Make an end of year resolution to get healthy

Opinion

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October 31, 2009

Anonymous The Jacksonville Daily Progress Sat Oct 31, 2009, 03:44 PM CDT

As October comes to an end, we enter the time of year commonly referred to as the holidays. The next two and a half months will bring more celebration, family, eating, gathering and other “busyness” than most of us can handle. For almost everyone it can be a stressful way to end the year. Unfortunately one of the most common victims of all of our holiday stress is our own health and wellbeing.

We all know that this time of year can wreak havoc on someone’s waistline. There always seems to be too much good food around and too little time to work it off. It all begins with the Halloween candy and goes downhill from there. It seems like no matter how well you try to eat, you feel 5-10 pounds heavier after the holidays.

A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine says that your weight gain really might not actually be all that much. This particular study followed a group of volunteers from October through late February. The average weight gain of the group was 1.05 pounds. Previous studies done on holiday weight gain suggest that average Americans only gain 0.4-1.8 pounds during the holidays. The big problem is when that holiday weight gain adds up year after year after year.

A common result of this accumulating weight gain is the New Year resolution. How many of you have made a New Year resolution to start exercising, lose weight and get healthier? I bet many of you have, but not many have been successful in the long run. Any business related to the health and fitness industry will see a boom after the New Year. People tell themselves that this is the year, just like they did last year. Unfortunately by the time March comes around, the new, healthy lifestyles have faded away.

If this sounds like a problem you have had, I have an idea. Don’t wait until Jan. 2 to begin. Start your new healthy behaviors now. Consult with your physician or other health and fitness professional, and tell them you don’t want to fall into the same rut as last year. Start exercising and eating healthy now. If you do, chances are you probably won’t gain the weight over the holidays.

By the time the New Year comes around, you will have already established good health behaviors, and you will have an easier time sticking with your New Year resolution that you started back in November.

Kolby Andrews is an ACSM Clinical Exercise Specialist at Trinity Mother Frances Health and Fitness. You can contact Kolby at andrewk@tmfhs.org

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