The Dairy Blog

Last week I promised a bit more on healthy weight loss.  What can I offer that you haven’t already heard?  After all, the bookstores are crammed with books that promise fast weight loss, permanent weight loss, a new you, etc.  The problem is this: everyone knows that the guaranteed formula for sure-fire weight loss is simple: eat less and exercise more!  Not much of a revelation, huh?  The problem is that the gap between what we know and what we do is huge.  We make resolutions every year to re-build our lifestyles from the ground up, to the gym every day, quit eating junk foods, cut 1,000 calories from out diets, etc.  America’s booksellers help us out with New Year-New You promotions every January, and the parking lot of every gym is crowded as new “fitness converts” circle the parking lot looking for the best spot (!).  Of course, by the beginning of February, the health club parking lots are empty again, and the New Year-New You weight loss promotions at your local bookstore have been replaced by Valentines Day chocolate-lovers displays! 

What happened between January 1 and February 1?  Everyday life just got in the way.  If we think about it at all, it tends to be with a great deal of guilt….not a helpful a approach. Let’s throw the guilt out the window and start over. Let’s start by building a sustainable plan that we can live with for the rest of our lives, not just till we reach some elusive goal.  Let’s acknowledge that it’s hard to introduce fundamental changes in our lifestyle, and instead make small changes in our diet and physical activity patterns that we’re sure can be permanent changes. Finally, let’s set realistic goals. Its fine to want to lose a large amount of weight, but most people set unrealistic goals.  Did you know that most of the health benefits of weight loss come with the first several pounds that are lost, and that just a 5-10% weight loss (that’s 7½  to 15 pounds for a 150 pound person) produces huge improvements in your health risk profile?  So…let’s readjust our expectations, modify our goals, and not be quite so hard on ourselves.

Next week: how to implement a small changes program