Planning for a HEALTHY holiday season and a Happy New Year

                                                              

Designing a Plan for Change 

Perhaps you have been working to get more fit as part of your plan for a healthy lifestyle, or you just 

recently started adding more physical activity to your life.  The holiday season, which stretches into 

January, is the perfect time to consider an exercise strategy. Exercise expert and Association for 

Applied Sport Psychology member Diane Whaley, PhD and Blake Rushin, MS, both from the 

University of Virginia, offer some valuable tips. 

While many of us look forward to enjoying holiday celebrations, which include great food and 

beverages, they can also undermine a commitment to a healthy lifestyle. Self-regulation skills, self 

monitoring, goal setting and social support are key strategies for planning a healthy holiday season 

and a happy New Year. 

Putting Skills Into Action  

Self-regulation is all about the skills you use to control your own behavior. Self-monitoring is how 

you observe and examine your own health behaviors. The most important steps in this skill are to:  

• Recognize the need to make some sort of change in your behavior, and then 

• Develop an effective plan for changing or improving a behavior.  

For example, Susan often enjoys extra servings of her favorite holiday foods, thinking that she can 

work it off with more exercise the next day. This year she will focus on a specific goal of having one 

serving of her favorite food while staying with her normal exercise routine. (As a physical reminder, 

she carries a penny in her pocket that she can touch when she is tempted to go for an extra helping.)  

Susan will also note on her calendar when she meets her “single serving” goal to remind her of her 

successes. In this way, self-monitoring helps Susan discover patterns in her behavior and identify the 

behavior that needs to be changed. 

Goal Setting 

Goal setting can supplement self-monitoring in helping you achieve specific goals. In addition to 

avoiding extra helpings, Susan set a goal of engaging in a minimum of 30 minutes of physical 

activity two times a week until she resumes her regular schedule in January. She acknowledges that it 

may not be possible to stay with her usual routine during the holidays. Susan also understands that 

she may have some setbacks to reaching her goals.   

Seeking Out and Using Social Support 

Getting support can help Susan achieve her healthy holiday goals. She can let others know that she is 

serious about staying with her physical activity plan and ask them to try not to talk her into eating 

more than she planned.  

Other ways to enlist social support include forming your own “holiday fitness club” with one or more 

friends or family members who are willing to join you for physical activities. You could also start 

more active holiday traditions with your family and friends. For example, participate as a family 

team in a local Turkey Trot race on Thanksgiving morning. Many Turkey Trots are 5K races and 

include both runners and walkers of all ages and abilities. Getting support is an enjoyable and fun 

way to help you stay with your healthy holiday goal plan. 

  

You can enjoy your celebrations with a plan for making the holidays a season for health and fitness.  

What better thing to celebrate than a healthier, more vibrant 2013! 

                                                              

Tips for Goal Setting to Achieve Your New Year’s Resolutions 

Carrying Out a Plan For Change 

Set Specific, Measurable and Attainable Goals 

Solution: Goals are only as effective as they are specific, measurable and attainable.  For 

example, “My goal is to do my 30-minute workout three times per week for the next 12 weeks” 

or “I want to increase my strength by 10% every two weeks.” Specific goals give you a target to 

shoot for; measurable goals give you a way to gauge your success; and attainable goals challenge 

you but don’t leave you frustrated or discouraged. It is also very important to keep a written 

record of your goals and your goal progress. 

Set Goals That Relate to the Outcome 

Solution: Be sure your goals focus on improvement, learning and health. For example, instead of 

having a goal of “losing 10 pounds,” focus on your personal performance (“I will increase my 

average steps per day by 10% each week”) and the process of losing weight (“I will improve my 

form when doing my circuit workout.”) These performance and process goals will lead you to 

your outcome, without causing the anxiety and pressure sometimes associated with pure outcome 

goals. 

Athletes know that having goals based exclusively on outcomes (e.g., winning the match) is 

dangerous. Why? Because in most cases, what we refer to as outcome goals are the most out of 

your control. It is no different for exercisers. In the case of losing weight, many other factors 

influence weight loss -your diet, the amount you are exercising, even the type of exercise you are 

doing, to name a few. Staying motivated is hard enough without limiting our idea of what 

“success” is! 

Set Targeted Realistic Goals 

Solution: Focus on one or two primary (or long-term) goals then develop a series of short-term 

goals that can lead to the primary goal. For example, Jane can have a long-term goal of 

exercising four to five times per week, with a short-term goal of exercising three times this week. 

By starting more reasonably, she can build up her confidence, and get comfortable with her 

routine. What is important is that you set yourself up for success, not failure. 

AASP 

The Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP) promotes the ethical practice, science and 

advocacy of sport and exercise psychology.