January 17 Is "Ditch New Year's Resolutions Day." Are You Going To Ditch, Or Hit The Reset Button?

Are you looking for a way out from those annoying resolutions you made at the first of the month? No fear, Ditch New Year’s Resolutions Day is here to help you out.

Per Statistic Brain, 42.4 percent of Americans don’t succeed their New Year’s Resolutions. The site shows us, 72.6 percent of people keep their New Year’s Resolutions their first week. From there it goes down. By month six, 44.8 percent of those who made resolutions, are still going strong.

Not everyone makes New Year Resolutions. Per Statistic Brain, 42 percent of Americans never make them. Only 41 percent of American population makes them. With 17 percent who don’t make them often.

So why do we fail?

Per Psychology Today, we make resolutions to help motivate ourselves. But, if we are not ready to change our habits, then we fail. Another reason, we set goals too high for ourselves. We make them unreachable, giving us ‘false hope.’ We make them, thinking they will change our entire life. When they don’t, we get discouraged and quit.

What is Ditch New Year’s Resolutions Day?

Ditch New Year’s Resolutions Day is a day we can give up on those resolutions, without feeling guilty. At least, we can tell ourselves, “we gave it the old college try.” Or, you can view, Ditch New Year’s Resolutions Day, like a reset button for yourself. Instead of making many unattainable resolutions, make one, attainable resolution.

If you are dieting:

Don’t diet to lose weight, diet to eat healthy. Change your eating habits one food at a time. Not all at once. Take the time to read the labels. Try organic or grass-fed items over your regular purchases.

My husband and I are trying organic grass-fed ground beef and chicken breasts. When the farmers’ market returns, we buy our meat from them, which is grass-fed. The meat tastes great, and we don’t feel rundown and sluggish.

Exercising to lose weight and build stamina is excellent.

But, if your body is not ready for it, you may fail. Start small. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Park your car further away from the building and walk. Don’t carry the groceries into the house all at once, carry in what you can handle. When carrying in the milk or water jugs, do arm curls, or other forms of arm exercises, from the car to the kitchen. Your body will tell you when you are ready to move on to more activity.

If you want to lose weight, instead of saying it, set a specific goal. Losing one to two pounds a week is ideal, you can set your goal to lose ten pounds in six weeks (or ten weeks).

I live in a low-income high-rise, and we have a small weight room. With my disability, I go downstairs and use the treadmill or stationary bike late at night. In my apartment, I have an exercise ball I use to work on my lower back.

If you want to learn something new, you don’t have to spend money to do so.

You can venture out to your local library and see what educational books they have. Teach yourself something new. Doing so, you learn more than a new hobby, you will learn something new about yourself.

Future Learn is a UK online free course. From Business and Management to Tech and Coding. From learning the past to discovering the future. They also offer certificates, diplomas, and degrees. I have used Future Learn, and it is impressive.

MIT Open Course Ware has open courses. From Business to Health and Medicine.

Open Yale Courses has open courses. From African American Studies to Spanish and Portuguese.

Open Education Consortium has free courses. Type in the search engine what you want to learn to see if they have courses available.

Johns Hopkins University has JHSPH Open Courseware. From Adolescent Health and Development to Risks for STI/HIV -Opportunities for Prevention.

Have you always dreamed of going to Harvard Medical School? Now you can. Their open courseware has courses from Primary Care Clerkship to Virtual Patient.