Did you know that most New Year’s resolutions fail because they aren’t designed properly for the health goals that you want to achieve? If you learn the art of setting achievable health goals, you’ll be on the fast track to enjoying the future you always envisioned. Your successful wellness journey should include vital steps like allergy and intolerance testing, a multi-faceted pathway to your ultimate goal, and showing kindness to yourself on a hard day.
Are all health goals achievable?
We all tend to pick New Year’s resolutions that are ambitious. There’s nothing wrong with that because you deserve to have a worthwhile goal to strive for. However, not all health goals are going to be achievable. Your medical history will factor in when you are looking at what you can do, and you also have to be fair with other factors like your age and your ability to dedicate time and effort to your health.
So, while not all health goals are possible or achievable, you can do a lot to help address your health in big, noticeable ways. It’s just about having the right perspective. We’ll get to that in a bit.
What are examples of achievable health goals?
There are a few different sectors you can focus on if you specifically want to accomplish health goals. Some of the biggest sections are below to help you figure out what your focus should be. While taking on all these seems like a great plan, focus on one right now to know what matters most for your life.
Having a proper diet
If you’ve been wanting to modify your diet to cut out saturated fats and other unhealthy foods, this is a popular one. Make it achievable by being realistic with it. Plan a diet with healthy, safe ingredients for you. Not sure what is safe or recommended for you? Allergy and intolerance testing is a great first step.
Once you have those results, you can design a safe and satisfying healthy menu that will help you on your way to a proper diet long-term.
Sleeping well
Another great, achievable health goal is sleeping well. Don’t make it hard on yourself by putting a rule on it that you must sleep 8-9 hours every night. Make it your goal to sleep better than you are now, and work on improving sleep hygiene, sleep schedule, and more so that you are on your way to achieving that goal each night.
Stay hydrated
Most of us are guilty of drinking too much caffeine combined with not enough water. Making it a goal to stay properly hydrated is wonderful. These days, you can get lots of flavour add-ins to help make water taste better. Make it achievable by using apps and smart water bottles to help track how much you are taking in and remind you when you need to have more to drink throughout the afternoon.
How to achieve and sustain your health goals
Now that you have a few starting points to achieve your health goals let’s figure out how to make them possible and sustainable long term.
Plan a few routes to get to your goal
There is more than one way to get to the health goal that you have set. To minimise frustrations if one way doesn’t work out, plan a few routes to get there. Let’s use healthy eating as an example. What if you start your journey only to realise that allergy and intolerance testing reveals you are allergic to salad ingredients? It doesn’t mean that you can’t be healthy, it just means you’ll need to go with cooked veg instead of salad. Same goal, different path!
Break it into stages
Another way to help you see it as achievable is to break it into stages. With the goal of more sleep, make your first goal to have better sleep hygiene. Make your second goal to add 30 minutes of extra sleep to your night. The stages help you see your progress in real-time!
Start with baby steps
If you’re looking to change a tough habit for you, start with small steps. If drinking eight glasses of water daily scares you, aim for one. If even one glass is hard to consider, start with a half glass. Baby steps break down the fear as much as the goal!
Share your goals with someone
Do you know how sharing your worries or joys with someone makes you feel better? Sharing your goals also gives you that feeling. It can also hold you accountable, which helps when you are struggling with continuing on your journey.
Pick goals that matter to you
Simple, but true. Why work toward a goal that you don’t care about? If better sleep isn’t important to you, don’t choose it. If fitness is the thing that you care about most, create a goal in that area of your life. Whatever you choose to do, pick a health goal that will be rewarding when you achieve it.
Achieving and sustaining your health goals for 2024 involves focusing on making them realistic, sustainable, and enjoyable. Setting achievable health goals starts with picking a focus, and achieving them comes from making a logical path and being okay with changing it as time passes. Now that you have what you need to go after that goal, the only thing left to do is to get it done! Use our allergy and intolerance test to your advantage this year!