Keeping that New Year’s Resolution

Dec. 30, 2011 - PRLog -- Did you know that almost 50% of all adults in America make one or more resolutions each year?  Among the top new year’s resolutions:
•   quit smoking,
•   get out of debt,
•   spend more time with family and
•   get healthy by losing weight and exercising more

While we all have good intentions in the beginning of the year, some resolutions are hard to maintain.  Research tells us that after one month 64% of all resolutions are maintained and after six months only 46% are maintained.  At the Weight Loss Institute of New Jersey, we want to help you get healthy and maintain your resolutions. Here are some tips to help you successfully keep your resolutions and goals:

Be realistic – take into consideration your lifestyle and demands such as family, work and other obligations. Also, instead of setting a goal of losing 50 pounds by spring, try setting a more realistic goal of losing 1 - 2 pounds a week. It will be easier to achieve a larger goal by starting with small goals or “baby steps”.

Goals are for entire year – keep in mind that resolutions and goals are for the entire year. So give yourself enough time to make changes to meet your goals.  It is helpful to write your goals down and revisit and revise them periodically throughout the year.

Recognize that you will have urges – and if you can just “ride” the urges out without giving into them, they will eventually go away.  Often times, we feel that the urge to eat something sweet for example will not go away if we don’t indulge—but keep in mind this urge will peak and then go away eventually.

Frequent self- monitoring – it has been proven that those who make themselves accountable are more successful at achieving their goals than those who have no accountability.  Some self-monitoring tools that are helpful are support groups, on-line monitoring tools (livestrong.com) and on-line support chats/forums.  

Keep everything in perspective –for example, if weight loss is one of your goals; make health not appearance your priority.

The Weight Loss Institute provides a variety of weight loss programs individually tailored to meet your needs. Our goal is to develop a relationship with you and support you throughout your journey to better health.   Free weight loss informational sessions are held the first Wednesday of every month. For more information or to sign up for a Weight Loss Institute of New Jersey program, please call 973-322-7433.

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Saint Barnabas Medical Center is a 597-bed, acute care teaching hospital. For more information call 1-888-724-7123.