Guest Post: New Year, New You: 4 Mini Makeovers to Kick Off 2013 With a Bang

Amidst the chorus of Auld Lang Syne, it hits you: how do I want this year to be different? The usual suspects roll through your mind: to tone up and lose that last 10 pounds, to slow down and just enjoy life a little more. But how can you accomplish them all? Make your New Year’s resolutions feasible by breaking them down into small bits. Here are four mini makeovers for your life to start 2013 off with a bang:

Create a Peaceful Space

You begin and end every day in your bedroom, so make sure the decor is helping you to slow down and relax instead of winding you up. Revamp your bedding for maximum comfort, adding a plush mattress topper, luxe sheets and pillows. Get new decorative pillow shams and find a duvet cover at Macy’s that complements your decor. Choose a duvet set in soothing colors for some ultimate relaxation.

Fine-Tune Eating Habits

Skip the drastic dieting and instead focus on making small steps toward improving your eating habits over the next year. To increase your chances for long-term success, it’s best to ease into resolutions to maximize willpower.

Social psychologist Heidi Grant Halverson recently noted to Huffington Post, “willpower is like a muscle that grows with use, so you’ll find that as you’re doing it, it gets easier and easier– it becomes a new habit.”

Create list of healthy eating goals for each month to help guide you through the year. Some goals may include:

• Cut out soda
• Stop eating heavily processed snacks
• Drink more water
• Cook dinner at home 5 nights a week
• Learn where your meat comes from
• Eat fresh vegetables or fruit with every meal
• Drink less alcohol
• Only shop the perimeter of the grocery store

Jumpstart Your Fitness

Find a natural way to work exercise into your daily routine. Instead of meeting your friend for drinks, go for a walk in the park to catch up. Vow to take the stairs instead of the elevator at work. Go for a walk after dinner instead of indulging in dessert. By developing a small fitness habit, it will be easier to establish others, such as hitting the gym four times a week or running 15 miles a week.

Out With the Old

Organization minimizes chaos and invites clarity and calmness into your life, a sentiment that rings especially true in your closet. When your closet is in disarray, it can be impossible to get to work on time or find the mate to your favorite pair of shoes. Take the new year as an opportunity to completely overhaul your closet and create a blissful space.

Chris McHenry, a professional organizer at Get It Together L.A., recently told Oprah.com, “remember that 80 percent of the time, we wear 20 percent of our clothes.”

Purge your closet of anything that you haven’t worn in the past year, as well as anything that is stained, stretched out or the wrong size. Adopt a one-in-one-out rule to keep your closet from becoming overloaded again. For instance, for each new pair of shoes you buy, commit to donating a pair that you rarely wear. This will keep you from accumulating more clothes and overloading your closet again.

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About the Author: Jackie O’neill It has been Jackie’s dream to help women who have issues with their self image to feel more confident about themselves and their body. She gives fashion and makeup advice to women who are plus sized and have low confidence.