Balance of Food

You shouldn't have made resolutions anyway. Resolutions are for things you hope to accomplish, and if you don't, it's not a big deal. Following better nutritional habits shouldn't be geared toward January 1 or New Years Day, especially after you have likely just come down from the sugar and gluttonous high that was "the holidays." They are a year-round experience.

In the advertising world, jewelry stores hit before Christmas, car places hit before New Years Day, and diet centers advertise in the beginning of the year. "Starting a diet?" "Want to lose weight in the New Year?" "Follow us."

Weight Watchers is being nicer about it with an "anti-diet" mentality, but it still feels like the vultures are waiting to set out on the unsuspecting public.

This is why it's a really bad time to start focusing on the diet mentality. The Washington Post's Lean Plate Club issues a mantra of maintaining over the holiday period. Perhaps you should extend that a few weeks into January. After all, even if you are up 4 pounds over the holidays, the extra time gives you a chance to go for more after-dinner walks or fewer trips back to the kitchen for more food.

The Globe and Mail noted that "According to a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association, only one in four people who start a diet - be it low-carb, low-fat, even Weight Watchers - are able to stick to the plan closely for a full year."

So see -- you are already behind the 8-ball. Might as well enjoy the situation.

Another reason to avoid the herd mentality: More room, more space for when you do get there. Why go shopping at 5 a.m. on Black Friday when it would be the same if you shop 3 weeks later at 7 p.m.? Let the crowds go by. Even if you do get to the gym, you might not get your favorite piece of equipment. Wait a few weeks and you can just about have the place to yourself.

So you might wonder what I need to do in the New Year? Well, I have neglected the lifting I need to do to build my arm strength. And I'm probably hovering between needing to lose 7-10 pounds. But a calendar reminder won't help. It needs to get done and it will get done; if I lose half that figure by spring, I'll be in good shape. The sooner I start doing the free weights, the better off I will be.

If you need a date to help you focus, pick another starting point. Try the Super Bowl (February 3) or the Chinese New Year on February 7 (if you need a New Year theme) or Ash Wednesday (February 6), which is much earlier than normal this year.

So when your friends, family, or co-workers have set their New Years goal, and blown it you are still smiling because you haven't started yet, and you know that you are still further ahead.

# posted by ChadR @ 1/08/2008 12:01:00 AM