How to make New Year's resolutions work for you!

Every year millions of people commence new work out regiments, alter their diets and make ritualistic changes in bad behavior just in time for New Year's Day.



Studies show that guilty feelings from holiday spending, prolonged lack of exercise and overindulgence with festive treats leads to a guilt-ridden need for change.


© Copyright 2009-2010 Tomitheos Photography - All Rights Reserved.

These feelings seem to coincide with the beginning of the New Year marking a psychological timeline to start fresh with the underlined goal of becoming a better person in the future, inside and out. However, by the first week of February most New Year's resolutions are a distant memory for most..

So how does one make the leap to a new beginning work for them?

The shift for change may be a difficult one but psychologists claim that with a few pointers, success is possible.

Firstly, something to watch for is that most people fail in their attempt for change because the human mind will rationalize with excuses that are rooted deep inside individualistic psyches so that the physical discomfort can end.

Learn how to overcome this obstacle before you even get started by examining your motivation for change. Be realistic and be vocal to your friends and family about the changes you are ready to make so that they can support you, stay away from negative people that would like to see you fail at least until you are confident in your success and strong in your lifestyle change.

Make your tasks non-negotiable and do not rationalize with yourself, for example do not rationalize that it is too early to get up for exercise, yet if it was a work related obligation it would be a non-issue. Do it regardless of how you feel about it, be aware that one can almost always find an excuse not to do something. However, if you make a non-negotiable decision that is based on a sound realistic goal you set in the first place rather than on how you feel at the moment, you will be successful.

Write down your goals, studies show that University graduates have a higher success rate of accomplishing their career goals if they had written them down. Because of our educational system's training of reading and writing, the brain retains the information better and has a better memory when the time is taken to write it down. Focus on the positive changes as a result of your behavioral shift, for example with quitting smoking, focus on the improved breathing, a smoker feels bodily sensations when the nicotine levels drop but it is a choice as to how this symptom is interpreted: symptoms can be defined as extremely unpleasant and curable by reverting back to smoking or alternatively they can be interpreted as the physical discomfort of being permanently cleansed from the drug.

Do not quit your program for change for a minor set back. If you give in to temptation, do not further the damage by using this as an excuse to abandon the whole program. Allow yourself to be imperfect, perhaps you can make it a secondary goal to learn from your mistakes and move on as this will undoubtedly ensure your success.

Start now! If you are waiting for a better time to start a behavioral change, that in itself is a behavioral change that needs to be addressed. Procrastination means it likely will not happen. It is almost never convenient to change mentally fused habits. But your need for change is the mind's own cry for help that is usually heard very late in the game. Now is just as convenient as any time. Plan your resolution(s) in advance, instead of waiting until New Year's Eve.

If you begin today rather than later, you will have a better chance of maintaining your goal and sustaining your discipline in the new year. If you cannot find a reliable friend for support at your times of weakness, use a simple CD related to your goal that will talk you through your temporary set-back and you will find success in whatever you set your mind to.

Best of L.U.C.K. (Labor Under Correct Knowledge); successfully accomplishing your goals is not by chance, it is a Science.

Remember To:

Have a strong commitment for change.
Write down a program that will help to achieve your goal(s).
Have a coping strategy to deal with set-backs that will come up.
Tell your friends, the more monitoring and feedback you have the better you will do.

Intensive exercise may be bad for your lungs

Respiratory pandemics set off several new trends..
Photography by Tomitheos©

'It is believed that in the winter there is nothing like sports and exercise to improve your health and breathing.. yet this advice may be wrong as it is recently being proven that intensive exercise may be bad for your lungs; many top Oylympic athletes' health statistics are showing there is no longer any doubt that an alarming proportion of athletes with rigorous cold-air training end up having problems with their breathing' (Science Daily)

With the winter Olympics in Vancouver Canada merging with many countries worldwide the potential for a problem is already becoming a concern as the pandemic H1N1 influenza surges with the onset of a cold winter, the nations of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union appear particularly vulnerable to a new black lung virus surfacing in the Ukraine, according to their government statistics, 1.5 million of its 46 million people have had diagnoses of the new flu and related respiratory sicknesses since the start of the outbreak. In scientific studies conducted by the Olympic Committee of Colorado (USA) were able to show that over a quarter of the athletes on the American team suffered from spasmodic contractions of the bronchi (bronchospasms) and these respiratory problems appeared more among cross-country skiers.

Physical activity is more likely to cause asthmatic type illnesses in winter because air temperature plays a crucial role. Cold air is also saturated with vapor therefore major water and heat loss occurs through the heavier breathing required by the athlete's activity. In a temperate environment of 27° Celsius the air breathed by an athlete undergoing intensive training is gently warmed as it enters the airways but when ice-cold air is breathed in the air inhaled (due to increased concentration of ionic components in the fluids of the airway mucosa) a mediator release occurs from certain cells in the respiratory tract resulting in airway inflammation.

Sporting a designer face mask in public that covers the nose and mouth may be one possible measure that may also become a new feature in our modern society. Surgical quality masks are designed to protect against airborne contaminants where hand washing only deters from germs from surfaces that were touched. In the case of cold air hindering breathing, a health mask can be altered accordingly whereas air exhaled at a temperature of 37°C enters a hollow metal grid where it can be momentarily encapsulated which will then help raise the temperature of the air breathed in thereby relieving the possible damage from the cold air and coinciding vulnerability from foreign contagious agents.

Other solutions may include anti-viral vaccinations supplemented with an inclusive anti-inflammatory prophylactic drug treatment (steroid-based remedies often given to asthmatics) whereas the steroid may effectively block the bronchial constriction and the vaccine may prevent the onset of severe respiratory flu symptoms.

Virologists investigating transmission say beware of cross-country skiing, the cold dry weather conditions pull moisture out of droplets released by coughs and sneezes which allows the virus to linger in the air making viral contamination worse in the winter. The lung experts warn against undertaking winter endurance training as nasal passages dry out making transmission more likely vulnerable and subject to viral related respiratory infections triggered by the H1N1 swine flu virus or lung respiratory type of illnesses like the one that is starting to recently surface in Europe.