Posted by Dr. Jooyeun Chung
January 17, 2014
Did you all make some New Year’s resolutions? Did one of them include something along the lines of “this year, I’m going to start my diet and loose (fill-in-the-blank) pounds”? Let’s think about that for a second.
I’m all for losing weight but I don’t like the word “diet.” It automatically implies that you are going to be deprived of something, well, a lot of things, actually. And once your mind knows that you will be deprived of anything, it is human nature to crave it even more. So, let’s change the way we think. How about saying that your New Year’s resolution is to become healthy by adopting some new habits? It could be switching from regular soda to diet soda. It could be switching from full cream to skim milk in your morning coffee. The list goes on.
On a similar note, there was an article last week about a high school teacher who lost 40 pounds in three months by eating only at McDonald’s and only 2000 calories a day. He actually lost weight by eating fast food 3 meals a day?! Every article that I have read about this guy downplays one very important piece of additional information. Not only did he limit his calorie intake, but he exercised 45 minutes a day.
In order to lose weight and to keep it off for long term, we must hit it at both fronts.
A suggestion to get started: Pick one or two behavior changes at a time, track how you do every day on a calendar, in a journal or using the “My Fitness Pal” app and write how you did that day with that goal under “Food Notes” after you track your food! Move on to your next goal once you feel you have gotten used to the change and made it into a habit!
Here at the Metabolic and Weight Loss Center, we can help you develop behavior goals and new healthy habits so that you don’t end up going back to bad habits by March! Stay tuned for more information on the development of our fitness program and look for our next entry “Comfort your Winter Blues without Adding the Pounds”…..