The Dates New Englanders Give Up On New Year Resolutions

The folks at BetKentucky have tabulated the exact date that New Englanders give up on their New Year resolutions. The good news is we go a lot longer than you would think, even into Spring.

Here it is late January and how is your New Year's resolution going? Did you vow that this is the year your were finally going to lose that extra 10 or 15 pounds? Was this the year you were going to commit to going to the gym at least three days a week? Maybe this year you resolved to read more books and spend less time in front of a screen.

These are all valid resolutions, but the question is; are you still sticking to it? It's always easy in the beginning of another year after all the holiday festivities to tell yourself that things are going to be different this time. Perhaps you actually bought a gym membership and new workout clothes. Afterall, you can't watch tv or listen to the radio after New Year's day without hearing an ad for a health club.

Along with the gym commercials there are a bunch of companies specializing in dieting that saturate the airwaves. Everything from Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, to countless meal delivery programs that drop off the food right at your door. There are others like The Center for Wellbeing  (of which I advertise for on the radio station) that offers terrific plans along with great personal coaching. It's all there for you, but you're the one who has to do the work.

Let's take a look at the states that went the shortest and the longest with theirs.

Shortest resolutions kept - Oklahoma was the first state to give up on theirs, quitting as early as February 9th

Longest resolutions kept - Minnesota held onto theirs the longest before giving up May 30th, which is Memorial Day weekend of course. Burgers and hot dogs anyone?

Rhode Island lasted till March 23rd

Connecticut made it to March 27th

Massachusetts went all the way to March 30th

Maine plugged along till March 31st

New Hampshire held onto their the longest making it all the way to April 15th

Sidenote; Vermont did not participate in the survey

It's still early int the new year, so it's not too late to set your New Year's resolutions. The only trick will be achieving them. But we've got you covered with a few tips to be successful and stay motivated. We have come up with the Top 5 Ways To Stick Your New Year's resolutions. Why make them if you can't achieve them?

Every January 1st most of us are ready for the new year and put the old behind us. Maybe we have goals we hope to meet, perhaps we over indulged during the last 2 or 3 months of the previous year and setting resolutions is our way of getting things back under control. It sure does help you deal with all the extra goodies we enjoyed during the holidays knowing that come January we are going to make big changes.

If we are being honest, most of make the same resolutions each year. Lose weight, exercise more and maybe read more often. Whatever the reasons for wanting to make changes in our lives we are hopeful that the new year will indeed bring a new you.  Every year at least 40% of Americans make a new year's resolution and most of them center on becoming a better person. If that comes from losing weight or getting into shape or reading more books or taking up a new hobby. The problem comes in trying to stick to our resolutions so we don't have to reset them again the following year.

Why would we have to have the same resolutions every year if we had actually achieved them? That's the problem, we don't often make the resolutions last beyond the beginning of February. So, how can we stick to them and actually see our goals through? We have put together the top 5 ways to stick to your new year's resolutions.

Break each goal down into more manageable tasks, and schedule time to work on them. Like they say, "fail to plan, plan to fail" meaning if we don't have a concrete plan to succeed, the chances of doing so will go down.

Don't try to tackle too many at the same time.  Pick a few that are the most important. It's easy to be ambitious when you think about your goals, but be sure to prioritize them in the order of most importance to you. 

Use a planner or vision board to help you stay on track and to visualize your goals. The more you organize your goals the better the chances are of seeing them through. Even the exercise of writing them down elevates your chances of committing to them.

Be realistic and choose things that are achievable.  Otherwise, you may become discouraged and give up. Make small goals that you can adhere to such as losing a pound a week not thinking about the overall goal of losing a lot of weight. Little victories will keep you on the path to achieving your big goals.

 Instead of a vague goal like wanting to exercise more, be specific like "take a walk every morning" or "go to the gym three times a week."