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Study after study points toward the painful reality that most people who set out to create New Year’s resolutions don’t actually achieve their goals. As the rigamarole of work, life, and personal stressors accumulate more and more, it’s easy to lose track of your initial ambitions and aspirations. The further we head into a new year, the harder it is to keep the resolutions you set at the start of the new year.
One reason it might be so difficult to maintain these resolutions could stem from a misunderstanding of how our brains work. A notable study published in the European Journal of Social Psychology determined that it takes anywhere between 18 to 254 days for most people to internalize and maintain new habits. Most participants of the study usually formed new positive habits after 66 days, but the average time it takes to form a habit can vary greatly case by case.
No matter what your personal average is, it’s abundantly clear that it takes several days, weeks, and oftentimes months of commitment to start cultivating new positive habits. It’s not something you can distill into a “resolution” that can be internalized within the span of a single holiday. While that reality might sound overwhelming, the good news is that you can do a lot to be proactive and keep your resolutions going past the holiday - day by day, one day at a time!
One great way to regularly hold yourself and your overall wellness accountable is by continuing to do so outside of the doctor’s office. Whether you’re hoping to improve yourself physically or mentally in 2023, we sincerely wish you the best of luck with maintaining your wellness resolutions this year, and telehealth providers can serve as a great resource for helping you maintain those wellness resolutions.
In that same spirit of good luck, here are seven wellness resolutions worth considering this year.
1. Work On Your Mental Health
The last two years have been a time of heightened emotional distress for a great many people across the country, and all around the world. Anxiety, depression, and overall mental health concerns are all collectively on the rise, particularly so amongst young people, and the unfortunate reality is that our society invests nowhere near the amount it should into improving the access and availability of mental healthcare resources.
But even if you can’t find an affordable local therapist in your community, the good news is that you can find them online, and find emotional support from the comfort and convenience of your house. Many of these platforms rose to prominence and popularity during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the demand for telehealth services was arguably at its peak.
We hope this year is the year where the pandemic finally fades out into becoming endemic, and if you’re among the many people who’ve been affected by the heightened emotional challenges of recent times, we hope this is the year where you can begin to cultivate a little more inner peace. If you’re struggling to find it on your own, an online therapist can help you look inward and work toward constructive solutions and coping strategies.
Read reviews of online therapy companies and do extensive digging to find the right counselor who can help you address your personal challenges. Providers like Sesame, Brightside, Calmerry, and Talkspace all have trusted reputations in the industry, but we encourage you to make up your own mind. It’s your mind, after all!
2. Improve Your Diet
It’s much easier said than done to reinforce any positive habit, but especially any positive habits that pertain to eating more healthily. The theory of Occam’s razor denotes that the simplest explanation is usually the correct one, and the simple truth is that sugary sweets and salty snacks are all satisfying to the taste buds.
But many Americans struggle to enjoy their comfort foods in comfortable, sensible, and responsible moderation, and many struggle with maintaining the discipline necessary to maintain a healthy balanced diet. If you’re one of those Americans, you should know that you’re far from alone, and that there is an abundance of resources available to help you keep yourself and your eating habits on the straight and narrow.
Weight management apps like Noom are an excellent tool to hold yourself and your New Year’s diet accountable. Many of these apps incorporate daily reminders and strategies influenced by cognitive behavioral therapy, allowing you to address any problematic eating habits you struggle with at their core psychological root.
3. Address Your Hair Loss
According to the medical experts at NYU Langone, over 80 percent of men and nearly half of all women will go on to experience major hair loss at some point during their lifetime. Baldness is a pervasively common condition, and while it’s far from the end of the world, it can certainly be a cause of body image insecurity for some.
After all, not everyone is able to pull off a chrome dome as well as Jason Statham, The Rock, or the central cast of Breaking Bad. But if hair loss is a cause for concern in your life, the good news is that it may not necessarily have to be an inevitable concern. Medications like finasteride and minoxidil have been shown to have some efficacy with stimulating hair growth and treating hair loss, slowing and sometimes outright preventing the progression of pattern baldness.
Even if you can’t find these two hair care medications at your local pharmacy, you can still acquire them through online vendors like Keeps, which sells the two treatments in tandem as a combined formula. We hope 2023 is not only a kinder year for you, but your hairline!
4. Address Your Allergies
It’s hard to feel good throughout the day when you’re continually plagued by sneezes, sniffles, itches, and irritating allergic reactions throughout the day. According to the American College of Allergy, Asthma, & Immunology, over 50 million Americans are believed to suffer from allergies, and these allergies are believed to be the sixth-leading cause of chronic illness in the United States.
Like hair loss and excess weight gain, allergies pose pervasively common issues, but ones that can oftentimes be treated, managed, and addressed with the right wellness toolkit. A licensed doctor who specifically specializes in treating allergy symptoms can help you find a personally-formulated remedy to address your allergies. Even if there are none in your area, trusted online pharmacy platforms like Picnic can still help you find personalized allergy symptom relief.
5. Take More Vitamins
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a staggering 92 percent of Americans are believed to be deficient in at least one essential vitamin, mineral, or nutrient. Processed foods, health conditions, and the lack of convenient access to healthy foods can all make it difficult for people to maintain the optimal and balanced intake of the vitamins and minerals necessary for ideal health and wellness.
Fortunately, vitamin supplements can still help you re-up your intake, and telemedicine providers like Rootine can help you find the right personalized solutions for you!
6. Improve Your Skin
The skin is the largest and most outwardly visible organ of your body, and one which people spend big bucks to routinely maintain. If Statista’s figures are to be believed, the global skincare market is valued at over $136 billion USD and counting!
The new year can bring new wrinkles and skin blemishes, but you don’t need to let these cosmetic challenges go unaddressed. A multitude of multi-functional, clinically tested skin care products are available on the market, including Caldera + Lab’s proprietary formula of 27 botanical ingredients proven to carry multifaceted, multifunctional skincare benefits.
7. Straighten Your Teeth
No local orthodontist in your area? No problem. While you may still need to visit a real-world orthodontist to get started and occasionally follow-up, Candid’s mail-order clear aligner treatment has been shown to be effective at potentially correcting mild crowding, spacing, and bite alignment issues.
If you’d prefer to opt for more online orthodontic care, we would recommend their platform in particular, as their treatment is affordable and supported by the guidance of licensed doctors, dentists, and orthodontists. Taking care of your teeth and your overall health are lifelong processes. Ones that won’t just follow you into this new year, but each new year beyond that one.
While maintaining these New Year(s) routines for that long might sound overwhelming, they don’t have to be. By being more mindful and proactive, you can take the necessary steps to foster more positive lifestyle changes day by day - one day at a time!
