{Guest Post} Healthy Resolutions for the New Year

We all face the beginning of every New Year with hope, optimism, and a list of resolutions filled with ways we plan to improve ourselves and our lives. The word ‘resolution’ has become a synonym for ‘goal’ when, in fact, the two concepts are quite different. A goal requires an actual plan. You may remember the acronym from school: SMART. Goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely.

A resolution is a vague statement that asserts the desire for change. Resolutions fail to outline how, why, when, or how long it will take for a desired change to occur; they don’t even address whether or not a person is even capable of making the change. One of the most popular resolutions in the United States is to “get fit”, or some other version of the same concept like “lose weight” or “get healthy”. We completely overlook, however, the steps required to fulfill our resolution- all we see is the end result.

You have to be relatively healthy to “get healthy”:

You’ve heard it before: losing weight requires diet and exercise. Well, wouldn’t it be great if every person’s body worked the same, and all generalities could apply. There’s a reason why it’s recommended that you see a doctor before you start a diet and exercise regimen: you may have a condition or deficiency that needs to be addressed before it’s even safe for you to start “getting healthy.”

For example, a doctor may discover that you have chronic heart failure, a condition exacerbated by exercise by dramatically increasing the heart rate and blood pressure. Your doctor may want you to start taking hawthorn extract for a determined amount of time before deciding that it’s safe for you to even start exercising. Click here to learn more about hawthorn, also known as Crataegus.

If a health problem exists, early detection is essential:

The most beneficial (and harmful) thing about resolutions is that they manifest from self- critique, and being critical of oneself helps you to identify faults and know where you stand. The problem is we are seldom capable of perceiving ourselves accurately; we certainly have a hard time recognizing a health problem that can be brought on by exercise when we never exercise.

Chronic heart failure is predominant in individuals who are obese or have high blood pressure or diabetes- all reasons to “get fit”. Over-exertion during exercise in individuals with chronic heart failure can lead to disability or even death- certainly not a state of better health. Consulting a doctor first, however, can change the end result of your New Year’s resolution, so you can make a new resolution the following year.

Paige One enjoys writing about a variety of topics, from fashion to fitness.