We’ve rated and ranked the TOP 5 best 2023 wellness resolutions for the New Year.

Although we think wellness should be a year round thing, it’s easy to get distracted, busy with life, and fall out of routine. The New Year is the perfect time to reflect on the last year and come up with some health and wellness goals. Then you can put into place a plan to help you actually accomplish those goals. 

 

Now, maybe you’re thinking, “I make resolutions every year but never stick to them”, and trust me, you’re not alone.

Keeping resolutions can be tough. The New Year is a great start time but also tends to have it downfalls. To start, it is a busy time of year, it’s cold and dark in many regions, and work schedules can pick up right after the holidays. I believe that the key to success is to not make your resolution a goal, but instead make it your “why”.

What it means to have a “why”:

What I mean by making your resolution be a why instead of a goal is this. If you want to lose weight then you should think about all the individual reasons you want to lose weight and combine them into sort of a mission statement. This brings emotion into the equation and can put a little more passion behind your goal.

A simple and classic example of this would be a new grandparent realizes that they’re too out of shape to play with their grandchild. They find themselves unable to keep up and struggle taking the grandchild for weekends. They decide they want to lose 50 extra pound of weight and start going to the gym 3-4x/week to build muscle. That in itself can be a tough resolution, but they can find motivation in rephrasing why they want to do this. 

How to phrase your New Year’s resolution for success:

The grandparent should decide they are not making this resolution for themselves. They are instead making it about their grandchild and this is an effective way to motivate themselves. Their resolution will be more effective when they reword it – “Becoming more physically fit by going to the gym (at least 3x a week) and working with a nutrition coach (to lose 50 pounds) in order to spend more high quality time with their grandchild”.  

Adding in others that you care about, along with a why to your resolution will help. You’re more likely to go to the gym when it’s cold and dark instead of just saying “f*ck it, I’m fine being like this”. You now have a meaningful reason to continue on with your resolution. 

No matter how much your granddaughter or brother or mother wants you to better yourself, the decision has to come from you. And it’s never too early or too late to start. 

Okay, back to our 2023 resolutions for wellness…

As someone who considers herself slightly *obsessed* with health and wellness, here are my top 5 recommendations for health and wellness resolutions for 2023!

5. Keep a Gratitude Journal 

One of the best exercises to increase happiness is by keeping a gratitude journal. If you are able to write down 3 things a day that you feel grateful for  then you can reprogram our brain to look for the positive in your life over the negative. This is important because our brains are actually designed to focus on negatives instead of positives in our lives. It’s a survival instinct that was once really helpful, but now doesn’t serve as much of a purpose.

Our brains look for the negative and we have to retrain them!

Our jobs require us to focus on the negative. For example, an accountant is trained to read through numbers and pick out things that are wrong in order to correct mistakes. An accountant’s brain is quite literally programmed all day to look for errors. When this happens constantly, suddenly that accountant can only find the things that are wrong in his life like with his home, wife, appearance, etc. 

Starting a gratitude journal is a great way to look for the good in your life. Writing them down is a little bonus that solidifies it in your brain. Plus, if you have your thoughts in a little book or notes section on what you’re grateful for you can look back on it!

4. Keep an Organized Kitchen

A well organized and clean kitchen can make meal prep, cooking, and having healthy snacks much easier. The simpler and more organized you can make these spaces the better off you’ll be with your nutrition. By washing and storing fresh fruit and vegetables in the front of your refrigerator you’ll be less likely to opt for something quick and unhealthy. Then maybe you won’t end up throwing away the produce in a week after all! 

Personally, I like organizing my pantry with mason jars and storage containers. I keep all my healthy snack up front and easily accessible. It makes cooking more enjoyable too by cutting down on prep time because everything has a spot it belongs in. Organizing your spaces is an easy item that just may motivate you to keep up the good work. 

3. Movement (& honoring your body)

Yeah yeah, I’m aware that being active and hitting the gym is on everyone and their mother’s resolution list. But, there’s a reason for that! Adding movement to your day is SO important and is an important marker of metabolic health and lifespan. 

So many factors go into working out at the gym that make people fall off the wagon quickly. It can be nerve wracking and crowded, and in turn difficult to motivate yourself. Especially when you don’t know how to use all of the machines or you don’t feel comfortable making a workout plan. Plus, if you don’t see results immediately that is discouraging.

Here’s how I found success in going to the gym.

The good news is, I’ve been there. I have felt every one of those things. So,   I’m going to tell you some of my secrets that keep me going back so I finally see my results! First, let’s start with the fact that no one is looking at you as much as you’re looking at yourself. Everyone there is working on themselves and they don’t care how much you’re putting up on the bench press. If they do then I promise it doesn’t matter. People at the gym have similar goals to you and a mutual respect because we’re all there for the same reason! So, don’t let fear keep you from the quality of life you deserve.

There are people who want to help you!

Now, if you aren’t sure what to do when you get to the gym then I have a few options for you. A lot of gyms will give you a free tour and training session. So, you can try out different machines with someone who works there. Take advantage of this service as this is an easy way to get comfortable. I enlisted the help of my friend who’s a personal trainer when I started going back to the gym. Her specialty is in helping women feel confident in a gym environment. She even uses an app to create personalized workout plans that have the exercise, the weight she think you should use, and a video to show how to do the exercise. This app was a great jumping off point for me and a game changer when I first started.

I’ll link her information HERE.  You can go to her link tree and fill out her questionnaire to get started. Trust me, she’s amazing and it’s worth it!!

2. Invest in Your Nervous System

I should put this one in the number one spot because your nervous system is the most important system in your body. All of the other resolutions come second to this one because if the nervous system isn’t functioning correctly (often stuck in fight or flight is the problem), then you will not be bale to make the progress you want in other areas of your life. There is quite literally nothing that happens in the body without the nervous system’s go ahead. All of the aforementioned lifestyle changes are controlled by the nervous system. I can assure you that you will not have the best outcomes if your nervous system is not taken care of first. 

Holistic wellness can be life changing, and I’m not exaggerating. 

If I were to write all the stories of people who decided to invest in their nervous systems and end had life changing goals met afterwards, I would have to write a hundred more pages. Seeing the difference in people’s lives from beginning to care for their nervous systems, to just months after is what keeps me motivated in my own care. 

You may be thinking, “how the hell do I take care of my nervous system or make sure it’s functioning well?”. I can confidently tell you that the best way to invest in your nervous system is by seeing your local holistic chiropractor.

Getting your mind right will help you accomplish your goals. 

Chiropractors are specially trained to assess the nervous system. They provide chiropractic adjustments to the areas in your spine that will allow the nervous system to function at its highest. This includes the brain! The adjustment has such a direct effect on the brain that it is able to help brain function and reduce brain fog, improve cognition, decrease pain and inflammation, and so much more. 

You may think I’m biased being a chiropractor myself, but can I promise you that this is a worthy investment. 

1. Verbalize & write down your goals 

This is number one because it is he key to making any lasting changes in your lifestyle. If you choose to pick a goal or 5 from this blog then write it down and tell your loved ones. If you verbalize to someone or write down your lifestyle change it increases your chance to accomplish it by 95%. Let’s read that again… that’s NINETY FIVE PERCENT!

Completing this one little task will help to ensure that you keep your resolution for the year. So pick one, two, or five of these and watch how things unfold for you in not only your health, but in your life. 

Good luck, I fully believe in you.

Yours in Health and Wellness, 

Dr. Colby