For the love of life, drop that New Year's Resolution
to lose weight. Come on, you made the same commitment last year too and look where it got you. By all means, clean it up
a bit and shave off those holiday pounds right away. The sooner you do, the easier it will be. My phone rings off the wall
(if phones had walls anymore) each January. No one wants to even talk to a nutritionist at a party in December and suddenly,
come January, we are all the rage. But I am telling you, don't do it.
Here is why: Losing weight takes a herculean, single minded commitment to everything you put in your
mouth and every movement you make. And not just this month, until you lose those 10 or 100 pounds, you will need to focus
on it for the rest of your life. Every nibble of cheese, every sip of wine, each brownie or sizzle of steak will make your
mouth water and you will have to resist.
If
you have 100 pounds to lose, you need to know what is involved in not only to taking that weight off, but keeping it off.
For you, the benefits will be huge but you really want your resolution to be to "seek help to lose weight". You
need more than new recipes. You need new tools, new thoughts, a plan of action, greater support and some insight into why
this happened. Your key to success will be realizing that your body wants to stay fat but your mind, your life and your loved
ones don't want to see you suffer any more. Any or all of these reasons will need to be strong enough to pull you through.
You need to know what you are getting into and that you may need superhuman powers to keep it off. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/28/why-lost-pounds-come-back/?scp=4&sq=tara%20parker%20hope&st=cse Mobility and quality of life will
improve when you do.
If you have 5 or
10 pounds to lose (and they are the same pounds that you wanted to lose last year or did lose and found again) you may be
better off committing to never gaining another ounce. Shedding the 10 pounds may make you feel better but every time you do
so your body adjusts accordingly. This makes it harder each passing year. Tighten the ship and learn to love what you have
got (those in the other categories think your problem is vanity anyway).
If you are like most of the population who
has between 10 and 90 to lose substitute your vague "lose weight" resolution for this much clearer, sounder approach:
Lose 10% of your total body weight. There is good evidence that this will give you the most health benefits and be the easiest
lose to retain. http://www.weightwatchers.com/util/art/index_art.aspx?tabnum=1&art_id=41231&sc=3002
There are universal tips and tricks to keep calories low and help manage your brain's and body's expectations of
fuel. After all, you gave your body and brain more and now they are getting less, it is only human to push back. You, your
habits, your environment and your attitudes will all have to change. It is not about what is on the plate! It is about what
your biology thinks should be on the plate.
Make this year, the year that you change THAT and you will be getting somewhere.
