Do people set up realistic goals?

Many people set new life goals and ‘great visions’ when a new year is starting. It’s of course good to try to become a better person in different ways, to live healthier and improve one’s habits, but are people really following their own goal settings? Does it work to make a change that is drastic… like for example being completely sugar-free for 3 months?

Don’t get me wrong, I do believe it sounds healthy being sugar-free for 3 months. But is it a wise choice? Will this person be healthy in a holistic sense, even if being sugar-free?

Think about it, if a person is craving for sugar, it’s very likely that this person will increase his/hers intake of ‘normal food’ instead. Often, this can be food containing a lot of caffeine, fast carbs (carbohydrates), meat, dairy products, processed food and products containing additives. On top of this, if the person is a smoker, it wouldn’t be surprising if the smoking would increase a lot while following the rule of not eating sugar. In other words, would you call this a healthy living? Hmm… I doubt it.

So, what is my suggestion if someone is aiming to be sugar-free?

I believe it would make sense to avoid refined sugar, fast carbs and processed food (=contains a lot of hidden sugar). We need to think about what a product contains and what happens to our bodies when eating chemically / un-naturally produced products. For example, getting calories, carbohydrates or sugar into our body from a banana will not affect us in the same way as getting an equal amount of calories from candy.

Within the raw-food lifestyle (as an example) there is plenty of delicious snacks and desserts, often made of products like fruits, nuts and berries. Sometimes the calorie intake might be pretty high, however, it does not always affect our bodies in a negative way. We get to eat raw food containing important enzymes that are crucial for the cell functions and we get energy based on natural products. This is a good way to balance our blood sugar dips and when getting used to raw food snacks, you’ll be craving for these products instead of the unhealthy ones. Our bodies will thank us in the long run!

Balance is the key

I believe that having a balanced lifestyle where you find ways to ‘escape’ eating toxic products is a golden key for living healthy. It’s often mentioned that having some kind of “80-20% rule” on life is a wise decision. What do I mean by this? Let me explain. Each week contains 7 days, right? Now, I try to follow my healthy life habits each day, but allowing myself to have some exceptions 1-2 days a week. On the 5 days that I am committed to my own routines, I try to do some kind of exercise each day, I choose and prepare my own meals and snacks, I make sure they are filled with nutritious, clean and raw food. I prioritize to have enough ‘me-time’ so that I can cope with my occupation, my relationships and my surroundings during the day. During holidays like Christmas, it might be more of a 70-30% (maybe even 60-40%?) rule with more “cheating days”, but that’s okay. It makes me motivated to keep on working towards healthy living.

During those (often 2 days) that I allow myself to live more chill, I am still aiming for eating healthy and staying in shape, however, I might allow myself to eat a burger or drink some red wine with my friends. Maybe it’s beer tasting at a new bar? Maybe it’s a 5-course dinner at a fancy restaurant? You get what I mean? I do not believe in being too hard on ourselves for too long. We need to find a BALANCE in our daily lifestyle, so that we have the motivation and energy to keep living an overall healthy life. We need to learn how to listen to our inner voice and what truly makes us feel good in life.

What’s a realistic New Year’s Resolution?

In my opinion, a healthy resolution for the new year would be to prioritize small steps in your daily life that can lead to big results. For example, going old school and using a calendar or diary and write down 3 things to be thankful for each day. To set up weekly goals in your calendar/diary with improvements like being more kind to yourself and others, giving compliments to others, go for walks in the nature more often per week, or make sure to eat veggies twice a day. It can be things like visiting your grandmother more often this year, calling an old friend saying thank you for something you never thanked for but that has been in your mind for a long time… It can be to promise yourself to learn new things and become more educated than before, by joining a course or program. To analyze yourself and what you are truly interested in.

To sum it all up, it’s better to set up goals and visions on a regular basis along the whole year, than to set one big goal that might be hard to follow and ironically end up leading to an unhealthy living. Why risk to disappoint ourselves? Continuously working towards an improved lifestyle with better daily choices and habits is the key for long-lasting results, if you ask me!