Healthy Behaviors for Physical, Mental, and Emotional Health

Physical Health, Part One

Part of having a healthy body isn't even physical. To have a healthy body, you need to have reasonable expectations. New Year's Resolution's is a common way many people set expectations, but Google claims that only 8% of people actually complete their resolutions. There's two common reasons for an unreasonable resolution. One, it's too big, or two, it's too vague.

Let's start out with an example of a revolution that's unreasonably vague.. Sarah hasn't been focusing on her exercise schedule for a few weeks, and wants to get back into exercising. Her New Year's Resolution sounds like this: "Get more exercise." Here's the problem with that. That's to vague to follow.

There are quite a few different meanings of that, such as, "Begin a new sport!" or "Go to the gym more often!" or even, "Watch more exercise videos!" Uh-uh. Sarah doesn't like going to the gym, she gets annoyed by the exercise videos, and already has a sport she's taking, soccer. A reasonable expectation might sound like this: "Find classes for soccer that don't conflict with my schedule."

See? That's much more specific and so much easier to follow. Let's look at an example of an unreasonable big resolution. Jeremy hasn't been focusing on his diet for about a month, and realizes he's eating too much sugar. His resolution sounds something like this: "Don't eat any sugar."

Now, this might technically be "healthy", but it's unreasonable because, let's be real here. Do you actually think it's possible to never eat sugar again? Easy answer: it's not! Just two weeks after writing this, he eats a cookie, and feels like a failure. There are two problems with this situation.

First, Jeremy's expectations were impossible, and therefore he shouldn't try to live up to them. Second, you're not going to be perfect 24/7, 365. It's a matter of taking a break, and being prepard to continue. It shouldn't make you feel bad about yourself. Now, a reasonable expection would be similar to this: "I will eat less sugar." This is easier to follow because Jeremy now has lost weight, yet can still enjoy sugar without feeling guilty.