Happy New Year! Have you made any New Year’s resolutions? Coming off the holidays many resolutions are health related for example: I will lose weight, no more chocolate, I will exercise at the gym 2 hours every day, you see what I mean. A lot of goals that will be set this month will fail. I have heard that by the end of Jan <10% of people will continue their New Year’s Resolutions. While it is nice to have big results with little effort, it is not necessarily realistic. If you are overweight, think of how it happened. So often it was a few pounds here and a few pounds there. They did not just show up one morning. 1 pound per week of weight loss might not sound like much, but that is 52 pounds at the end of the year. So, as you are getting ready to make your New Year’s resolutions, I thought I might lend you some inspiration.
I want to introduce you to a former patient of mine that lost 100#. His name is John and I met him halfway through his journey. What I liked most about his story is how it started. John woke up one day and decided he wasn’t going to put jelly on his toast or sugar in his coffee. He did this for a couple weeks, jumped on the scale and had lost a few pounds. Realizing he didn’t miss those things he wondered what else he could change in his diet and kept building on those successes. It was not a fast weight loss; in fact I think it took him a couple years. What John did was change his daily habits to promote a healthy lifestyle. He didn’t deprive himself but learned what he could live without and what he needed to eat in moderation. He set S.M.A.R.T. (see side bar) goals and built on them. He made these changes after he had heart trouble, so the focus was mainly on diet as he had restrictions on his exercise.
John shows us how small changes can add up to big results. In a world where we expect results immediately it is important to remember that many goals may take time to achieve. So, while you may think setting a goal of eating 2 fruits a day won’t do much in the big picture, remember….SMALL CHANGES=BIG RESULTS!
May your new year be filled with good health, happiness and big results! Happy goal setting!