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So, Christmas is over and it’s time to focus on the new year. How things will change, how we can improve. A very common resolution is to lose weight.
This year, I’m asking you to take weight out of New Year’s resolutions.
And here’s what to focus on instead.
#1: It’s just a number.
I talk to many people each week and a good majority have a weight concern. I’ll ask them: what would happen if the scale said you were at x weight and you looked the same? Most of them say they wouldn’t like that. What they’re really looking for is a change in their outward appearance and they feel like it’s associated with a certain number on the scale. Or they will say, “I felt really good at x weight, which was y months/years ago.” What’s usually happened over that time frame is life in general has changed.
Maybe it was before kids, when they had seemingly unlimited time to exercise and sleep and weren’t spending their nights sedentary at their kids’ dance classes or baseball practices – running for fast food because there is so much on their plate. (See my Facebook post on the recent 10 year challenge.)
#2: Singular focus on a number can lead to scary methods.
Losing weight doesn’t mean that you’ll gain health. In fact, health can be put in jeopardy if our pursuit of weight loss results in our skipping meals, eliminating food groups, not fueling before or after workouts, skipping out on social events, and overly stressing out about every aspect of food and exercise.
#3: We don’t actually have control over it.
If we did have control over what our weight is, people wouldn’t resolve year after year to lose weight and then fail. When we restrict what we eat, we might lose weight at first (usually to the low end of our biological “set-point” weight) and then we tend to stall or even gain, despite eating less.
Humans are wired to survive and our bodies do a really good job at that. Our body sends out signals to increase our appetite and cravings for high-fat, high-sugar food because it knows that those foods will give us what we need – energy! Meanwhile, our metabolism slows down and our “diet” can have the opposite intended effect.
(Some great resources for these points and others are Secrets from the Eating Lab or Body Respect.)
So, if weight change is out of the resolution game, what’s in?
Try working towards building habits. These are things that can work into your daily life without much hassle. They are things that, for the most part, are within your control.
Some examples would be eating one serving of vegetables a day, exercising for 20 minutes 3 days a week, or reading for 10 minutes a day. These habits should feel like they enhance your life, not make it joyless.