Whether you call it a New Year’s resolution or just happened – sometime early January- to make the decision to make a few changes in 2011, we’re going to give you a few solutions for your resolution.

What’s your goal? A.)Want to improve your financial situation?  B.)Spend more quality time with your family? C.) Lose weight?  Maybe you, like most of us, want option D. All of the above. 

If you want to join the 8% of the people who will actually KEEP their resolution, you’ll need to start with these 2 things, and a dose of realism.

Definition of insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. – Albert Einstein

1-BE A BIT MORE LIKE JANUS (Evaluate):  Turns out, the idea of making New Year’s resolutions dates back to Roman god Janus in 153 B.C, who had the ability to look backwards and forwards.  

Look back onto 2010 and find one thing you want to change in 2011. Then think back to when that thing changed from being okay to becoming an “emotional burden”. [Example: My weight was okay (not great) but then I lost my job, got depressed and started to overeat.]

Knowing what you know now (the consequences of your action)… if you could go back to that time, what would you tell yourself? Instead of fill in the blank (ex: eating a bag of potato chips when I’m upset)_, DO THIS  fill in the blank (ask a friend to go for a walk and talk when  I need “comfort”).  Whatever you would say after the “DO THIS”, should be your doable resolution for 2011.

2- ASK FOR DIRECTIONS:  We’ve all heard jokes about how men won’t stop for directions when they’re lost- which is funny  ‘cause it’s true- but in reality, aren’t we all guilty of doing the same thing?  Whatever point in 2010 you just identified as being “where things went wrong” is essentially where you got lost.

This time, ask for directions!  Get help from a friend, good ole’ google, or a professional.  If you don’t, chances are time will pass and you’ll find that you’ve turned in circles to just come back to where you started.

If your goal is to lose weight in 2011, we want to give you real, long-term solutions for your resolution. We’ll help you to stop dieting and start living a healthy lifestyle. Check out our New Year,  New You special we are running for January.

Looking for more direction? Don’t miss our featured article this month – New Year’s Resolutions, not just for January anymore!!   Emily (Registered Dietitian) shows us how making small changes can have a significant impact on your weight loss goal.

So this year let’s focus on setting goals that are attainable.  Let us take one day at a time and at the most one week at a time!  Set yourself up for success by setting small goals that you know you can achieve!  For example week 1, challenge yourself to eat 3 servings of fruit per day, then once you got that down move on to your week 2 goal, possibly walking 15 minutes per day.  As we set small goals that we can follow through on, the momentum begins to swing our way and hopefully the weight begins to go down! 

Cheers to your health this New Year!

By Emily Barr, MS, RD, CNSC

Want More?? Check out these posts from Emily…

Meet Emily

Fight the Urge to Splurge-How to Avoid Holiday Weight Gain

Lumps of Coal vs Sugar Plum Fairies- The Reason For Making Healthy Changes this Season

How Did You Do It?

Sweets & Sabotages

Sugar Aliases

Halloween Temptations

High Five to Healthy Lunches

Vitamin D: Sunshine Vitamin, or not?

Summertime Drinks that Won’t Bust Your Diet or Your Waistline

Best Defense Against Cellulite

Water Filled Summer

Value Menu-Eat now, Pay later

Different ages, different requirements to be healthy

Kids Really Do Like Fruits and Vegetables

Spring into Green