This Is Your Year … Happy Sweet ’16!
2016 is shaping up to be an amazing year already. First because we have witnessed one of the most epic snow storms that has hit the east coast in years, and second because people like YOU have decided to make this year your BEST YEAR ever! Making this year an EPIC year for health and wellness begins with the right attitude!! And, once you’ve set your intentions on developing a GREAT-er YOU, then you have to follow-up with a few tangibles!
The first step you need to take is to do a SELF-ASSESSMENT! Determine where you are and, more importantly, determine where you want to go. This involves setting some goals. Your end goal can be whatever you want, and as long as you give yourself a realistic timeframe to achieve it in, you can achieve anything that you want! Once you have set your long-term goal, then you need to set smaller goals – these are your short-term goals that will help you get to your long-term goal. When I meet with a patient, I ask about their ultimate weight loss goal and then help determine if this goal is realistic or even whether it poses enough of a challenge. By cutting calories and increasing activity, a realistic and reasonable weight loss goal for a healthy teen or adult is roughly 2-3 lbs of weight lost in a week.
After you do your assessment and set your goal, now it’s time to take step two which is to IDENTIFY YOUR RESOURCES. If your goal is to be a better you, identify the areas in your life that you plan to improve and find yourself a good mentor, workbook, or website (for weight loss ideas don’t forget to check out my blog at www.bodydoc40.com).
The next step you need to take is to PREPARE YOUR ENVIRONMENT! For weight loss, for example, it’s extremely important to develop a good nutrition plan. As many of you may have read elsewhere or even heard me mention, weight loss is 80-90% nutrition and 10-20% EVERYTHING ELSE! Please don’t misunderstand…the EVERYTHING ELSE is also important and it includes exercise, adequate sleep, stress and time management which are not insignificant!!
But when looking at preparing a good nutrition plan, it’s necessary to know which foods to incorporate into your diet and which foods to avoid. When my patients begin a weight loss program with me, the first thing I give to them is a shopping list and I emphasize the importance of buying only what is on the list and not substituting things that I have omitted on purpose. The most important substance that I encourage patients to avoid by far is SUGAR and a few items I ask that they avoid during active weight loss are foods that have a particularly high glycemic index.
What’s important to know is that it is not necessary to cut all carbs from your diet, but fruits and vegetables are definitely carbs and some are higher in sugar than others. Fruits to avoid while trying to lose weight include bananas, pineapples, mangoes, melons, fruit in syrup even if ‘light,’ grapes and cherries. Other important fruits to avoid are dried fruits like raisins, craisins, cranberries, dates, figs, apricots, etc. Likewise, vegetables to avoid are carrots, peas, white potatoes and corn. And when I say corn, I mean ALL corn—popcorn (yes even skinny pop and 100 calorie snack packs), tortilla chips and wraps, polenta and grits and the most dreaded of all…high fructose corn syrup (HFCS)! This means giving up processed foods whenever possible because they are filled with preservatives and HFCS is the most commonly used preservative in the US and many have argued that its debut as a mass-production ingredient in the American diet can be linked to the onset of the obesity epidemic in our country.
The final step to a GREAT-er you is to TAKE ACTION! Now that you have developed a good nutrition plan, it’s essential to develop a good exercise plan as well. The purpose of exercise is to help speed up your metabolism to mobilize fat cells (so a decent amount of cardio is necessary) and to build muscle which helps burn fat even at rest (so ladies don’t shy away from the free weight machines at the gym and get comfortable doing a few push-ups, pull-ups and squats). So get yourself a friend to help keep you motivated or even invest in a personal trainer if you can, but whatever you do…get moving! You don’t need to spend 2-3 hours in the gym, a brisk 50-60 minutes of moderate to intense exercise at least 4-5 days a week is all it takes (not 2-3 days—let’s be real…you eat 7 days a week so you need to exercise more days than not!).
Stay posted for more tips on weight loss and wellness! This is your year and together we will make it an EPIC one!
Written By: Yolanda Lewis-Ragland, MD, FAAP, FABOM
