Seven Simple Tips to Keep New Year's Resolutions All Year

Every year people are making resolutions on January 1, and by the end of the month many of them they have already failed to keep their promises to themselves.

So if you are ready to make meaningful changes in your overall health and well-being this year, read on—here are seven steps you can take to help stay on track:

The first step to following through with your goal is to have a goal that is realistic. Saying that you want to loose 100 pounds is slightly unrealistic. You are setting yourself up for failure because it is a large amount.

However, if you set your goal at five or 10 pounds you increase your chance of success. This is a realistic and attainable goal.

Also, break up the year into intervals. For instance, every three months reevaluate your progress, this will allow you to see results in large chunks, rather than focusing on this every single day. 

Write down what you hope to achieve this year. Whether you want to loose five pounds, take up yoga, run another mile or start drinking eight glasses of water a day—write it down. You are more likely to keep your goals if you write them down.

Build a support system by telling people about your goals. It helps to keep you accountable. Joining gyms, yoga studios, running clubs, or the local YMCA will allow you to meet other members of the community.

By doing so, you can build a buddy system, which in my opinion, is one of the MOST important steps in any fitness program.

Make your goal specific. The more specific the goal is, the more likely you are to follow through. If you goal is to get healthy this year, it is not specific enough. A better goal is: To gain a better balance in my life, I will get to yoga twice a week even if that means I give up happy hour one of those evenings after work. 

Sign up for a program that will keep you engaged and wanting to come back for more. Yoga studio's are a great choice for this since most studios have a variety of teaching style that keep it fun and different each visit. 

Finally, it is best to only set one goal at a time so that you are focused in your actions. After you have successful achomplished one goal you can move onto a bigger and better goal. But if you try for ten goals at the beginning of the year you might just be setting yourself up for failure.

Venture Yoga & Wellness at 10 Center St., Darien (on the Web, on Facebook and on Twitter) offers Vinyasa and Hot Vinyasa Yoga lessons to help clients work out, reduce stress and promote a mind-body connection by combining breathing exercises with a series of poses.