New Year, New You

James Rada, Jr. It’s a new year, and with it comes a new beginning. It’s a chance for you to challenge yourself to meet some of the goals you want, whether it’s to lose weight, find a new job, save for a dream vacation, or something else. We at The Catoctin Banner hope you can achieve all of your goals, and we want to do our part to help. Along those lines, you’re invited to participate in our New Year’s resolution contest (see more information on the right side of this page). If selected as a participant, we’ll provide periodic checks on your progress, and cheer you on throughout the year. We’ve compiled a list of some tips for setting and completing your New Year’s resolutions so that 2017 is your best year so far. Keep your resolutions reasonable. For instance, if you want to run a marathon, don’t expect to do it next month. Find a marathon near the end of the year, and lay out a plan that allows you to work your way up to full marathon. If you’re not used to running at all, you might want to plan on running a half marathon this year and a full marathon next year. WebMD suggested thinking of your willpower as a muscle. Use it more, and you will be able to handle more. Don’t try to do everything at once. We have developed bad habits over time and getting rid of them will take time. If you try and correct all of your bad habits at the same time, you will dilute your efforts. Using the willpower as a muscle comparison, if you have a lot of exercises in your workout, you will find that your energy has fizzled by the time you do the last ones. If you are trying to change a lot of behaviors, you will wind up shortchanging some of them. Expect setbacks. It is very unlikely that you’ll hit your goal without stumbling along the way. How many people have lost weight only to gain it back? Those who try to exercise more may suffer injuries that cause them to stop their workouts to recover. Keep your eye on the long-range goal. If you have a stumble, refocus your efforts and start again with renewed energy. Set intermediate goals. Staying focused for a year on a goal can be draining. Set intermediate goals with rewards if you hit them. Before you run that marathon, you may want to set a goal to run a 5K, then a 10K, and then a half marathon. As you hit each goal, you go and buy yourself a small present as a reward for making the goal. In this way, reaching the goal and getting the reward is still fresh in your mind as you pursue the next goal. This technique also helps when you start to feel discouraged. You can look back and see how far you have come in pursuit of your goal and benchmarks that you have hit. Appeal to your other senses. Some people have photos of the body type they want to have, and they hang them on their refrigerators to remind them of their goal. You might fill water jugs with the amount of weight you lose. As the number of jugs increase, you will feel invigorated since you can see how much weight you are losing. Record a motivational speech for yourself that you can play once a day to remind yourself of why you are trying to reach your goal. Write your goals down. Put your goals down in writing and keep track of them. It will help keep you focused on the progress that you are making. Place your written goals where you can refer to them each day. Ask for help. Don’t be afraid to ask for help or look for support in the pursuit of your goal. This could provide you a new viewpoint that you hadn’t considered and could give you new strategies and ideas to aid you in reaching your set goal. It also helps to have someone to whom you’re accountable. Who wants to admit that they’ve failed? No one. Many of us will work even harder to make progress toward our goal, when someone is holding us accountable, so we don’t have to admit failure. Compete in The Catoctin Banner’s New Year’s resolution contest. If selected to participate, you will have the community cheering you on as you seek to change your life for the better. Go for it!   The Catoctin Banner’s New Year’s Resolution Contest We, The Catoctin Banner Newspaper Team, want you to be the very best you can be in your life. We want to help you achieve! Submit your 2017 resolution to us by January 20, 2017, to enter our Resolutions Contest. Up to three individuals will be selected to participate in our year-long contest. We will announce our contestants and their resolutions in February, give updates on their progress every couple of months, and cheer them on via Facebook. In December 2017, we’ll announce the winner of our contest and review their progress through the year. The candidate who achieves the most progress wins $100. Submit your resolution to us via Deb Spalding (The Catoctin Banner) on Facebook, email to [email protected], submit a contact form from our website, or stop by to enter in person at E Plus Copy Center in the lobby of Jubilee Grocery Store in Emmitsburg. A resolution can be a personal challenge to get fit or lose weight, to kick a destructive habit, to do good things for others, or to earn something for yourself. It must be trackable, measurable, and attainable.