The best date to start your new year’s resolution

Many of you are telling me you’d like to wait another week or two before tackling your healthy living resolutions for 2013, and I can understand why!

There is so much to be done to get things back in order after the happy holiday chaos; starting anything that requires significant focus and attention (which is, ahem, exactly what resolutions require) feels like a tall order.

And guess what? Waiting a bit to begin your resolution may actually work to your advantage! That’s because the best day to start a resolution is THE DAY WHEN YOU FEEL READY to start it.

In fact, a recent study showed that people who began implementing their New Year’s Resolutions on January 31st were actually more successful than those who started on January 1st. Why? Because the later starters were truly committed to making changes and not just swept up in the energy of “everybody else is doing it so I may as well join them.”

You have likely heard stories about gyms being super-crowded for the first two weeks of January, but then thinning out quickly as those new members fell off the wagon and stopped going. They weren’t ready. They rushed headlong into the gym on auto-pilot, but they hadn’t thought through what it would take to keep up the practice week after week, so when the going got tough, they gave up!

Let’s not be the people who give up this year, okay? Let’s be ready.

If you’re feeling stressed because January 1st has come and gone and you haven’t begun to make changes yet, I want to reassure you that there is no magic in January 1st. It’s simply a very popular date to start fresh, so if you’re already ready, then I’m ready to support you! But if you need a little more time to get your ducks in a row, then by all means take it! Set yourself up for success.

Now, since more than a few of you have told me that you ARE ready to get started now (using your new workout clothes, cookbooks, home gym equipment, and Vitamix blenders), I thought today I’d offer you one simple and proven tip that will help to ensure you begin your healthy lifestyle changes on the right foot. Are you ready? Here it is.

GET MORE SLEEP.

That’s right. Start building a sleep pattern that gets you 7-8 hours a night with consistency. I cannot tell you how much this will help you implement any healthy change you want to make. You will have better judgment, more willpower, and your mood will improve. You will be more productive and creative. You will even boost your metabolism – that’s right. You can eat more if you sleep more.

To kick off 2013, figure out what it will take for you to get more sleep and make it happen.

There are 364 days remaining in 2013….don’t panic. Just get ready. And get some sleep. You are going amaze yourself this year.