Baylor Experts Offer Advice for Making and Keeping New Year’s Resolutions
In the coming weeks, we can expect around three in ten Americans to make a New Year’s resolution. It’s the time of year to make a commitment to making life improvements. But how many of these determined resolution-makers will actually keep the promises they’ve made? We’ve asked some of the experts in Baylor University’s Robbins College of Health and Human Sciences for their thoughts and advice around making and keeping a few popular New Year’s resolutions.
“I’m going to exercise more and get in shape.”
According to a 2024 Pew Research Center survey, nearly 80% of those who made a New Year’s resolution were focused on health, exercise, or diet. Savannah Rauschendorfer, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Health, Human Performance, and Recreation agrees that resolution-makers have their priorities right.
“Dr. Robert E. Sallis said it best, ‘Exercise is Medicine,’ she asserts. “Cardiovascular disease and cancer are the two leading causes of mortality in the United States and the age of disease onset has been decreasing in recent years. Exercise not only reduces the risk of the development of chronic disease by targeting key risk factors, but it is also an effective treatment to improve a current disease state.”
Rauschendorfer also shares that exercise delays general age-related physiological declines in fitness, muscular strength, bone density, and cognition.
“Making regular physical activity a New Year’s resolution is an incredible way to benefit both your mental and physical health and potentially improve your overall quality of life!”
In addition to her work as an exercise physiology teacher and researcher—which has included creating exercise intervention programs for clinical populations—Rauschendorfer is a 200-hour Registered Yoga Teacher and Pilates Instructor of over a decade. To kick off your New Year’s resolution, she recommends starting with something that motivates you and pairing those things you already love doing with a physical activity.
If you like hanging out with friends, take a group fitness class or identify a fitness accountability buddy to meet with for a weekly workout. If you like being outdoors, challenge yourself to walk, hike, bike, or run twice a week at a nearby park or trail. Enjoy listening to music? Create an exercise-specific playlist to motivate you and keep you moving.
“Exercise—no matter how daunting it seems—can and should start simple,” Rauschendorfer shares. “Set small, incremental physical activity goals, and most importantly, tailor them to your current likes and preferences.”
“I’m going to eat healthier and have a more balanced diet.”
A registered dietitian with over 30 years of experience, Leslee K. Funderburk, PhD, RD, CSSD, CSCS, Associate Professor of Nutrition Sciences in the Department of Human Sciences and Design, shares that “There is a wealth of research that supports that consistently eating ‘healthy’ has a positive impact on our health and well-being.”
Funderburk emphasizes that preventing or mitigating chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes or cardiovascular disease is much easier than treating the diseases themselves—and a healthy diet is a key component of maintaining your health.
The National Institutes of Health “found that nearly half of all the deaths in the United States in 2012 that were caused by cardiometabolic diseases were associated with suboptimal eating habits. Of 702,308 adult deaths due to heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes, 318,656 (45%) were associated with inadequate consumption of certain foods and nutrients widely considered vital for healthy living, and overconsumption of other foods that are not.”
In addition to disease prevention, Funderburk also champions other benefits of a healthy diet, such as supporting positive mental health and making it easier to maintain a healthy body composition and prevent excess fat gain.
However, altering something as habitual as your daily diet can be difficult. In order to promote sustainable change, Funderburk suggests taking it slow, rather than starting with a large, dramatic shift in your eating habits.
“Set reasonable weekly goals and make one to two changes a time,” she says. “For example, if you eat one serving of fruits and vegetables a day, set a goal for two to three servings a day. Or, if you drink a soda or other sugar-sweetened beverage every day, set a goal to decrease to every other day or substitute a sugar-free alternative. Small, consistent changes add up over time.”
“I’m going to build a sustainable wardrobe.”
We are living in an era of overconsumption—and it is detrimental to both the environment and to our budgets, stresses Lorynn Divita, PhD, Associate Professor of Apparel Design and Merchandising in the Department of Human Sciences and Design. Divita points to the rise of fast fashion, which results in overproduction of cheap garments that fall apart within a few wearings.
“I would encourage everyone to look into how sending our discarded clothing to Africa—where the majority of our donated clothing is shipped—has resulted in pollution of water sources from the dyes and chemicals of the garments they are inundated with, as well as the microplastics they shed,” she says.
Divita also notes the propensity for overconsumption to result in overspending, even when clothing is cheaper than ever before. According to Statista Consumer Insights, in the United States, 22% of women and 16% of men say they buy clothes they never wear. Divita’s solution? Make building a sustainable wardrobe your New Year’s resolution.
“Building a wardrobe takes effort, but the payoff comes from reduced harm to our environment and by actually saving money over time because you don’t buy things you don’t get full use of.”
The author of textbooks Fashion Forecasting and The Why of the Buy, Divita suggests beginning your resolution journey by editing your wardrobe—categorize everything into four piles: keep, repair, donate, and discard. Before getting rid of items, take note of recurring brands, fabrics, colors, and silhouettes, so you can avoid them in the future.
Before you go shopping again, take some time to learn about how to look for quality clothing—evaluating fiber content, fabrication, stitching, and seams. When you shop, buy the best quality items you can afford in order to save money in the long run by not having to replace cheap items frequently.
“I’m not telling anyone not to consume, but instead to consume intentionally. Remember, the most sustainable garment is the one you wear the most, so don’t be swayed by influencers or advertising that encourages you to jump on a bandwagon,” Divita says. “Buy what makes you feel good and things that you will wear for a long time.”
“I’m going to read more books this year.”
“Reading, in its richest forms, nurtures empathy, sharpens intellect, and strengthens our connection to the world around us,” shares Jana Parker, SLPD, CCC-SLP, Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. “Especially for adults, reading deeply and thoughtfully with focus can help to preserve and strengthen critical cognitive abilities that are increasingly at risk in the digital age.”
Parker explains that reading academic material for only 15 minutes per day can set professionals apart from their peers, while one to two hours per day—or around seven to 14 hours per week—has even greater benefits.
“Aside from academic reading within a specialized field, reading for fun can positively impact mental health and well-being. The act of ‘losing oneself’ in a good book can provide relief from stress and anxiety, creating a mental space for relaxation and reflection.”
(Speaking of reading more, Parker recommends Maryanne Wolf’s book, Reader Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World, on this particular topic.)
Parker’s passion for literacy is clearly demonstrated through her academic and clinical work. A certified speech-language pathologist, she was trained in the Orton Gillingham approach for literacy instruction and specializes in Structured Word Inquiry. She has worked in the Language and Literacy Clinic of the Baylor Speech-Language and Hearing Clinic since 2006 and directs the department’s Reading Clinic.
To kick off your New Year’s resolution to read more, Parker recommends spending a small, focused amount of time reading each day, leading to significant knowledge accumulation over time. Start with realistic goals and work your way up—striving for 15-minute increments of focused reading each day.
“Consistency in focused, deliberate reading is the key as knowledge accumulates over time as opposed to occasional bursts of intense reading that don’t stick,” she says. “Be intentional about reading a mix of foundational texts, the latest research, and field-related reports to stay current and maintain a well-rounded perspective.”