Tag Archives: weight loss

Not sure where to begin to improve your health? A guide to taking the first step

Posted on December 15, 2014 | Leave a comment

If you are thinking about losing weight, becoming more active, or quitting smoking you are not alone. These are three of the most common health-related New Year’s resolutions. Considering that two-thirds of American adults are overweight, about half don’t meet minimum recommendations for physical activity, and one in five smoke, there are many people who need to change more than one of these behaviors.

Quitting smoking and changing eating and exercise habits to lose weight or improve fitness are among the most difficult behavior changes to make, especially at the same time. Some people focus on one change to begin with.

Obviously, changing all three of these behaviors is ideal, but if you are only willing to change one, which should you take on first to have the biggest impact on your overall health? This is the topic of my Health & Fitness column in the Aiken Standard this week.

You might think that quitting smoking would be the most important change to make initially. Smoking is the primary cause of lung cancer and other respiratory diseases such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Smoking also increases the risk of most other cancers and is a major contributor to heart attacks and strokes. Quitting smoking greatly reduces these risks with beneficial changes that begin within days of quitting. Despite this, if you only want to change one behavior, smoking isn’t the place to start.

Being overweight is a leading cause of diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and some cancers. If you are overweight, losing just 10% of your body weight (20 lbs. for a 200 lb. person) can significantly reduce the severity of these conditions. Maintaining a healthy body weight can prevent many of these health problems. However, losing weight is not the first change you should make.

It turns out that becoming physically active is the most important change you can make to improve your overall health. Decades of research show that regular physical activity reduces the risk of most chronic diseases including diabetes, heart disease, and some cancers and can extend the lifespan by up to five years. In fact, the health risks of inactivity are equal to or greater than that of obesity or smoking. Regular activity also improves muscular strength, aerobic fitness, bone density, cognitive function, and memory. There is no other single intervention—drugs included—that has as many health benefits.

Research also shows that the negative health effects of being overweight and obesity are, in part, caused by inactivity and poor fitness. If you are overweight but physically fit, your risk of death is lower than if you are at a “healthy” weight but unfit. Regular exercise can reduce the risk of diabetes in people who are overweight, whether they lose weight or not. Furthermore, studies of “successful losers” show that daily exercise is a requirement for long-term weight loss, so becoming active now can help you lose weight later.

You should change all three of these behaviors to achieve optimal health. But if you are looking for an initial step that will have the biggest impact, start by becoming more active. A good initial goal is to reduce the time you spend being sedentary (sitting) and to get a minimum of 30 minutes of moderate-intensity activity, such as a brisk walk, each day. You can get greater benefits by participating in more intense exercise, including strength training, three or more days per week. And once you have established a routine of regular activity you will be ready to make other health changes.

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Funny calorie math.

Posted on November 17, 2014 | Leave a comment

Have you ever heard that a few extra calories each day—an extra soda, for example—can add up to significant weight gain over time? Or that making small changes in what you eat, such as skipping dessert, can promote weight loss? If so, you are familiar with the concept of energy balance. And if you were ever surprised by those claims, you are familiar with what I call funny calorie math.

This is the topic of my Health & Fitness column in the Aiken Standard this week.

Your body weight at any time is determined by the balance between the energy you take in and the energy you expend. The “energy in” part is simple, it’s the calories in the food you eat.

Your energy expenditure is determined by your basal metabolic rate (BMR), the calories burned keeping you warm and alive, as well as the energy you expend in activity. Of these, the BMR accounts for the majority of your energy expenditure, but you have the most control over your level of activity.

According to this energy balance model, eating or drinking an additional 250 calories per day would add up to about one pound of weight gain every two weeks and 26 pounds after one year (using the rough estimate that to gain a pound requires 3500 extra calories.

+250 calories/day  x  7 days/week  =  1750 calories/week  =  3500 calories/2 weeks

3500 calories/2 weeks  x  1 lb. weight gain/3500 calories  =  1 lb. weight gain every two weeks  =  26 lbs. weight gain per year!

Calculations like this are common, typically used to point out how fattening a particular food or beverage can be. But the same principle can be applied in reverse to determine weight loss.

Example: Eat (or drink) and extra 250 calories per day

250 calories/day  x  7 days/week  =  1750 calories/week  =  3500 calories/2 weeks

3500 calories/2 weeks  x  1 lb. weight loss/3500 calories  =  1 lb. weight loss every two weeks  =  26 lbs. weight loss per year!

The same formula predicts that cutting back by 250 calories per day should lead to losing 26 pounds in one year. This idea is the basis for suggesting that making small changes to your diet can lead to significant weight loss over time.

You can do the same thing with physical activity, too. Adding a 45-minute walk, which burns approximately 250 calories, each day should lead to the same 26 pounds of weight loss in a year.

Example: walk 2.5 miles in 45 minutes each day, using the rough estimate that you will burn 100 calories per mile.

2.5 miles/day  x  100 calories/mile  =  250 calories/day

250 calories/day  x  7 days/week  =  1750 calories/week  =  3500 calories/2 weeks

3500 calories/2 weeks  x  1 lb. weight loss/3500 calories  =  1 lb. weight loss every two weeks  =  26 lbs. weight loss per year!

The assumption, of course, is that you aren’t changing anything else as you eat 250 fewer calories or burn an additional 250 calories per day through exercise. It would be relatively easy to offset the energy expended though a walk by even a small change in what you eat. This is the biggest weakness of this energy balance model—in order for it to accurately predict weight loss or gain, nothing else can change.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the way it really works. Changes in body weight through eating or exercise also lead to changes in total energy expenditure. As you lose weight, the total calories you burn in a day drops, mostly due to a decrease in BMR, since it is based on your body weight. The result is that over time you don’t lose weight as quickly. The exact opposite occurs with weight gain, which causes BMR to go up, limiting weight gain.

This leads to a different outcome: the extra 250 calories per day is likely to lead to a weight gain of closer to 10 pounds (maybe less) due to your BMR increasing as you gain weight over the year. And the estimation of weight loss will be different, too, given that BMR will drop slightly over time.

This is one of many reasons why exercise is important for weight loss. You can offset the lower BMR that occurs as you lose weight by increasing energy expenditure through activity. Additionally, regular exercise can add to the weight you lose through a diet and help keep the weight off later.

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Why turning off your phone is so hard, and what it means for losing weight

Posted on November 10, 2014 | Leave a comment

I had an interesting conversation with one of my students recently about making a behavior change. It brought up a good point. So good, I wrote about it in my Health & Fitness column in the Aiken Standard this week.

One of the courses I am teaching right now is Health & Behavior Change. In it we identify the major factors that contribute to chronic disease and discuss how to modify them to improve health. Throughout the course, the emphasis is on health behaviors and how to change them for the better.

For example, smoking is among the most difficult health-related behaviors to change. Obviously, there is the addictive nature of nicotine that makes smoking cessation challenging. Beyond the drug effect, smoking also has a behavioral component. This includes what a smoker does first thing in the morning, after a meal, or on a work break as well as the act of holding a cigarette in his or her hand. Add to that the social aspects of smoking, including the influence of friends and family members, and it is easy to understand why it is a difficult habit to break.

This same principle applies to other health behaviors, including eating and activity. Like smoking, what we eat and our activity level are complex behaviors that are difficult to change. Because of this, losing weight can be as difficult as quitting smoking for similar biological and behavioral reasons. We think of weight loss as being about a diet or exercise program, but it’s really about changing behaviors and habits.

his is a difficult concept to teach, so I have my students learn through experience. Since almost all of my students are non-smokers and most are active and at a healthy body weight, I have them complete a project in which they change some other behavior. They are responsible for identifying a behavior that has a negative effect on their life, coming up with a plan to change it, and embarking on a four-week behavior change experience.

One student wanted to change her social media habits. As a compulsive social media user, she spent more hours than she realized checking, posting, and commenting on Facebook, Twitter, and other sites. Her goal was to limit her social media time so that it didn’t interfere with classes or studying. One of the steps she took was to turn off the notifications that alerted her to new activity. This was helpful, but she still found the habit of checking her phone hard to break.

In a conversation, she noted that the one thing that would help more than anything else would be to switch her phone off during the day. This way she would have her phone if she needed it, but it wouldn’t be so easy, or tempting, to use it. Despite knowing the most effective strategy—the one thing—that would help her, she never did it.

I thought this was an excellent example of something that is common in making health behavior changes. In many cases, people probably know the one thing they need to do to be successful but for a host of reasons, they don’t do it. This may lead people to make other changes that aren’t nearly as helpful. While even the smallest behavior modifications can help, successfully losing weight or quitting smoking really does require making big changes.

This goes a long way in explaining why quitting smoking, losing weight, and changing eating and activity behaviors can be so difficult, even when people know what they need to do. There is no easy solution for this problem, but finding someone to hold you accountable for making the necessary changes and sticking to them is a good start.

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Don’t forget about breast cancer prevention!

Posted on October 13, 2014 | Leave a comment

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and many local and national organizations are promoting breast cancer awareness, sharing information about the disease, and celebrating survivors. This month represents the most visible part of a year-round effort to educate about, screen for, and hopefully cure this devastating disease.

Of course, these are all worthy goals that deserve our attention and support. What is often missing are the steps women—especially young women—can take to reduce their risk for, or even prevent, breast cancer.

Approximately 1 in 8 women will develop breast cancer. The American Cancer Society estimates that around 300,000 new cases of breast cancer are diagnosed and nearly 40,000 women die from this disease each year. Breast cancer can occur in men, but these cases are rare, so the focus is rightfully on women.

Much attention is given to genetic factors that increase the risk of breast cancer. These include certain gene mutations, including BRCA1 and BRCA2, as well as family history. A woman who has a first-degree relative (mother, sister, or daughter) who has had breast cancer has nearly twice the risk of being diagnosed herself.

Considering that most women diagnosed with breast cancer have no family history, it is also important to try to reduce other modifiable risk factors. This involves making health behavior changes that are probably familiar to most people. The good news is that these changes can also reduce the risk of other cancers, cardiovascular disease, and most other chronic diseases.

Avoid tobacco use. While the results of studies of smoking and breast cancer are mixed, a conservative interpretation is that smoking may increase the risk. Smoking increases the risk of other cancers, especially lung cancer, as well as heart attack, stroke, and other lung diseases. Not smoking, or quitting now, is among the best health decisions a woman can make.

Consume alcohol in moderation. Women should limit their alcohol intake to one drink per day. Women who consume more than two drinks per day increase their risk of breast cancer by 20% over women who don’t drink.

Maintain a healthy body weight. Being overweight can increase the risk of breast cancer in post-menopausal women by 30–60%. Excess body fat can alter the levels of estrogen and other hormones. The good news is that losing as little as 10 pounds can reduce this risk.

Be physically active everyday. Regular activity and exercise can lower breast cancer risk by as much as 20%. In addition to helping with weight control, physical activity may lower the level of certain hormones that are associated with breast cancer. The biggest reduction in risk of breast cancer is seen in women who have been active their whole lives, but it is never too late to start.

Eat a healthy diet. The evidence from studies on the effect of diet on breast cancer risk is mixed, and more research is needed. In general, increasing fruit, vegetable, and whole grain intake and reducing red meat is associated with at least some decrease in breast cancer risk. These “healthy” foods are rich in vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients and eating more of these foods may lead to weight loss or prevent weight gain with age.

Every woman has a different breast cancer risk based on her unique family history, biology, and lifestyle. But by making some simple health behavior changes, all women can reduce their risk for, or even prevent, breast cancer and improve their overall health.

 

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Loosening our belts. Expanding waistlines means expanding health problems.

Posted on September 22, 2014 | Leave a comment

In a report published this week, researchers showed that the waistlines of Americans are still expanding. This is bad news, since excess fat, especially around the waist, has serious implications for our health. Fortunately, there is much we can do to lose weight and improve our health.

This is the topic of my Health & Fitness column in the Aiken Standard this week.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, looked at the percentage of adults who had a high waist circumference (over 35 inches for women and over 40 inches for men). Overall, the average American added over one inch to their waist circumference over the past decade. As of 2012, over half of U.S. adults (51%) meet the criteria for abdominal obesity, compared to 46% in 2000.

Since excess muscle tends to compress the abdomen, this really does reflect an increase in fat around the waist, not the benefits of a national sit-up campaign. And it is the location of the fat that makes this worrisome. Excess fat around the waist includes both subcutaneous fat beneath the skin (what you can pinch) as well as visceral fat stored deep in the abdomen.

Excess visceral fat is associated with an increased risk of high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease, among other chronic conditions. The only way to determine how much visceral fat a person has is through an imaging test like a CT scan. (In my lab we can estimate visceral fat by making a few abdominal measurements.) The important point is that the bigger your waist circumference, the more visceral fat you likely have.

You may have heard of people’s body shapes described as “apple” or “pear.” Upper body obesity (apple), sometimes called android obesity because it is more common among men, is associated with a high waist circumference and visceral fat. Lower body, or gynoid, obesity (pear shape) tends to involve a narrower waist but more fat storage in the hips, thighs, and buttocks.

These body shapes become apparent when you measure both waist and hip circumferences. A high ratio between waist and hip measurements indicates more upper body fat; a low waist-to-hip ratio suggests lower body fat. That said, just measuring your waist circumference can give you the same information. A waist measurement greater than 40 inches for men and 35 inches for women indicates excess upper body—and visceral—fat.

There is no single explanation for why waist circumference has increased so much in the population. But it almost certainly has to do with a combination of individual factors including what foods we eat, how much we eat, and how active we are. The average American with an expanding waistline likely eats too much poor quality food and doesn’t get enough exercise.

These are exactly the same factors that, when reversed, can lead to fat loss. Indeed, research shows that even modest weight loss from a low-calorie diet and exercise can result in reduced body fat, including visceral fat. This is one reason why weight loss is effective for reducing high blood pressure and controlling blood glucose.

Even if you don’t lose weight, increasing your level of physical activity, particularly regular exercise, can offset some of the negative health effects of excess visceral fat. In addition to helping you lose weight, exercise can also help you maintain your waistline and prevent abdominal obesity.

The bottom line is that when your pants start to feel tight, they are trying to tell you something. Listen to them!

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Fat still matters

Posted on September 15, 2014 | Leave a comment

Last week I wrote about some recent research suggesting that low-carbohydrate diets may be better for weight loss that low-fat diets. For many, this study reinforced the notion that traditional recommendations are wrong and that the key to good health is to eliminate carbohydrates from your diet. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

The recent study did show that people lost more weight and experienced beneficial changes in blood lipids when they followed a low-carbohydrate diet compared to those who ate a low-fat diet. However, this does not mean that low-fat diets aren’t effective for weight loss or that they are “unhealthy.”

In fact, low-fat diets have long been used effectively to promote weight loss, reduce heart disease risk, and lead to healthier eating in general. This is supported by the results of hundreds of research studies as well as the practical experience of health professionals and real people. Here are two reasons why fat still matters when it comes to health.

First, reduced-fat diets have been shown to improve blood cholesterol and lower the risk for heart disease. Eating a diet low in fat, especially saturated and trans fat, has been the foundation of nutrition recommendations for decades. The fact is that these diets are effective for weight loss, reducing cholesterol, and otherwise improving heart health.

One famous study demonstrated that following a low-fat diet contributed to a reduction in the severity of atherosclerosis, the narrowing of arteries that leads to many heart attacks. Literally hundreds of other studies have shown similar beneficial results.

This isn’t some magical effect of eating less fat, though. The health benefits are likely due to eating more vegetables, fruits, and whole grains as much as they are to reducing fat intake. The point is that adopting a low-fat diet can lead to better nutrition overall.

Second, reducing fat intake is a good way to reduce calories. This is true because fat contains nine calories per gram, more than twice that of carbohydrates and protein, so cutting fat is an effective way to cut calories. Limiting fat intake also reduces calories indirectly because many high fat foods are also high in sugar and calories (think of most desserts).

It is important to mention that simply reducing fat intake won’t always lead to weight loss; total calories must be lower, too. This is a mistake many make when they reduce fat intake, but increase the amount of calories from other sources, typically carbohydrates. Many low-fat foods are actually relatively high in calories due to added sugar or people tend to eat more of them (the SnackWell Effect).

The effectiveness of low-fat diets for weight loss has been demonstrated in research studies (like this one) and countless weight loss programs. In one notable study, a diet low in fat even led to weight loss in people who weren’t trying to lose weight. And don’t forget that in the recent study about low-carbohydrate diets, the subjects that followed the low-fat diet also lost weight.

For some people, cutting carbohydrates as a way to lose weight is reasonable; for others, reducing fat intake makes sense. For most people, though, doing both to some extent is the best option, but going to extremes is unnecessary.

Eating less added sugar and avoiding foods with added fats (such as French fries) are good recommendations for almost everyone. That said, there is little evidence for the benefit of limiting carbohydrates in the form of whole grains, legumes, vegetables, and fruits or the fat in meat and dairy.

The bottom line is that the quality of food we eat is more important than the specific amounts of the nutrients it contains. Eating low-carbohydrate or low-fat diets can help steer you toward making healthier choices, but so can avoiding processed foods in favor of wholesome, nutrient-dense “real” food.

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Good sources of protein for your low-carb diet

Posted on September 10, 2014 | 1 comment

Thanks to a recent study and media coverage (including me), low-carbohydrate diets are a popular topic of discussion. For many people, cutting back on carbohydrates is a good way to reduce calories to promote weight loss.

Most low-carbohydrate diets also emphasize protein intake. But finding healthy protein sources is important for promoting weight loss and good health.

This recent discussion about the best protein for optimal weight loss  on the Train Your Body show on RadioMD should help.

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The diet wars continue

Posted on September 8, 2014 | 2 comments

If you are confused or frustrated by the conflicting claims about whether a low-fat or low-carbohydrate diet is the best, you are forgiven. First we were told that eating a low-fat diet was the best way to lose weight and improve heart health. Then, research suggested that low-carbohydrate diets were better. And back and forth it has gone for years.

During this time, the prevailing recommendations have suggested that a diet low in fat and high in carbohydrates was best. But more and more research has supported the notion that cutting carbohydrates, not fat, would lead to greater weight loss. Although this has been supported by some research, critics pointed out that eating more fat would raise blood cholesterol and other risks for heart disease.

According to a recent study, though, low-carbohydrate diets seem to have benefits for promoting weight loss and improving some indicators of heart health over low-fat diets. But you should hold off on shunning fruits and vegetables in favor of cheeseburgers! Here is a practical interpretation of the research and some common sense recommendations, taken from my Health & Fitness column in the Aiken Standard this week.

The study, published last week in the Annals of Internal Medicine, reported on 150 men and women who either restricted the amount of carbohydrates or fat they ate. After one year, the group that ate a low carbohydrate diet lost over 7 pounds more than the subjects on the low-fat diet. Additionally, the low-carbohydrate diet promoted greater improvements in blood lipids than the low-fat diet.

This is important for two reasons. First, this wasn’t a weight loss study; the researchers were simply following the subjects to see what would happen as they followed either diet. The fact that the low-carbohydrate group lost more weight suggests that it is relatively easier to cut calories following this type of diet.

This is consistent with other research showing that eating more carbohydrates, especially refined carbohydrates and sugar, can actually make people feel hungrier and eat more. Indeed, other studies have shown low-carbohydrate diets to be more effective for weight loss than low-fat diets (although a more recent study suggests there isn’t such a difference).

Second, the greater decrease in triglycerides and “bad” LDL cholesterol and increase in “good” HDL cholesterol in the low-carbohydrate group were different from what might be expected. Conventional wisdom holds that a low-fat diet should have a greater effect on blood lipids. Since weight loss can have a big effect on blood lipids, the improvement in the low-carbohydrate group may be due to losing more weight, not a direct effect of the diet.

It is important to note that the low-fat diet also led to weight loss in this and numerous other studies. The critical component of any weight loss diet is that it is relatively low in calories, regardless of what nutrients supply those calories. Really, almost any diet will lead to weight loss as long as it contains less energy than what is expended, but a low-carbohydrate diet may be more effective for weight loss than the traditional low-fat diet.

The bottom line is that the best diet is one that emphasizes eating wholesome foods, not on cutting carbohydrates or fat. That said, limiting carbohydrates in the form of refined grains and added sugar is an excellent way to reduce calorie intake and improve the overall nutritional value of what you eat. And shifting toward more monounsaturated fats (think olive oil and nuts) rather than worrying about the total amount of fat you eat is also a good idea.

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To make your diet healthier, add exercise.

Posted on August 25, 2014 | 2 comments

The American diet is frequently blamed for the poor health of Americans and, increasingly, other countries. The quest for the healthiest way to eat can literally take people around the world to find the right foods eat.

Unfortunately, diets and supplements that include these “super foods” are rarely the answer to good health on their own. It turns out that the key getting the optimal health benefits from your diet isn’t the food itself—it’s exercise!

This is the topic of my Health & Fitness column in the Aiken Standard this week. It’s not to say that what you eat isn’t important (it is!). The point is that healthy eating will only get you part of the way to the goal of good health.

For decades scientists have tried to isolate the types of foods or individual nutrients that lead to good health by studying what healthy and unhealthy people eat around the world. In some studies eating more of a certain nutrient or food, like saturated fat or red meat, was associated with a higher risk of heart disease and people who ate more fish had better heart health.

This is how we arrived at the common guidelines that encourage us to eat more fish and less red meat. The assumption was that the saturated fat in red meat was the cause of more heart attacks in Americans while the beneficial oils in fish protected the Japanese from heart disease.

But these studies, or at least the interpretation of these studies, didn’t take into account the fact that the populations that had the higher heart attack risk were also less active than their healthier counterparts. Perhaps it was the physical activity that made the difference in health.

A good example of this is the popular Mediterranean diet, which is often touted as the healthiest diet in the world. It’s true that people in the Mediterranean region historically tended to have a lower risk of heart disease. This was thought to be due to their diet which emphasizes healthy fats from olive oil along with vegetables, whole grains, seafood instead of red meat, and red wine in moderation.

Unfortunately, eating more olive oil or drinking more red wine, both recommendations based on the Mediterranean diet, won’t necessarily make you any healthier. This is because health benefits are due to a complex interaction of what we eat and other lifestyle factors, including activity. And people in the Mediterranean region move a lot more than we do, a key to realizing the benefits of the local diet.

Another example is the Ornish diet, a low-fat, semi-vegetarian diet that has been credited with improving blood lipids and even reversing the process that clogs arteries in heart disease. This is part of the reason for the recommendation to avoid foods high in saturated fat and cholesterol and eat more vegetables. It’s true that this diet has been shown to improve heart health, but the subjects in the studies also exercised regularly. Achieving the full benefits of this diet requires exercise, too.

Even the typical American diet won’t necessarily be unhealthy when combined with enough exercise. The Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps famously revealed what he ate on a typically day. The amount and type of foods he consumed were not what you would expect from someone so fit and healthy! Without the hours of training he engaged in each day that diet would almost certainly have resulted in obesity and poor health.

So, as you work toward improving your diet, don’t forget about the importance of daily exercise or other activity in maximizing the health benefits. And when people ask your secret, you can tell them that the real key to a healthy diet is exercise.

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Time to make your new school year resolutions

Posted on August 18, 2014 | Leave a comment

Today is the first day of school for my kids and the first official day back for me and my colleagues at USC Aiken. So, it seems like a perfect time to make and plan for New School Year resolutions. It’s also a good time to assess your progress on your New Year’s resolutions and restart (or finally get started) on your goals. This is the topic of my Health & Fitness column in the Aiken Standard this week.

It’s hard to believe, but summer is winding down and the start of a new school year is upon us. As teachers, students, and parents know, this is the real beginning of the new year. For those of us involved in education, the first day of school is a perfect time to make new goals for the upcoming year, whether they are related to school or not.

This is a lot like making New Year’s resolutions on January first. Hopefully, you are still on track with your resolution. Sadly, research suggests that only 8% of people actually achieve their goal (more data here).

There are a host of reasons for this. Some of the most common resolutions—quitting smoking, losing weight, and getting in shape—are also some of the most difficult behaviors to change because they require making significant lifestyle modifications. To make things worse, many people set unrealistic goals or try to take on too much at once.

Many people who fail to keep their New Year’s resolutions this year will recycle them next year and try again. In fact, most people who manage to successfully quit smoking or lose weight have tried many times in the past. Sometimes experience, even a bad experience, is the best way to learn what does and doesn’t work.

But there is no need to wait until 2015 to restart your stalled New Year’s resolution or finally get around to doing what you planned months ago. Setting a date to begin a behavior change is an important step in the process so, why not make a New School Year resolution and try again now?

Here is some advice to help make this second chance to start or restart your New Year’s resolutions successful.

Be realistic. Many people fail to keep their resolutions simply because they don’t set realistic goals or aren’t realistic about what it will take to meet those goals. For example, running a marathon is an ambitious goal for almost everyone, especially someone who doesn’t exercise at all. A resolution to work up to jogging five days per week, with a goal of completing a 5k run is more realistic and achievable.

Focus on learning. Making most health behavior changes involves learning as much as doing. Something as simple as eating a healthier meals requires learning about the nutrients that make some foods healthier than others, learning to read food labels to select healthy foods, and learning how to cook and prepare healthy meals. If your resolution is to learn about healthy meals you will be able to achieve that goal and be well on your way to eating a healthier diet.

Manage your time. Most health improvement projects require taking time to learn about, implement, and maintain those healthy behaviors. If you resolve to manage your time to include exercise or meal preparation in your daily schedule you will be much more likely to meet your goals. Trying to add these new activities as “extras” to your already busy day will inevitably lead to them getting squeezed out.

Plan ahead. Most people already know that changing health behaviors can be challenging, even under the best circumstances. It’s no wonder that holidays, travel, and other life events can complicate or even derail an otherwise successful diet or exercise program. Make it your resolution to think about what you can do before, during, and after these (and other) disruptions occur to keep yourself on track.

Hopefully these steps will help you keep your resolutions, achieve your goals, and make this a happy, healthy year. As a bonus, you can take January 1 off!

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