A new year brings renewed optimism for people to buckle down and get their health on track but making a big resolution that entails huge changes to your life style, may not be the way go.
“You start maybe going to the gym three times a week but you’re not seeing the weight come off your body, you’re not seeing the results that you want fast enough, so people get discouraged and then they throw their hands in the air and they just quit all together what they’re trying to do,” said Activate Allen County Co-Director Josh Unterbrink. “Set short term, attainable goals that you can measure, then you can track your progress and you feel a lot better about yourself because you see those successes build up as your work towards your overall long-term goal."
Just as with exercise, changing your eating habits is a task best tackled by being patient and making small, attainable goals…otherwise your progress can get derailed by cravings.
“If you’re thinking about how you want to change your diet, you don’t really want to jump in full force and eliminate all the foods that you love right away and take away your carbs and take away sugar, and saying I’m not eating any fats,” said Kayla Monfort, also Co-Director for Activate Allen County. “In a week, you’re going to be hungry. You’re going to upset, you’re going to be miserable, you’re going to be craving things that you want to east and it’s going to lead to a binge and you’re going to be wasting all the progress that you’ve made up to that point."
Monfort says you’ll have the best luck when you start small, like dropping sugary, calorie-loaded things like soda or adding more veggies to your diet, but keep in mind that you are trying to create new healthy habits and that takes time…more than a couple months and sometimes more than a year before you start seeing the results you set out for on January first.
