Up next in 10
How To Make Your New Year Resolutions Actually Stick | Nutritionist Explains... | Myprotein
Jan 30, 2025
Expert Nutritionist Richie Kirwan gives us his top tips about how to make resolutions you can actually stick to.
Did you know that less than 20% of people manage to stick to their New Year resolutions in the long term? It's that time of year when people decide that they're going to completely reinvent themselves just because the Earth has completed another lap around the sun.
A recent study of over 1000 people in Sweden revealed that the three most popular New Year's resolutions are focused on physical health in 33% of people, losing weight in 20% of people, and better eating habits in 30% of people. So in this video expert nutritionist, Richie Kirwan talks to us about some of the psychology around making and achieving your resolutions, and he'll give you a few tips for helping you stick to them in the long term.
***
Chapters:
00:00 - Introductions
01:02 - Avoidance v Approach Goals
02:53 - Plan goals better
04:50 - Sub-ordinate goals
06:23 - 100% into your goals
08:13 - Temporal landmarks
09:49 - Stop trying to be perfect
11:07 - Any more goal questions?
Follow Richie on IG: dr.richie.kirwan
*********************************
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
less than 20 of people who make New
0:02
Year's resolutions manage to keep them
0:04
up long term
0:05
let's talk about what you can do to not
0:07
be one of them
0:14
how's it going guys my name is Rich
0:15
Kerwin and it's that time of year when
0:17
people decide that they're going to
0:19
completely reinvent themselves just
0:21
because the Earth has completed another
0:22
lap at a completely arbitrary point in
0:24
its orbit we'll get to why that sounds
0:26
just a little sarcastic in a moment a
0:29
recent study of over 1 000 people in
0:31
Sweden revealed that the three most
0:33
popular New Year's resolutions were
0:35
focused on physical health in 33 of
0:38
people losing weight in 20 of people and
0:41
better eating habits in 13 people so no
0:45
major surprises there right so today
0:47
we're going to talk about some of the
0:49
psychology around making and achieving
0:52
New Year's resolutions and I'll give you
0:54
a few tips for helping you stick to them
0:56
in the long term
0:57
so the first thing I want to talk about
0:59
is the type of goals you set you can
1:02
broadly divide goals into two categories
1:04
avoidance orientated goals and approach
1:07
oriented goals an avoidance goal is
1:10
where you tell yourself to avoid or to
1:12
not do something
1:13
so for example you might tell yourself
1:15
that you're not going to eat donuts
1:17
anymore which honestly sounds terribly
1:19
sad and you might say that you're going
1:22
to stop spending too much time sitting
1:25
watching the TV just from that really
1:26
short description you can probably
1:28
already get a feeling that avoidance
1:30
goals focus on something negative that
1:32
you shouldn't have in your life and it's
1:34
true that thinking like that can make us
1:37
put too much of a negative moral value
1:40
on eating certain foods or certain
1:42
habits we might consider to be lazy well
1:45
the opposite of avoidance goals are
1:47
approach goals these are goals that we
1:50
actively move towards so for example eat
1:52
more fruit would be an approach oriented
1:54
goal because you're actively trying to
1:57
add more fruit to your diet
1:58
another example would be to go for more
2:01
walks again these goals don't have an
2:03
automatic negative connotation
2:05
surrounding them these goals focus on
2:08
positive habits that you should strive
2:10
for because they're good not things that
2:13
you should avoid because they're bad
2:15
type of negative reinforcement based
2:18
around avoidance has been shown to lead
2:20
people to having poor feelings of
2:23
well-being which is understandable if
2:25
your life is focused on avoiding things
2:27
you think of as being bad on top of that
2:29
some research shows that people with
2:32
approach goals are more likely to
2:34
achieve them than people with avoidance
2:36
goals so bear that in mind when you're
2:38
thinking of your New Year's resolutions
2:40
so instead of thinking about what do I
2:43
need to avoid instead think about what
2:45
do I want to focus on including in my
2:48
life instead more exercise more protein
2:51
more Whole Foods more sleep
2:53
let's try and change the way you frame
2:56
your goals to be more positive okay the
2:59
next tip is actually to plan your goals
3:01
and I don't just mean to write them down
3:03
you see lots of people will write down
3:05
some super simplistic goals at the start
3:07
of the year like build 10 kilograms of
3:09
muscle or get healthier get a girlfriend
3:12
without any further thinking there's not
3:14
a lot of thought gone into these goals
3:16
so it's no surprise that they rarely
3:18
work out research in the field of
3:21
psychology tells us that having a goal
3:23
hierarchy might be useful for helping
3:25
you to plan better goals a goal
3:28
hierarchy is a set of different levels
3:30
of goal complexity and importance at the
3:33
very top of the hierarchy is the new
3:35
ideal version of you you're trying to
3:38
achieve to get to that ideal version of
3:41
you you have a few major goals which are
3:43
called super ordinate goals these are
3:45
goals that you associate with the ideal
3:48
version of yourself so for example to be
3:50
successful or to be healthy are super
3:54
ordinate goals these are the major goals
3:56
you want to achieve and thinking about
3:59
these overarching goals can help you
4:01
stay focused on what you want to achieve
4:03
the problem with super ordinal goals is
4:06
they're not very specific and that's a
4:08
major problem
4:09
that's why we need to drop down a level
4:11
to intermediate goals intermediate goals
4:14
are a little more specific than super
4:15
organicals so for example if your super
4:18
ordinal goal is to be healthy your
4:20
intermediate goals might be build a
4:22
stronger body or to eat a healthier diet
4:24
or to get better sleep if you think of
4:27
superordinate goals as being like a
4:28
video game in this case the video game
4:30
of life intermediate goals are like
4:32
subquests or individual levels and just
4:35
like in games to beat a level you need
4:37
to do a lot of specific tasks like solve
4:40
puzzles or fight bad guys these
4:42
individual specific tasks are called
4:45
subordinate goals and subordinate goals
4:47
are the goals you try to achieve in your
4:49
daily life so if your intermediate goal
4:51
is to build a stronger body your
4:53
subordinate goal might be to go to the
4:56
gym three days a week Monday Wednesday
4:58
Friday at 7am before work the more
5:01
specific you get with the subordinacles
5:03
the better
5:04
hand them out beforehand so you don't
5:06
need to plan them out right before you
5:08
have to do them subordinate goals can be
5:11
even further divided into smaller goals
5:13
too to make them manageable so if your
5:15
goal is to go to the gym you can further
5:17
divide this into 8 to 12 Reps for four
5:20
sets each of bench press squats bicep
5:22
curls and that pull Downs or whatever
5:24
you're trying to achieve the reason you
5:26
might want to create all these levels of
5:28
goals is because if you focus on small
5:30
subordinate goals alone once you've
5:33
completed them it can feel like you're
5:34
done and there's nothing left to do
5:37
but if you tie all of your sub-armicles
5:39
into intermediate goals and all of those
5:42
into a super ordinary goal it can help
5:44
you focus on the big picture which might
5:46
help you to stick to your goals long
5:48
term so to give another example if your
5:51
superordinate goal is to be healthy you
5:53
can break this down into a few
5:55
intermediate goals one of those
5:57
intermediate goals could be to eat a
5:58
better diet and you can break this down
6:00
further into subordinate goals like eat
6:03
two portions of fruit at breakfast have
6:05
at least 30 grams of protein at each
6:07
meal or swap refined carbs for whole
6:09
unprocessed carbs at meals
6:12
give it a try and you may be surprised
6:14
at how this level of planning can help
6:16
you to stick to your goals long term
6:18
another tip for helping you to achieve
6:20
your goals is to get support when you
6:22
can
6:23
it's very easy to be really gung-ho
6:26
about a new goal and to throw yourself
6:28
into achieving it even though you might
6:30
not be completely sure about how the
6:32
best way is to do it what I mean by this
6:35
is
6:36
I know of plenty of people who've said
6:38
that their New Year's resolution was to
6:40
eat better or start exercising even
6:43
though they're not really sure what that
6:46
actually looks like in practice you
6:48
might be one of those people and a good
6:49
way to know if you are is that you
6:51
regularly make big resolutions but don't
6:54
manage to stick to them very long in
6:57
cases like this getting support or help
6:59
or guidance from someone who knows what
7:01
they're doing and who knows how to help
7:04
other people can be a game changer if
7:07
you want to start exercising regularly
7:09
could you benefit from a personal
7:10
trainer who could teach you how to work
7:12
out or who could program your workout
7:14
plan for you or if you want to eat
7:16
better could you benefit from working
7:18
with a nutritionist who can help you
7:19
adapt your current diet help you build
7:22
new food habits or teach you how to
7:24
prepare healthier meals it took me a lot
7:27
of time through years of formal
7:29
education and trial and error in
7:32
coaching to learn how to help people to
7:34
eat more healthily now I can teach that
7:36
to people in a few months
7:37
really Skips a lot of pain and a lot of
7:40
time
7:41
this is why getting a coach can be so
7:43
beneficial you're saving time and the
7:46
whole process of trial and error by
7:48
paying for someone's expertise
7:50
on top of that having support from a
7:52
coach adds a layer of accountability
7:54
that might keep you motivated to stick
7:56
to your goals now this next tip is more
7:59
of a question do you really need to make
8:02
a New Year's resolution specifically
8:04
think about it have you ever made a New
8:06
Year's resolution try to keep it up for
8:08
a week or so only for your motivation to
8:10
fizzle out until you finally admit to
8:12
yourself ah I guess I'll just try again
8:14
next year
8:16
sound familiar or have you ever said to
8:18
yourself after eating a massive meal out
8:20
midweek oh well I'll start to diet again
8:22
on Monday in these cases New Year's and
8:25
Monday are called temporal landmarks
8:28
these are points in time that we
8:29
associate with New Beginnings or times
8:31
that allow us to change
8:34
in reality there's nothing special about
8:36
these times but our minds and Society
8:39
associate some special power with them
8:41
the problem with temporal landmarks is
8:43
that we can decide to separate ourselves
8:45
into two distinct Concepts ourselves
8:48
before the temporal landmark and
8:50
ourselves after the temporal landmark
8:53
what happens is we like to put all the
8:55
responsibility of change onto our future
8:57
selves after the landmark when that
9:00
happens our current selves can feel that
9:02
they don't really have to do anything
9:03
right now because everything is going to
9:06
magically change with the power of the
9:08
new temporal landmark think about it how
9:11
many times have you said to yourself
9:14
future me's problem
9:15
sure temporal landmarks like New Year's
9:17
or Mondays can help with motivation but
9:19
that's not very useful if you keep
9:22
deciding to put it off to the next time
9:24
when things don't go to plan instead of
9:27
focusing on temporal landmarks try to
9:30
focus on the specific actions that you
9:32
can do every day to help take you closer
9:35
to achieving your goals so instead of
9:37
focusing on big magic times of change
9:40
like New Year's focus on the here and
9:43
now and what actions you can take to
9:46
make a difference I'll keep this last
9:48
Point really simple stop trying to be
9:51
perfect if you're waiting for things to
9:54
be perfect to reach your goals you'll
9:56
never get
9:57
if you give up on exercise for the week
9:59
because you missed one session you're
10:01
making things harder for yourself
10:03
if you give up on healthy eating for the
10:06
rest of the week because you ate a donut
10:07
you'll find it really hard to be
10:10
consistent with your diet we're often
10:12
sold a fake ideal on social media we
10:16
might think that our favorite
10:17
influencers apparently work out every
10:19
day twice a day for a couple of hours
10:21
each time or that they count every macro
10:23
to the gram and only eat clean foods
10:26
which is a terrible word anyway it's all
10:29
total because it makes us feel that to
10:32
achieve our diet or fitness goals we
10:34
need to be perfect here's the truth
10:36
you don't need to be and in fact you
10:39
can't be perfect Perfection is a myth an
10:43
impossibility that holds us back from
10:45
achieving all that we can as soon as you
10:47
realize Perfection is impossible you
10:50
will stop caring about the little slip
10:52
UPS you will inevitably meet along the
10:54
road to building a better you forget
10:56
about perfection
10:58
it's a lie
11:00
these are only a few ways that you can
11:02
help to make your goals a reality any
11:04
time of year and not just at New Year's
11:06
let me know what you think of these tips
11:08
and let me know in the comments if you
11:10
have any others that you found really
11:11
useful yourself and as always remember
11:13
to like And subscribe to my protein
11:15
YouTube channel for more great
11:16
evidence-based nutrition information
11:19
[Music]
11:24
this is
#Fitness
#Nutrition
#Self-Help & Motivational