There’s only a week left in January, and you’ve no doubt got your mind more focused on February being a week away than you do the new year celebration that was just three weeks ago.
How’s that resolution treating you? In England, 92 percent of dieters have already let their resolution go. We’re not that different from the English. Whether you’ve forgotten, abandoned, or given up on yours, there are probably a lot of reasons you left yet another resolution behind.
We’re not saying it to beat you up, we raise the conversation to light a fire in you and have you reassess those goals. Your health is most important – more so than a lot of the reasons you can probably come up with for avoiding the issue.
We’re taking your best excuses and knocking them down, and showing you that behind every excuse is a better answer. Put yourself, and your health, first this year.
Think you don’t have time, don’t have the money, or that you’ll start tomorrow? We’ve got your number.
It’s probably the most often made New Year’s Resolution: lose weight and get into shape. The gyms are packed, the sports stores sell out of equipment, and the streets are cluttered with new joggers. People make this promise year after year, and typically, by the end of January, most of them have given up.
However, some don’t. Sometimes, that New Year’s resolution becomes attainable and do-able. Sometimes, people really do succeed when they vow, on January 1, to lose weight and get into shape. I did it, and I asked several other successful dieters to share their successes with us.
Kelly Guy, of the blog, No Thanks to Cake, says, “If I were to look back at my New Year’s resolutions for the past 10 years, weight loss was always on the list. Sometimes I actually resolved to lose the extra weight, and even when I didn’t it was in the front of my mind.” She’s lost 74 pounds so far and is close to reaching her goal, although she shares, “I didn’t hit my goal in 2011. I still have 17 lbs remaining before I hit my weight loss goal; however, I don’t believe weight loss will be on my to-do list this year. Healthy living has become a way of life; it’s no longer something that I’m desperately trying to achieve and that I will maintain. ”
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Renée Ross leverages the power of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to raise awareness of important social and health-related causes. Renée has lost over 50 pounds and utilized social media to document her journey. She ran her first half-marathon in October 2010 and raised over $5000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society as a member of Team in Training. This year she has run the Disney Princess Half-Marathon, the NYC 13.1, the Rock n Roll Savannah ½ Marathon and will run the Atlanta Thanksgiving Day 1/2 Marathon and the Miami Latin Music ½ marathon. Renée is also a licensed Zumba instructor. You can read more tips by Renee on her blog ReneeJRoss.net
Healthy living. I have been on a journey to healthy living on and off for the majority of my life. And we are all familiar with the hardest time of the year for healthy living – the holidays! But, I truly question this. Is the holiday season truly the most difficult time of the year? When you think about it, there are several major holidays in a 6 week span of time. But because it is the holiday season, why do we think we have carte blanch to forgo all of the healthy habits we’ve developed during the year?
When I started my weight loss journey in 2010, it was the week of Thanksgiving. THANKSGIVING! That week, I ended up losing 8 pounds. And not only did I have a lovely Thanksgiving meal but I also went out for sushi! So, by making healthy choices we can indulge and enjoy the holidays without going overboard and having ten extra pounds to lose when the New Year rolls around!
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The biggest excuse in the book is not having enough time to exercise. Truth is, whether you’re a stay-at-home-mom, CEO of a major corporation, school teacher, or a student, everyone is pressed for time. The other truth is, everyone has a few spare minutes they just aren’t seeing. 
In college I took a “gateway” class, a requirement for freshmen. In one class our teacher asked how many of us were working out. Few raised their hands, all lamented their busy schedules of sleep very little, race from class to class, cram for papers and exams, inhale pizza, repeat. She asked us to write down every single thing we had to do during the day. Low and behold, most of us found a spare hour we didn’t even know we had.
The same is probably true of your schedule. If you’re already sitting on the couch watching reruns after the kids go to bed, throw a yoga DVD in instead. If you and the kids are already up at the crack of dawn, put their dry cereal in a snack cup, load up the jogging stroller and head out for a run. If you’re the type who works through lunch, trying walking through lunch instead.
The time is there, and our friends at Fitness Magazine have helped identify a few places you may be squirreling away time. It’s time to bring it out of hibernation and put it to work for you!
Holidays are hectic and everyone walks in with certain expectations and hopes. People have prepared food in anticipation of sharing it with loved ones. Others may be wanting everything to be just like it was the year before. At the dinner table or even at the family gathering may not be the best time to tell your family about your food plan or to ask for their help in sticking to your weight loss goals.
To avoid emotional reactions from your loved ones, you may want to share this information several weeks in advance to give them time to work through any disappointment they may be feeling or to plan healthier options for the entire family. With large families like mine, it is difficult to get everyone in the same room or make sure everyone is hearing important announcements. There are times that it is most helpful to have individual conversations with the majority of family members; however, there are also times when sending a kind of newsletter may be the most effective and non intimidating way to share your goals with family members.
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