Though we’re just a week into the new year, you might already be feeling your enthusiasm starting to lag when it comes to your health and fitness goals. Eating better and moving more aren’t yet habits for you, and you might find them boring or you’re not yet seeing any results.
Dr. Lawrence J. Cheskin, founder and director of the Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center, says that most people fail at diets for these reasons, as well as an
that means one slip up has ruined your diet forever.
Cheskin says people need to understand that losing weight is hard and it’s not just the kinds of foods we eat that need to change, but the behaviors surrounding why we eat. He says eating too much is not really a hunger issue, it’s more about that food is such a central part of life: we eat to celebrate, when we’re bored, and just about any other time.
To make weight loss and healthy living easier he says people should eat more small meals through the day so they never get hungry. Different diet plans work for different people, and you don’t always know which one will work for you, but the clinic tends to recommend a low-carb diet that’s high in fruits, vegetables and protein.
Whatever you do, don’t call it a diet
Making healthy changes is always a good idea, but author Linda Bacon says that it seems like dieting is the
. Depriving your body of calories slows your body down and decreases the amount of leptin in your bloodstream, which makes you feel hungrier.
Bacon’s book,
, suggests that everyone has a healthy weight set point, which may be higher for some people than others. Dieting to try to get below your set point will just lead to failure and inevitable weight regain, she says. Instead, people should eat foods they love, just not too much of them, have more frequent meals and not get too caught up in whether they have a culturally acceptable body size.
Instead of focusing on a number on the scale, why not pick a simple
to focus on each month for the next six months? In January you can learn more about how your current weight may be setting you up for future health problems, as well as measuring your waist and starting to monitor your food intake. Cut cholesterol intake in February and start walking in March, for example.
Coming up with your own healthy goals for each month can keep you more focused on day-to-day progress and remind you to check in with your health every month, even if you didn’t meet your goal for those few weeks.
There’s no need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to making healthy changes. In fact, the Eat, Drink and Be Healthy column from the
.
Experts say people need to plan their meals and snacks and only shop for and eat the healthy things on their meal plan. We should all try to eat more slowly and mindfully, really paying attention to what we are eating and where it came from.
We should choose more whole foods, think about making Monday (or some other day of the week) completely meatless and read product labels to see if the hype lives up to the true nutritional information. Here’s to a healthy 2009!
(By Sarah E. White for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)
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