By Eve Kecskes MS, RD

It’s two-and-a-half weeks into the new year: are you still following your resolution? If so, how much longer do you think you can keep it up? Or are you like most of us and did you ditch it by now?

Most people make resolutions that are too hard to stick with long-term. We end up failing and then give up completely. As a dietitian, I’m going to focus on New Year’s Resolutions to lose weight and be healthy. I’m sure you want to be healthier even if you didn’t make a formal resolution.

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Ran Zilca is a life coach, the Chief Scientist of bLife Inc, and the CEO and founder of Signal Patterns. For more on Ran’s coaching services visit www.rideofyourlife.com/category/coach/.

Last year I went on a coast-to-coast solo motorcycle trip. A project I call “Ride Of Your Life” – a journey to inner peace. I embarked on this 6,000 mile ride only a year after obtaining my motorcycle license and along the way interviewed scholars and scientists like Deepak Chopra, James Pennebaker, Sonja Lyubomirsky and Byron Katie. I also spoke with dozens of people I met on the road at gas stations, parking lots, restaurants, rest areas, and inns. When they heard that I was carrying out my longtime dream of riding coast to coast, people responded by opening up and sharing their own dreams, aspirations, and regrets. A nameless biker, who lives 4000 miles away, is a great confidante.

Here’s what I found.

People dream about things that are within their reach. No one I met wanted to be famous, go to the moon, or climb Mt. Everest. It’s not that peoples’ dreams are trivial or uninspiring. In fact, it was amazing to hear what diverse futures people dream for themselves: becoming a teacher, writing a short book, getting back in touch with a relative, seeing Japan or New York, opening a car shop, or speaking a second language. These are all things that a lot of people get up every morning and do, yet they can seem unattainable to those who dream about them. To get back in touch with her sister, Sally only needed to pick up the phone and call, but the fear of the response at the other end of the line kept her from doing it. To see Japan, Steve only needed to buy an airline ticket, but he was not sure that he could handle the long flight. My own experience was the same. A lot of people ride motorcycles, yet at first, it seemed unattainable to get a bike and learn how to ride it.

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Most of us are familiar with Facebook. With 800 million users, 70 percent of which are outside of the United States, Facebook is not just a sweeping fad that has dominated cyber space, it is a significant tool to share, market and connect with people all over the world.

I felt very inspired hearing Mark Zuckerberg, creator of Facebook, and Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s CEO, fire off answers to some very poignant questions about Zuckerberg’s conversations with Steve Jobs, his views on privacy in social media, and whether or not he was ever going to sell his billion dollar company. However, what stood out the most for me was Zuckerberg’s simplistic approach and philosophy on success.

The following are Zuckerberg’s simplistic principles for success. Whether you’re trying to be an Internet mogul, or simply trying to meet a weight loss goal, use them as a guideline to attain any goal you set out to accomplish.
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Weight Watchers is a tried and true weight loss program that has been around for over 40 years. It was recently named the number one commercial diet by U.S. News for 2011. You can’t watch TV, flip through a magazine or drive past a few billboards without seeing an ad for the program.

For those that have successfully reached their weight loss goals with Weight Watchers, there is the opportunity to earn a Lifetime Membership to the program. Although Weight Watchers offers membership options through physical meetings or online, the Lifetime Membership is only available for members that attended Weight Watchers Meetings.

The first step of earning a Lifetime Membership is to achieve a goal weight within the Weight Watchers healthy weight ranges that is at least five pounds less than your initial weight recorded from your first meeting. For your healthy weight range, you can also use a weight that is determined by your doctor. After you have maintained this weight within two pounds for six continual paid meeting weeks, you are awarded a Lifetime Membership.

You must also weigh in at least two times between your goal weigh in and your final maintenance weigh in. You will also need to be within two pounds of your goal weight at your final maintenance weigh in.

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