Ushering in the New Year can be a wonderful but overwhelming feeling. It is a chance for a clean slate, a refresh, a time to start out with new goals and resolutions or revise existing goals to make sure they’re inline with longterm ones. All of these things are great but they can lead to a feeling of despair when everything does not go perfectly according to plan. As most of us probably already know, life rarely goes according to plan. Instead of setting individual goals and resolutions this year, try setting up one of these healthy New Year resolutions for busy families. You will have an entire support system and working together as a family to achieve your resolutions or goals and that can teach you more about each other than you might think! Here are some ideas for healthy New Year resolutions for busy families that are simple for you, and your busy family to get started with this year!
Eat Better
Eating better on your own when you have a family to cook for is next to impossible. Making two (or more) different options for every meal, constant temptations, feeling left out; just does not work well. Instead of trying to make drastic changes for yourself this year work together as a family to set healthy eating goals! This will cut down on anyone feeling like they’re going at it alone and eating better can work to help cure a lot of different problems. Weight loss might be one of your goals but having more energy, sleeping better, and lowering the risk of health problems for everyone are just a few of the benefits of eating healthy!
The whole family can see results that will impact their daily lives.
Read More
This is a great option especially if you have little ones! Reading together as a family can seem like a daunting task when you have different age and comprehension levels. Start a reading challenge chart that rewards you all for working towards your goals! A pizza party night, movies, new books, the possibilities for rewards are endless! The great thing about reading more as a family is that you get to learn more about each other through your interests.
This common ground will help give you insights about your family members that you may have missed otherwise!
Get Unplugged
Try working as a family to spend less time in front of screens and more time with each other. This can also be a great way to work together to get more exercise. Spend time outside as a family. You can walk the dogs, play at the park, or even spend some time working on your sledding or skating skills; no matter what you choose to do, turn the phones off.
Enjoy each other’s company without the interruptions and distractions of technology.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Maybe you already recycle, maybe you’d like to be more diligent about your recycling habits, or maybe you’d just like to start working on being more earth conscious. Working together as a family to “go green” this year can be a great way to combine your various skills to do something good for each other and the environment. Make your recycling plan into a challenge or a chart so everyone knows how they can help! If you can recycle for money you can set that aside for a family reward at the end of the year!
No matter what you decide to do for your healthy New Year’s resolutions the most important thing, being a busy family and all, is that you connect with one another.
Spending quality time together as a family will help you feel supported and connected all year long.
How do you choose New Year’s resolutions for your busy family each year?
Did you decide on one for this year?
42 Comments
I need to unplug more often and eat better.
We all need more of that Jennifer, you can do it!
We have started to play board games to get unplugged, and spend some more time together as a family. Right now Trouble is the boys favourite.
Every year my family commits more seriously to the above. I think we are almost where we want to be as a whole.
So much easier when everyone is working towards the same goals 😉
This is a great list. I’ve been eating better because of a health issue. My goal is to encourage my family to eat healthy, too.
The entire family can benefit from eating better together. Then you have a whole support system!
Great list, and love the family socks pic! This year I surprisingly made no resolutions, but I have kept on track with my resolutions from 3 years ago to eat better and get daily exercise.
So you basically carry on with your permanent resolutions! That’s fantastic!
I’m not that big on resolutions. I just try to be the best I can and try to always react with kindness. That’s the closest I come to a resolution but it’s not really a New Year kind of thing.
I think that the New Year is really just a refresher and reminder. I love that you always try to react with kindness I strive to do that as well!
what an awesome like. i need to get unplugged at times as well. i have been working to eat better. i been doing ok but sometimes its a real struggle. lol.
OMGOSH eating better can be a huge struggle! Unplugging can be hard as we’ve become so accustomed to being plugged in! Keep up the good work!
We didn’t really think of a whole lot of resolutions. We just promised to spend more time together this year. To not focus so much on technology and to enjoy eachother.
That’s really the main goal Clo, life gets so busy its important to spend time and enjoy the moments together 🙂
We are working on being more active as a family. I have some swimming planned for the weekends. It is great exercise for the whole family.
Family swimming is a fantastic way to spend quality time together Tammi! Thanks for the reminder.. local pool trip is now on my calendar!
These are great tips for New Years resolutions. We are working on a recycle center in the kitchen so we can reduce our waste.
Thats awesome!! We have more recycling now than actual trash. I have 6 large recycling bins :/ lol
My family needs to unplug more often. We do recycle and read voraciously.
It can be tough in a techno world for sure. It makes a huge difference though to just be present in the moment.
Love those resolutions! My favourite being the Unplugged and Reading.. So hard to not be constantly attached to my smartphone or internet.
tell me about it! I’ve made it a habit to put the phone down when the kids get home from school and dedicate a solid 3 hours together.. although I do sneak it into the bathroom with me lol
I love the get unplugged. That is one we are really working on this year, my kids included. Such a big problem with being on technology all the time now, unplugging seems so necessary.
Very necessary or we can get lost and caught up in the matrix lol
Hey Paula – this site looks lovely now. Much cleaner looking, Nice work. Did you do it yourself!!? Anyways yes we have a couple of resolutions. My personal one is to be gluten free again because it just helps me feel better. But my big one really is to travel more personally and professionally. I have a lot of travel related partners this year so I have to add more travel with is delightful. So that’s really my philosophy of the year Travel. As well I blogged today about making tiny sacrifices like stop buying crap at Bulk Barn. I have a brutal sweet tooth. Anyways these are some good ones for sure.
Thank you! Yes, I did this site on my own 🙂 I indulged in gluten during the holidays and I feel so bloated, trying to get back on track with that. I love your philosophy of travel for the year! I’d love to travel more both professionally and personally. Oooo Bulk Barn.. they are evil for us sweet toothed beauties!
I would love to get my family to agree in being more unplugged.
It can make them feel like life is over at first.. but it’s so important to connect with each other without the technology barrier!
Lots of great ideas here! I like the idea of doing a family resolution. It’s a nice twist and then you have a great support system!
Family resolutions make for the best support system in the world! Hope you try some 🙂
I love this. We normally forget to do family resolutions – but for sure now that the little one is in preschool, we definitely decided to make a few for this year. Getting unplugged is a biggie for all of us. And we’re going to be more present for one another. More actual family games nights and playing with each other every day. Like REALLY playing with each other. We’re also working on eating better too. It’s true – we just have to go at this together, and it will work out.
It will work out for sure working together as a family is the best way to do it! Being present for one another is HUGE, family game nights are a great way to connect and bond in real life lol
My resolution this year is to learn how to eat better and understand nutrition. There’s a few others but this one’s number one for us.
ahh.. understanding nutrition is really key! There is so much mis-information out there. Good luck on your nutritional journey!
I definitely need to get back on track. I have been pigging out way too much lately!
You and I both! I’m just trying to clear out all the holiday treats.. They just can’t be thrown out.. that would be so wasteful! lol
These are really good resolutions. I don’t like making resolutions per say but I do always use the start of the year to make a plan for how I want that year to go. Always at the top of my list is getting more fit!
Making a plan and having goals for the year are resolutions in and of themselves. Good for you, getting fit has huge payoffs!
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Reading more is a good goal. Track your progress at 50bookpledge.ca
Reading is food for the soul. I’ve never heard of that site, I’ll have to check it out!