New Year's resolutions you'll actually keep.

Hands up if you’ve ever kept a New Year’s resolution?

If your hand is up – I salute you. Every year, I make a New Year’s resolution and every year, I promptly forget about it completely by the 3rd of January. I can’t even remember what I promised myself last year but I imagine it was probably something to do with eating more vegetables. Boring.

The problem is that so many of us decide on resolutions that are either incredibly vague or far too idealistic, without a view of how said resolution may come about.

Any of these sound familiar? “I will lose weight. I will eat better. I will be happier. I will relax more. I will sleep more.”

And then life gears up and returns to frantic mode. We slip out of our holidays and revert to our old habits of eating badly and skipping the gym and bailing on friends to watch back-to-back episodes of Gilmore Girls (even though we’ve seen all the seasons about six times each). And we beat ourselves up about not keeping those resolutions that we looked upon so idealistically on the 1st of January.

So here are a couple of things to remember:

1) Nobody is perfect.

Literally no-one. I am the health and fitness editor and yet I am writing this while sitting on my bed at 1:30am, eating my way through a packet of Maltesers. Recognise that you should not aim for complete perfection and don’t beat yourself up if you don’t reach those goals. But if you don’t reach them – also don’t give up. It’s way too easy to throw things away and much harder to actually continue along – but you’ll be so proud of yourself if you do.

2) Specific goals work better than vague goals.

Come up with just ONE thing you’d like to achieve. Or maybe just ONE thing you’d like to start doing. Figure out exactly how you’re going to do said thing. Work out any complications that might arise, and do your best to resolve them before-the-fact.

3) Start with the small. Build up to the big.

Nobody ever woke up one day and became a clean-eating, fitness powerhouse that succeeded across all facets of life. Start with the small things and, once you achieve those goals, build up to bigger goals. Before long, you’ll be living in disbelief of what you’ve finally managed to achieve.

And with that – here are some simple resolutions to inspire you…

– I will eat a piece of fruit each day

– I will buy a 1L water bottle and aim to get through it by the end of my work day

– I will make one new healthy snack per week

– I will start a Pinterest board for fitspiration and healthy eating ideas

– I will give someone a compliment every day

– I will sign up for one fun run this year

– I will read one new book every month

– I will take my vitamins every night

– I will sign up to a weekly yoga class

– I will have at least one alcohol-free night per week

– I will call a different friend every week, “just because”

– I will no longer buy my coffees, I will make them at home

– I will buy and wear a moisturiser with sunscreen in it

– I will try one new sport/fitness class every month

– I will travel to one new place this year

And my favourite resolution of all?

– I will simply do my best.

What’s your new year’s resolution this year?