New Week's Resolution - Week 26 (Apr 21 - Apr 27)

nossmf

Welcome to the first week of the rest of your life! Now seems like a perfect time to select a New Week's Resolution.

What is a New Week's Resolution? It's exactly the same as a New Year's Resolution, with two important distinctions: it only lasts for one week, and you can start one any time you want, rather than just once per year.

So what's wrong with New Year's Resolutions? According to some quick Google research, just one thing: they DON'T WORK!

• 23% of people quit within the first week
• 43% quit by the end of January
• 80% quit by mid-February
• 92% fail to make it a full year

Why such high rates of failure? Probably because most resolutions fail to follow these simple steps from the SMART method:

• Specific - "exercise more" is vague; "hit the gym twice this week" is specific
• Measurable - did I go twice? Yes or no?
• Achievable - "drink a gallon of water per day" may not be realistic; drink 8oz is
• Relevant - if it doesn't matter to YOU, why bother?
• Time-bound - keep your goal for this week something quick you can reach THIS week

With these thoughts in mind, what is ONE thing you want to do this week? Some examples may include:

• Hit the gym two times this week
• Cook a meal from scratch three times this week
• Go to bed no later than 10pm every night
• Limit myself to one alcoholic beverage this week
• Finish two pages of my family photo album

...and so on. While this is very similar in nature to the famous "Just Give Me 10 Days" series, that challenge focuses primarily on weight loss and diet control, whereas this challenge is of a broader nature, including interpersonal relationships, home improvements, health and fitness and more. Just pick something specific you wish to focus upon, set a number goal you can reach (or not), and make status updates to document your progress. This will be a judgment-free zone: if you do not reach your goal, take the time to figure out why not (too big a goal, life happened, etc), and forgive yourself, because you can always try again next week.

nossmf

Getting setup for this week. My plan is to continue what I started in previous weeks, and add one more focus item every week as I go. Eventually older items will drop off the list, not because I no longer want to do them, but because they will have become so ingrained a part of my daily routine that I no longer need to record them to make sure they get done.

Past focus items successfully transitioned to un-monitored habit:

Floss every night before bed
Clean litter box every night before bed
Kiss wife within one (1) minute of arriving home from work, gym, store, church, etc
Wearing my glasses every day, all day
Park in furthest spot available
Read 10 minutes daily
Wash dinner dishes the same night they're used
Get at least six hours of sleep every night
Check parakeet water daily
Record receipts same day spent
Wash hands before preparing ALL meals
Spray down counter/oven after every meal
Fold laundry same day it gets washed
Shave daily

Tasks completed thanks to this weekly challenge:

Complete digital cookbook
Clean outdoor grill

Ongoing focus items:

Stretching 10+ Minutes Daily

New focus item:

Did really well with the stretching last week, getting it done six of the seven days. I even varied things, doing upper-body stretches on upper-body lifting days, and lower body stretches the rest of the time. My one day I did not stretch was the one day I did not make it to the gym (Sunday). Need to consider if it will be good enough to skip that day in the future, or how I want to address it otherwise.

clementine003

Hi, I'm new to MFP and I'd like to join this challenge.

My goals for the week:

1. Study in focused sessions in the library (ex. 45-50 minutes, 10 min break)

I'm in college and have finals coming up.

2. Eat between 11 am and 7 pm daily.

3. Eat a high fat and protein, reduced diet— my aim is less than 100g carbs per day.

4. Do 45 minutes of cardio three times a week and 45 minutes of strength training twice a week.

5. Take multivitamins daily

nossmf

Welcome, @clementine003 ! Are these all new goals you're trying to tackle at once, or already ongoing ones?

clementine003

Hi @nossmf, thanks for the welcome! These are mostly new goals. I attempted some of these before, but I modified them.

nossmf

Your goals are all formatted well enough to easily monitor, I just worry whether you are trying to make too many changes all at once. I prefer doing 1-2 changes at a time. (In previous weeks I had as many as 4-5 at once, and it took a long time for some of those changes to become habit when I wasn't focusing upon them.)

clementine003

I understand, I just want to see how this will work out throughout the week. If anything, I can adjust my goals next week if my plan doesn't work.

AdahPotatah2024

Ongoing focus items that are not quite habits:

- attempt at using all the groceries I have w/ zero waste..
- Cook only 3 good meals per week with enough leftovers for 2 days (Restaurant on Thursday/pizza Sunday)
- organizing books, clothes, and papers and donations after decluttering

*prioritizing hobbies that include quality time with friends and family, especially daughter( a little less time spent on solitary activities I enjoy atleast for the next few years)*

Busy this week at work, so just a few easy organizing goals. I'm working on going through all the unused linens, blankets and towels this week:)

nossmf

Monday

Stretching…check!

nossmf

Tuesday

Stretching…nope…running late in the morning at the gym, told myself I would get back to it later in the day, never did

nossmf

Wednesday

Stretching…nope…running late in the morning at the gym, told myself I would get back to it later in the day, never did

Whoa…deja vu…

nossmf

Thursday

Stretching…check!