Have you made a New Year's Resolution? If so, you may want to give your plan some more thought. We have talked before about setting goals and making sure they are challenging but attainable. If your resolution is too broad and requires many changes, the overwhelming likelihood is that you will not be successful. Psychology research tells us that when you try to change more than one thing at a time, your chance of long-term success is less than 10%. Conversely, if you focus on just one small change at a time, your chance of success is greater than 85%.
If one of your resolutions is to lose weight for the New Year, you are most likely setting yourself up for failure. That doesn't mean if one of your goals is to lose weight that you should just give up. Instead, make a list of several small changes that you can make to work toward that goal. For instance, if you want to lose weight you could make a list as follows:
Replace one soda a day with a glass of water
Replace a snack of a candy bar with a piece of fruit
Instead of skipping breakfast, start by eating just a small breakfast of 150-200 calories (that's just
2 scrambled eggs or yogurt with some berries)
Replace white rice with brown rice
Then choose just ONE change to make and stick with it until it has become a habit or a natural choice. This is generally about 2 to 4 weeks but can vary from person to person. This is part of the PROCESS of making changes toward healthy lifestyle habits. Remember, you are a unique individual and what ultimately works for you may not work for everyone, or anyone, else. That is why diet "plans" do not work. They are temporary, require many or extreme changes, and don't allow for individual variation. Reaching a healthy body composition and a desired weight takes patience and is a PROCESS of finding what works for YOU.
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