MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
It is January 2. How you doing on day 2 of your resolutions? Maybe you want to get healthy, maybe you want to save money, say no more often - that is the one I'm working on. But when we stumble with our New Year's goals - and friends, we will stumble - how should we bounce back? Or is the whole resolution thing actually just a waste of time? Tara Parker-Pope has thought deeply about these questions. She's a longtime health and wellness reporter. Her Substack is "One Day Better." Tara, welcome.
TARA PARKER-POPE: Thank you for having me. I do love New Year's resolutions, so I'm excited to talk today.
KELLY: I was going to ask - so you make them yourself?
PARKER-POPE: Oh, I do make them myself, and it's not just because I like them. I'm a bit of an outlier among health reporters. Everybody likes to write about the fact that New Year's resolutions fail.
KELLY: Exactly.
PARKER-POPE: And sometimes they do. But you know what? They don't fail a lot of the time. There's research that shows that, you know, in one study of about a thousand people, 55% felt they had achieve the resolution in a year. (Laughter) So I believe in them. And I think that the power of the resolution - I think the point we often miss is that the power of making a New Year's resolution is the process behind it.
KELLY: Help walk me through that process because we've all made resolutions and kept them or failed to keep them. What makes a good resolution, a successful one?
PARKER-POPE: I would say, first and foremost, you have to ask yourself, is this going to be fun for me?
KELLY: Fun?
PARKER-POPE: Am I going to have a good time doing it?
KELLY: Because all my resolutions are things like eating less, working out more. This is not fun.
PARKER-POPE: Yeah. I think you need to find a way to make that fun. So if you're thinking about your eating habits and what maybe isn't working for you, find something that is positive. Like, maybe it's just adding more vegetables to your plate, or maybe it's having a handful of nuts every day 'cause that's good for you.
Same thing with exercise. You know, I have always struggled with just going to the gym. That's not something I love. But what I do love is walking my dog. And also what I love is listening to an audiobook. So when you put all those things together, my step count, like, doubled because I decided I was going to listen to more audiobooks and do it on walks with my dog. And that's fun for me.
KELLY: OK. So you're talking about making it fun - something you might actually look forward to. It also sounds like you're talking about making it smaller - a more specific thing.
PARKER-POPE: Yes. There are a lot of studies on this, and the smaller and more specific it is the better it works, the more positive it is. So we talked about, like, adding more vegetables versus stop eating junk food. The first one's going to be better. And, you know, I'm going to run a marathon is a lot, but maybe I'm just going to, you know, take a jog after lunch every day - start there. Or maybe aim for a 5K - something small - if you're a runner. If you're not a runner, don't make a running resolution, you know?
KELLY: (Laughter) Right.
PARKER-POPE: It's kind of crazy, but that's my tip. And, like, I had a friend who called me once with all of her - she had a fantastic list, but it had, like, I don't know, seven or eight things on it. It was like, I'm going to run. I'm going to write my novel. I'm going to work out every day. I'm going to learn to juggle. And she just had this long list. And I said to her, how about one? How about one resolution? And she's like, well, which one? I said, how about - I like learn to juggle.
KELLY: Yeah.
(LAUGHTER)
PARKER-POPE: That's a great resolution. Like, that is something fun. It's cool. It's wacky. It's a good kind of stress break. I could see you being able to find time for it, you know, in between meetings.
KELLY: Did it work? Can she juggle now?
PARKER-POPE: She totally learned to juggle. Yes (laughter). I'm so proud of her. I do love a crazy resolution. I think that's sort of a neat way to say, I'm going to do something really unorthodox. And I think those are - that's a good direction.
KELLY: Aside from juggling, is there a favorite resolution that you would recommend?
PARKER-POPE: My favorite, and it's incredibly simple, is to just finish the sentence, I've always wanted to - blank. And that's it. That's your resolution. Do that thing you've always wanted to do.
KELLY: I love it. Tara Parker-Pope writes the Substack "One Day Better," a science-based health and wellness newsletter. Thank you so much. Happy New Year.
PARKER-POPE: Happy New Year.
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