Page 21 - Atlantic Coast Lines - February 2019

When it comes to our Health and Wellbeing

Are New Year’s Resolutions really the answer?

Michelle Gascoine
Health & Wellbeing Coach
Kick Start Wellbeing Devon & Cornwall
X-Pert Trained Educator -NDPP (National Diabetes Prevention Programme)

So, February is under way, how many of your New How many of you made New Year’s resolutions to:-
Year’s Resolutions have you kept to?
Eat more chocolate Drink more alcohol
Gym membership Do less or no exercise Get more stressed
The new wonder diet
Lose 2 stone by Easter But in reality, isn’t this exactly what you have done?
The daily exercise routine
Meditating everyday Journaling Be honest, look back on January with its cold damp
Stopping smoking Dry January weather, short on money, the black cloud of Brex-
it looming over the country has it really been con-
ducive to making changes to your lifestyle or has
Does the fact that you have kept to one or all or just it been a daily battle to get out of bed and put one
a few mean that you have now made a choice to make foot in front of another never mind keeping to those
long term realistic changes to your lifestyle to improve New Year’s Resolutions.
your Health & Wellbeing – or is it that you are being
sponsored or you slapped it all over social media and If you are one of the 20% of the population that has
don’t want to appear to have given up – or, to use that kept to their New Year’s Resolutions well done you,
horrible word “failed”? now please leave the rest of us to beat ourselves up
because we have not and wallow in self-pity!
Let’s consider the dictionary definitions of:
Resolution The point I am trying to make is not that we should
– a firm decision to do or not to do something. do nothing and continue on our path to self-destruc-
Choose tion regarding our Health and Wellbeing but that
– to decide on a course of action. we should make those necessary lifestyle changes in
a different more positive manner. In a manner over
Not all that dissimilar in their fundamental mean- which we have the control not dictated to by others
ing and yet miles apart in the emotional responses or fashion. We should choose to make changes and
they can trigger. resolve to keep to them.

Feelings of Success or Failure The first step in making successful, long term and
Tendency to punish or reward realistic changes to our lifestyle to improve our
Thoughts of Good or Bad Health and Wellbeing is to ask ourselves the ques-
tion
Between Christmas and New Year social, printed and
broadcast media, was full of adverts and posts en- What is our biggest Health Concern?
couraging you to make this or that your New Year’s What is our WHY?
Resolution – full of New Year New You, so on New
Year’s Eve when the clock struck midnight and you an- It is this WHY that will help us to identify our Health
nounced to the world your resolutions is it because you Values which are our compass that will support us in
really want to make changes to your Lifestyle that will reaching our destination i.e. achieving our goals.
improve your Health & Wellbeing or is it because you
felt pressurised to set resolutions that have a feel good Michelle Gascoine
factor to them? Health & Wellbeing Coach