Happy New Year! Now that we've started a new year, many people will be working toward a New Year's resolution. One of the most popular resolutions people make involves their health and weight, whether it is to lose weight or just live a healthier lifestyle.If you have made a resolution like this for yourself, dietician and author of Go UnDiet: 50 Small Actions for Lasting Weight Loss Gloria Tsang said that it is key to skip overambitious resolutions and instead focus on small, achievable resolutions.
"You can't feast your way through the holidays and then expect to give up all sugar on January 1," Tsang says. "A goal like that is just not sustainable for the long term."
Instead of one big resolution, Tsang suggests making 10 smaller resolutions that you can implement all at once or once a week for the first few months of the year:
- Un-fat-free: According to Tsang, fat-free foods are often loaded with artificial thickeners and sweeteners to replace the lost fat. They bear little resemblance to real food and are not as satisfying as the real thing, so you're actually inclined to eat more.
- Un-expect benefits from isolated fiber: Tsang says that most products with "added fiber" use isolated fiber, but it doesn't work in the body the same way as natural fiber. In addition, there's little evidence is actually does your body or diet much good.
- Un-drink your calories: Liquid calories are the number one reason for the obesity epidemic, Tsang says. A bottle of iced tea has about 200 calories, and an ice cream shop milkshake can hold up to 1,500 calories. Tsang suggests sticking to water when you're thirsty and jazz it up with frozen berries.
- Be unafraid of meat: Meat's not the diet villain it's made out to be if you stick to a 3-ounce portion size, in which case even prime rib only has 340 calories. Remember: a 12-ounce steak is four servings.
- Un-blame carbs: It's not the bagels and the pasta you need to watch out for, but what you pile on top of them. According to Tsang, carbs themselves are not diet-killers, but mountain-sized portions of butter, cheese and sour cream are.
- Un-HPF: Highly processed foods [HPF] have way more calories than either meat or carbs and they're packed with sodium and artificial additives. Tsang says to skip these over-engineered foods.
- Un-source your sugar: Natural, raw and agave sugars have been getting a lot of press lately, but the truth is all kinds of sugar have similar calories, Tsang says. Limit your intake of added sugar to 6 teaspoons per day, whether the sugar is "natural" or not.
- Un-dashboard dine: Research shows that mindful eating is more effective for weight loss than following a rigid diet plan, and you're not mindfully eating when you're eating behind the wheel. Tsang suggests making time to eat at the table and learn to recognize your body's signals that it's full.
- Un-burden yourself: Get help with shopping and cooking from your family or look into getting your groceries delivered. Tsang says that you're much more likely to eat healthy when it's not a big effort to do so.
- Un-count calories: Don't obsess about choosing foods with the lowest calories, for the same reason your should avoid fat-free foods, Tsang says. Focus on foods you enjoy and savor every bite.
