How to Boost Your Willpower and Stick to Your Resolutions

On Thursday 14 January, the Bupa team are throwing an event to help you all keep your New Year resolutions. We all want 2016 to be our happiest and healthiest year yet, so sign up to hear behavioural scientist, Sarah O'Farrell, talk about how you can make that happen.

Willpower is key to sticking to new habits and goals. It's like a muscle: the more you use it, the stronger it gets. But that's only half the story. There are lots of ways to replenish and restore it too.

Want to know what to expect? Here are a couple of things to think about...

You're more likely to cave in if you're surrounded by temptation, so try and reduce anything that might entice you to be unhealthy - throw away all biscuits in your house, for instance. Stress also makes us give in to temptation: we actually only have one source of willpower for all the challenges we face in a day, and using your self-control to cope with stressful events actually means it's harder to resist tempting treats later on. Thankfully, there are a few things we can do to recharge and grow our willpower, so that it's there for us when we need it. We'll be covering these in the webinar.

We'll also talk about how to create exercise regimes and healthy habits that really stick, rearrange your physical environment to help you to eat more healthily, and how to feel less stressed and more energised this year.

Take time to relax and learn to live in the present moment - it helps keep your goals top of mind. Practising mindfulness meditation can help you take better control of addictive behaviour, according to research.