Key to keeping resolutions

Ask the Expert: Sixth in a series

UTRGV students are ringing in 2020 with their resolutions and experts have some tips on how they can keep them.

This week’s Ask the Expert questions come from Valeria Martinez, a studio art sophomore, and Gerson Rivera, a criminal justice junior.

Rivera said his resolutions are to “pretty much just to better myself. Be more confident, actually get a new body physique … join more clubs, be more outgoing with people, meet more people.”

Martinez said her resolutions include focusing more on her schoolwork and putting an end to her habit of procrastinating.

Asked if she normally keeps her New Year’s resolutions, Martinez replied, “I try to but sometimes, you know, I slack off a little bit, but I’m gonna try to.”

Both students told The Rider that they plan to stay faithful to their resolutions and commit to their goals this year.

Asked what she is most looking forward to in 2020, Martinez replied, “The classes I’m taking actually, because they’re focused more on my major. So, it’s like I’ll be more into it than, you know, before the classes I had to take.”

Rivera said what he is most looking forward to is to see results this year. Asked if he usually keeps his resolutions, he replied, “Yes, I’m a man of my word.”

Both students told The Rider that they would like advice from experts on how to achieve and stay on track of their goals for this year.

UTRGV Experts

Jason Popan, a psychological science associate professor with a specialization in social behavior, shared some of his expert advice with students on how to achieve their New Year’s resolutions.

He explained the reason people make New Year’s resolutions.

“I think, it’s that of a desire for self-improvement and growth and the new year gives us an opportunity to, at least in our mind, reset ourselves and potentially start a new beginning for self-improvement and self-growth,” Popan said.

For students whose resolutions include being more social, he said, “I think to start small … Now we have to understand that some people are just naturally not very sociable, but if your goal is to increase your sociability, then you need to put yourself a little bit outside of your comfort zone in situations that might cause you to socialize more.”

Popan said another thing students can do to increase the likelihood of being successful in their resolutions is to get other people involved in their goals.

“If you get other people involved, first you might want to tell other people about it, people who maybe you care what they think about it,” he said. “Let’s say you wanted to quit a bad habit. You might tell someone that you care about that you’re going to do that and that makes it more likely that you’ll be accountable for your actions. Or you might want to post it on your social media that you’re going to be doing that and that accountability factor makes you more likely to do it.”

Asked what advice he has for students who want to be more confident, Popan replied students should try to become more successful at things that are important to them.

“If academics are very important to you, setting goals with regard to preparing for exams and reading course materials and maintaining a good level of attendance in your courses, I think that would go a long way towards improving self-confidence,” he said.

For students who want to quit their habit of procrastinating, Popan said, “So, procrastination can sometimes be rewarding when it works, but it also tends to create a lot of stress and even anxiety in many people.”

To avoid procrastinating, he suggests students get into the habit of giving themselves enough time to complete assignments and dedicating specific times and locations to work.

Norma Beardwood-Roper, a health and biomedical sciences professor and registered dietitian, shared some of her expert advice as to how students can be healthier this year.

“If you’re gonna have a New Year’s resolution, it has to be SMART,” Beardwood-Roper said. SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, reasonable and timely.

Asked what advice she has for students who want to be healthier during the new year, she replied, “When I’m working with patients or talking to someone about it,
I tell them, small baby steps. We can increase the goal as time goes by, but we wanna start off small.”

Beardwood-Roper also has some tips for those who want to eat healthier.

“People get all caught up in, ‘Oh, low carb, low carb,’” she said. “But you don’t want it to be necessarily low carb, that’s kind of a misused term. You want it to be low refined carbohydrates. Refined carbohydrates are the cake, the pan dulce, churros, the buñuelos, all that kind of stuff. That’s refined carbohydrates. What you do need to have is whole grain, which we refer to as complex.”

The registered dietitian said she is not a fan of the ketogenic and Atkins diets and suggests using the DASH or Mediterranean diet.

DASH stands for dietary approaches to stop hypertension and consists of low-fat dairy products, fruits, vegetables and lean meats, according to Beardwood-Roper.

The Mediterranean diet consists of foods such as olives, olive oil, grilled peppers, mushrooms, onion, tomato, eggplant and lean meats.

Beardwood-Roper said she doesn’t believe in “superfoods.”

“I think we need to have a balanced diet of foods, a variety of things,” she said. “So, yeah, eat fruits but get a variety. Strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, bananas, oranges, pears, whatever, because each of them has a unique set of vitamins and minerals. … So, it needs to be a variety.”

Para la versión en español de este artículo, oprima aquí.