Happy New Year’s! This time of year is full of new beginnings, fresh starts, and renewed focus on positive changes. However, meaningful change can be hard to implement, and it’s common for those with new year resolutions to quickly lose their motivation. In fact, while resolutions are very common, only about 8% of those who make resolutions will succeed in fulfilling them.
To help those resolutions stick, the experts at PhenoLife have some tips about some common resolutions that are great to have, but often hard to keep. In particular, these resolutions focus on getting in shape, focusing on mental health, and prioritizing getting appropriate rest. We’ve also included how CBD can help with some of these resolutions for best results!
A quick note: You should always talk with your doctor before you start to take CBD, especially if you are already on prescription medications.
Being Healthier
Trying to exercise more and lose some extra pounds is a common resolution, but it’s one of the hardest to stick to. There are several reasons why this is a tough resolution to hold on to, but if you know the pitfalls to avoid, you’ll increase the chances of being consistent!
When people are full of motivation, it’s easy to hit the gym fast and hard. However, that can cause problems. First, if you haven’t exercised recently, you’re going to be sore after that first workout. If you push yourself too much, it can be exceptionally painful as your muscles recover, and that pain can be a huge turn off to returning to the gym.
You should start with small, incremental steps towards getting into shape. Light cardio and light lifting a few times a week are all you need to do to successfully start making a lifestyle change. The more you exercise, the less sore you’ll become after exercise, allowing you to increase intensity without being miserable for days afterwards.
Dieting
For many, being healthier doesn’t start in the gym. Instead, it starts in the kitchen! Focusing on eating cleaner, more nutritionally dense foods is always a good decision, but “dieting” is doomed to fail. Fad diets that don’t work for normal life may provide short term results, but research shows that 80% of people who lose a lot of weight on a diet gain it all back within 12 months.
What’s the best way to eat healthy? Small, incremental changes work great for making adjustments to your lifestyle that fit. For eating healthier, that could be adding fruits and vegetables to your diet to start, or reducing portions (but not the kind of food you’re eating). As changes stick, you can continue to make incremental changes to slowly, but surely, make changes that really stick.
Can CBD Help with Exercise or Weight Loss?
Yes! CBD can be an excellent tool to help with exercise and weight loss. Research has shown that taking CBD after a workout can help with soreness of exercising and help speed up recovery. That can help soften the pain from that first workout, and can make it a lot easier to get up and get back to the gym!
CBD can also be a great tool for losing weight. Research is mixed on whether it can help curb your appetite (anecdotally, some claim that CBD is helpful in reducing food cravings, while others report that it increases food cravings). However, one of the most overlooked factors of losing weight is getting the right sleep.
Research shows that sleep is crucial in helping people manage weight loss, and CBD has a lot of ways to help with sleep, especially if one of the roadblocks to getting a good night’s sleep is chronic pain. CBD products like PhenoLife Body are specifically designed to help manage pain, so if nagging aches have been preventing you from getting the sleep you need, then CBD might be a great choice (especially if you’re serious about losing weight).
CBD can help with sleep in other ways, too, which we’ll touch on throughout this article.
Centering Your Mind
Not only is trying to be physically healthier a common resolution, so is trying to be mentally healthier. There are several avenues (and several challenges) to tackling your mental health, but there are tips here you can follow that can make it a lot easier.
Consider Therapy
While many people immediately think about antidepressants for chronic health conditions, starting with therapy may be a much better choice. It’s common for people to feel anxiety about seeking therapy, and in the United States, there’s still a stigma about seeking help. In fact, 47% of Americans think seeking therapy is a sign of weakness, which makes it hard to get help.
However, seeking therapy is becoming more mainstream, especially after the lockdowns of 2020, where many felt their mental health was pushed to the brink. This has helped many to see that there’s nothing wrong with talking to a counselor about mental health struggles, and seeing a therapist isn’t any different than seeing a doctor when you have a physical issue.
While access to mental health care can be a challenge, those who have access should consider therapy. It’s often covered or subsidized by health insurance (or is completely covered in countries where free healthcare is available), though it can take time to find a therapist with availability.
Try Antidepressants
If you’ve talked to a therapist or a doctor about your mental health challenges, they may recommend you seek out antidepressants. Even though antidepressants have been on the market for decades, research still isn’t conclusive about how effective they are in treating depression (though most would say that they provide some marginal benefit to those with diagnosed depression).
Antidepressants aren’t for everyone, but if you’ve struggled with your mental health, then it may be worth having a conversation with your doctor or therapist about trying them out.
Eat Well and Exercise
Resolutions can often work together! Eating a healthy diet can have a significant effect on preventing and treating depression, which would include foods like fiber, vegetables, fruit, fish, whole grains, legumes, as well as restricting the amount of sugary foods eaten. Remember, changing your diet should be done with incremental steps, so try adding these kinds of food or reducing sugary foods first!
Exercise is a huge component to maintaining good mental health. A survey found that 89% of studies looking at the connection between exercise and mental health found statistically significant, positive associations between physical activity and mental health. Any kind of exercise can produce positive results, so don’t be afraid to start small and work your way up to more vigorous routines.
Can CBD Help with Mental Health?
Yes! While CBD research is still pretty new, there’s already very promising research to suggest that CBD can help improve and maintain mental health. In a 2019 study, 79% of participants noticed a significant decrease in their anxiety when trying CBD the first month, with that number dropping to 78% in the second month, which suggests that CBD can help reduce anxiety quickly, as well as keep it at long-term, manageable levels.
In another 2020 study, research showed promise that CBD could help a wide-range of mental health disorders beyond anxiety, including depression and schizophrenia. While more research is needed, CBD may be a powerful part of helping to maintain positive mental health.
There are even CBD products that cater specifically to helping manage mental health, like anxiety. For example, PhenoLife Mind products have added cannabinoids to make soothing anxiety more potent, which may be a great option for those looking for more effective options in relieving their anxiety.
Committing to Getting the Sleep You Need
This last resolution may be the most important to keep! If you’re serious about being physically healthier or keeping yourself mentally healthy, getting enough sleep is crucial. Earlier, we mentioned that sleep is important to help lose weight, but a lack of sleep can make keeping a clear, calm mind challenging.
According to a 2021 study conducted by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), participants who got less than 6 hours of sleep a night were 2.5 times more likely to have frequent mental health distress than those that got more than 6 hours, even when controlling for other factors.
Are you worried about being too sore after exercise? Then you need to make sure to get enough sleep! A 2019 study concluded that sleep is arguably the single most important factor in exercise recovery. You won’t be able to successfully start, and maintain, an exercise routine if you don’t get the sleep your body needs.
Can CBD Help with Sleep?
Yes! We’ve already shared research that suggests CBD can help manage pain and anxiety, which may indirectly help you sleep better, but there’s research that CBD can help directly with sleep, too! A 2017 study showed that “is associated with an increase in the percentage of total sleep” of participants studied, and that study referenced another pilot study where “high-dose CBD was associated with improved sleep.”
To help make the sedating effects of CBD more potent, some brands create formulas with other cannabinoids that may help with sleep. For example, PhenoLife Sleep has extra CBN, a minor cannabinoid found in hemp, to help promote consistent, healthier sleeping habits.
Stay Hydrated
It’s probably not a surprise that many people make a resolution to drink enough water. If you’re busy, it isn’t hard to forget to stay hydrated throughout the day, but it’s very important to do so. Staying hydrated can help with a lot of health challenges, including getting good sleep and staying in a good mood.
Drinking enough water has other benefits too, like regulating body temperature, keeping your joints from aching, avoiding infections, and just letting your body work like it’s supposed to. You don’t need to worry about forcing yourself to drink a lot (the “eight glasses of water a day” suggestion is a myth). You should just make sure to drink when you’re thirsty.
Consistency is Better than Intensity
Finally, regardless of the resolution you choose to follow, it is far better to be consistent than it is to be intense. Throughout this article, we have said that slow, incremental changes are the best way to make changes that stick, and it’s worth saying that again as our final point. Whether you want to exercise more, eat better, or change habits to get more sleep, little changes are better than no change.
Of course, there’s science to back this up, too. A recent Time’s article referenced a study published in 2022 that showed 15 minutes of exercise a week is connected to a lower risk of dying early, just as long as your heart rate got up. For study participants that got 15-20 minutes of vigorous exercise a week saw a reduction in the risk of dying by 16% to 40%.
CBD Needs Consistency
Do you plan on using CBD to help meet some of your resolutions? Then expect consistency to be a key part in getting the most out of it! Those who use CBD need to take it daily for at least five days (ideally 10) before the full benefits are experienced, and CBD needs to be taken consistently onwards to maintain those benefits.
Consistency is how you’ll find your ideal dose, too. We encourage customers to start with lower doses and work their way to more potent doses so they can avoid some of the minor side-effects that new users have to CBD. However, you’ll never find your ideal dose if you don’t take CBD consistently!
New Year’s Resolution Wrap Up
Let’s wrap up what we’ve talked about resolutions in this article:
- Being healthier shouldn’t include a lot of exercise at once or diets
- Being mentally healthier may include therapy, antidepressants, exercise, and healthy foods
- Getting enough sleep is crucial to exercise recovery, important to weight loss, and pivotal to maintaining mental health
- Staying hydrated is always important (but only drink when you’re thirsty)
- Consistency is better than intensity
- CBD can help with exercise recovery, maintaining mental health, and helping get a good night’s sleep
If you want to make CBD part of your New Year’s resolution, start with PhenoLife! All of our products are lab tested for purity and come with a Certificate of Analysis. If you have any questions about CBD, how to use it to reach your resolution goals, or any questions about our products, our expert team would love to hear from you!
And remember, always consult with your doctor before starting to take CBD, especially if you currently take prescription medication.
