How changing my approach to New Year's resolutions finally helped me stick to one

A firm focus on health, and not the data that surrounds it, proved to be the healthier approach for me

A one-word approach helped Farah Andrews hone her New Year's resolution technique. Hayley Kadrou / The National

I am a serial New Year’s resolution setter, and a guaranteed New Year’s resolution breaker.

Every December 31, like a clockwork cliche, I sit down to consider what I want to get out of the next 12 months. I range from low-key and manageable targets – although my resolution to travel to three new countries a year from January 2020 hit some significant roadblocks – to an overnight refurb of my life tracked in a Google Sheet.

My love for the humble Google Sheet will come as no surprise to anyone who works with me, but the fact that in 2023 I failed to hit monthly self-prescribed reading, writing, saving, fitness, learning, walking and cooking goals, was also distinctly unsurprising. Thanks to my diligent record taking, I can see that I checked in with my daily, weekly and quarterly goals until February 2 last year, making it 33 out of 365 days of strict self-improvement.

Learning my lesson – “don’t bite off more than you can chew, Farah” – I took a very different approach this year. Inspired by a feature we ran on January 1, which urged readers to follow the Word of the Year practice, replacing long, wordy resolutions with a single word, I thought about my priorities for this year and honed in on ‘health’.

There was nothing radical about my word choice whatsoever, but there is, of course, decades of personal context that justifies it. At the end of 2023 I can confidently say I was at my most unhealthy – physically and mentally. I was the heaviest that I have ever been, finding daily excuses to put off going to the gym and prioritising everything I could over any form of self-care.

A victim of a post-Christmas cheese binge-induced bout of self-loathing, I booked a doctor’s appointment. “There must be something wrong with me,” I cried to my doctor, “I’ve been on a constant diet since I was about 14 and am putting on weight, not losing it.” My doctor heard me out and ran a series of blood tests, which told me, bar high cholesterol, there was categorically nothing wrong with me.

This should have been good news (and logically I know it was good news), but it was also a blow. I couldn’t blame my thyroid, fluid retention or hormones – the reason I wasn’t healthy was, simply put, me.

Which brings me back to my word choice and my focus for this year. An annual pursuit of health is certainly not unique to me; according to a 2023 poll of 1,000 Americans by Forbes, 48 per cent of people aimed to improve their fitness in 2024. Of the people polled, 53 per cent had typically given up by the third month, with just one per cent lasting a full year, and six per cent still sticking with their 2023 resolutions. This year, I told myself, I had to be in that six per cent, seeing a healthier lifestyle through to the end and into 2025.

All in all, I have managed it. But a holistic focus on health has been key. It’s never been about the number on the scales, although training myself off of a daily check-in didn’t happen overnight. It’s been about finding gym classes that I enjoy through trial and error, trying to go at least three a week, teaming up with supportive friends for healthier activities and giving myself a fitness focus, which ended up being a triathlon. At the beginning of this year, I'd have laughed at you if you told me I'd do one this year, but in November I did the T100 sprint triathlon in Dubai.

I have also tried to make considered diet choices that have, at no stage, been restrictive, just with a focus on ensuring sure my cholesterol dropped to a healthy level. I have stopped tracking on (and lying to) MyFitnessPal for the first time in about 10 years, and there isn’t a single graph that tracks my weight in the past 12 months. I’ve swapped daily check-ins with fitness apps for a monthly check in with my doctor, and found that a much more manageable level of accountability.

Absolutely none of this is ground-breaking, but somehow, it was to me. Rather than starting the year with a laundry list of ways to better myself, I honed in on my health and made a series of small changes that weren’t tied to the pressure of January 1.

Looking ahead to next year, I have been thinking about my word for 2025. For now, I guess it’s ‘consistency’, but check-in with me in a year’s time to see how that goes.