Resolve to stay healthy this year

(By Lisa Sarah John, Courtesy Bangalore Times, Monday Jan 1, 2007)

People everywhere start the New Year with resolutions. The sad part is that only a few keep it. One of the biggest reasons is that most people have long lists and they end up achieving little. By all means, write a long list, but the first tip is to prioritise the ones which are most serious. The second tip is to make goals, like ‘I want to walk 20 minutes every day.’ The third step is to define the time. For instance, ‘I want to walk everyday for three months or for the next one year.’ Put this on record in black and white. Keep a planner on your desk and mark off whether you have kept your commitment for that day or not.
Reward yourself, and compete only with yourself. It’s not how regular you are as compared to others but against yourself, eg: six days out of seven or 29 days out of 30.
From a health point of view or for fitness the greatest commitment one has to make is to walk and drink plenty of water. Both these help to keep your basal metabolic rate up and are the two biggest controlling factors in regulating your weight. A good metabolic rate and keeping your weight within limits in turn protects you against hypertension, heart disease, diabetes and many other diseases.
Make a commitment to walk 20-30 minutes daily and drink 2-3 litres water daily. Mark this off on your planner and keep it going for as long as you can through the whole year. If you fail, don’t give up — try and continue.
Reward yourself when you achieve your targets. However, never let the reward be a food item. Let it be new shoes, a movie or a book, etc.
The second point to work on is your diet. The most negative action that people do, feeling they are helping their weight loss is to skip meals or compensate for wrong food eaten. The result is that you lower your metabolism and this in fact results in your body gaining weight easily.
Try to make a resolution this New Year to eat every meal everyday — breakfast, lunch and dinner. Let these be balanced meals.
Gradually, you will see that you stop craving wrong foods like fried snacks and sweets as much as before. You will develop self-control. Do this regularly you could lose 2-3 kgs each month.
So plan, set goals and record your progress with your New Year resolutions!

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