The Lifelong Healthy Journey

There is no other time of the year when as many people decide to ‘do something’ about their weight as January. A combination of Christmas holiday excesses and the feeling that the New Year is time for a fresh start, prompt people to address the uncomfortable and unhealthy feeling that being overweight gives them. However like so many New Year’s resolutions the determination is often short-lived and old ways soon return.

The key to success is not just to view the change in eating and exercise habits as a one off task that needs to be over and done with as soon as possible. Weight control is a lifelong journey and the best time to start is when you’re young. The next best time to start is today!

Eat less or exercise more?
When you eat less you are taking a negative action; that is you are avoiding certain foods and depriving yourself. When you exercise more however, you are taking a positive approach to not just your weight control but your general health; action is so much more psychologically rewarding than avoidance. When you take a walk after dinner you relax, improve your digestion, enhance your vitality and burn fat and calories. After the walk you feel better both physically and emotionally.

That’s not to say that you shouldn’t address your diet and nutrition. There is a billion pound industry associated with the different ways you can lose weight, all of which are preying on society’s desire for a quick fix and a magic formula. Many people will report success having followed advice in a book or on a website, but what you don’t hear of is those that have failed, and those that succeeded but regained all the weight as soon as they stopped. But they do work for some because just by reading about weight loss it will motivate you to take action, and furthermore can provide you a framework to which you can adhere. For example if the weight loss plan tells you ‘no carbohydrate’ it’s something you don’t have to think too hard about and you know you can have anything you want except carbohydrate. You are only depriving yourself of one type of food rather than saying you have to restrict all foods.

Keeping with our theme of a lifelong journey though, one of the best things you can do is just to return to basics and stick to healthy food. If you cut out sugar, cakes, biscuits, chocolate, wine, beer and crisps you already have your framework. And most importantly identify your weakness: if you have a sweet tooth for example, start your diet by telling yourself you can have anything you want provided it doesn’t contain sugar. Indeed, not only will this help with your immediate weight loss, but the less you indulge your weakness, the less of it you will crave.

Similarly exercise should be approached as something ongoing. If you go from not exercising at all to telling yourself on the 1st January that you must exercise for an hour a day, 5 days a week, both exhaustion and the time restrictions will mean that you’ll be beating yourself about your lack of willpower before you’ve reached the end of the month. It’s far better to say that your goal is to be out of breath at least twice a week and to know you can reach that goal for 52 weeks. Conversely to the unhealthy food cravings, the wellbeing you feel after exercising will actually make you want to do more.

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