How to make New Year's resolutions stick
Simple ideas for making permanent changes to your life and health in the new year.
Happy New Year — the time of year when we make New Year’s resolutions. These often involve some version of: Eat less. Exercise more. Go on a diet. Start going to the gym. This is especially true in the covid era, during which time many people ate too much and didn’t get enough exercise.
The trouble with New Year’s resolutions is this: We make them from a place of inspiration. But inspiration never lasts.
Whatever your resolution, consider what happens after your initial surge of motivation. What happens in February? What happens the day after your first fast or Spartan reboot? What happens when you go OFF your diet? Gym business models depend in large measure on people signing up for the gym but never going.
New Year’s resolutions are notoriously short-lived. But this year, resolve to make them stick. Here are a few ideas for making permanent change to your life and health.
Make resolutions for new habits and new limits, not for outcomes. Make resolutions to develop the practice of forming and sticking to new habits. In other words, instead of resolving to lose 35 pounds, resolve to change your lifestyle in a way that will give you optimal health, including optimal weight. Dieting to lose a certain amount of weight almost always results in gaining weight again after the goal has been temporarily achieved. But permanent lifestyle changes are forever. Embrace the Spartan Diet Principles and cultivate new habits.
Throw things in the trash. Decluttering expert Marie Kondo famously said: “Discard anything that doesn't spark joy.” Instead, in the coming week, discard anything that doesn't spark total health. Go through your fridge and pantry, getting rid of industrial foods: packaged foods, fried foods, ingredients you use to make unhealthy foods, sugar, non-organic foods, distilled alcohol, store-bought salad dressing, anything in plastic bottles and containers and other items not on the Spartan Diet. Also: Get rid of appliances and kitchen items that are enablers of junk food — deep fryers, microwave ovens, teflon pans and other objects that make it easy to eat unhealthy foods.
Set recurring reminders. Use the reminders app you’re currently using, the one that came with your phone, or download the app of your choice. But form the habit of using an app to determine each day’s to-do list. On this list add recurring reminders for health — when to do yoga, walk or run, exercise and fasting. Also put reminders to avoid restaurants, shop at better stores and markets, and to make food health Spartan Diet foods from scratch. And when the reminders come, don’t ignore them. Form the habit of the daily ritual of following your reminders.
Embrace “atomic” habits. Author of “Atomic Habits,” James Clear, points out that if your resolution is to do, say, at least 1 pushup per day, you’ll not only do more than one pushup, you’ll probably do a lot of them. Form the habit of walking 10 minutes a day outside or do 10 minutes of yoga everyday. The low goal gets you to actually do the thing, and once you’re doing it you might as well go all the way each time.
Make fermented foods right away. I find that fermenting foods at home is so rewarding that, once you start, you never want to stop. Make or get a sourdough starter. Get kefir grains. Make and maintain vinegar. Make a huge batch of sauerkraut. Once you have happy microbes in your kitchen actively transforming your food into healthier, more delicious versions — and you commit to maintaining them — you’ll find that home-fermented food inspires better eating all around.
Read previously published issues of this newsletter. Every word of this newsletter is “evergreen,” meaning its value is high not just when we publish a new issue, but for all time. Most people read only new editions of the newsletters they subscribe to, but I encourage you to systematically go back and start from the beginning. (Set a recurring reminder to do so.) And if you’re a paid subscriber, remind yourself to cook at least one recipe once a week. Once you’ve cooked them all, you’ll have a vastly better handle on cooking with total health, even for making things without a recipe.
The point is that New Year’s resolutions shouldn’t just exist just as an idea in your head. The resolutions should be accompanied by a commitment to make permanent changes and action now that will enable the keeping of those self-promises.
Happy New Year — and healthy rest of your life!
Recipe: Salvadoran Pan con Pavo
This turkey sandwich from El Salvador is unlike any sandwich you’ve ever tried. It has sumptuous and out-of-this-world flavors and textures in one lusciously messy sandwich that everyone will love. My Spartanized version is super healthy and super delicious.
It’s made with ciabatta or a French bread, filled or stuffed with homemade baked turkey meat drenched in a delicious tomato base sauce and garnished with watercress, tomatoes, cucumber, cabbage and radishes.
You’ve got to try this — and make it your go-to sandwich for all future turkey leftovers!