Happy New Year!
The Weight Loss DiaBLOG – month six, we have survived trying to diet through the Christmas holidays and the New Year! Were you able to use any of last months suggested action plans for not blowing all the sacrifice of the months before on piggy pudding?
For me, the greatest weight loss happened within the first week of this month, when I shed four more pounds!
It has been half a year of concerted efforts towards living healthier, and now we are beginning a brand new year, with the pressure to make resolutions. So, are any of you making resolutions? Are they health related?
When it comes to resolutions I have one suggestion, don’t make unrealistic or unattainable ones!
So many of us will set out to lose a huge amount of weight, or to start intense exercise programs only to get discouraged in the early weeks of the process by not being able to keep up the planned regimen. How about making short term goals? Ones that are only one month or one season at a time. That gives us opportunity to reassess our original goals, and tweak where necessary.
It is believed that it takes twenty-one days to break (or start) a habit. This could be why most New Years resolutions are forgotten by the end of January. How about making a twenty-two day plan? Maybe, if sugary treats are your weakness, challenge yourself to twenty-two days of eliminating them from your everyday diet? If exercise is a goal you have, plan out twenty-two days of fitness? And don’t forget to celebrate when you have reached your goal (and I don’t mean at an all you can eat buffet).
Goals with ‘prizes’ for success are great motivators! How about a goal of money for pounds lost? If the road to weight loss is going to be a long one, something like $5 for every pound lost, and that money can only be spent for new clothing, and only after losing ten pounds. If you only have ten pounds to lose, you might want to increase the per pound amount to $10. What a carrot to dangle in front of us, it makes the goal rewarding on two fronts, we benefit from looking and feeling better, plus we get to dress ourselves in flattering new clothes!
Personally exercise is tops on my priority list for this first month of the year. And if I lose just five more pounds, I am heading to my favorite thrift shops for a few ‘new’ pieces to add to my shrinking clothing collection … and I can’t wait!
2013 will be a good year! Lets continue working together to live our lives in a more healthy fashion!
itsawonderfilledlife 