goes.