How to Keep Your New Year’s Resolutions

It’s the beginning of a new year, which means it’s time to tackle your new year’s resolutions. The most common resolutions, of course, have to do with losing weight and getting into shape. From mastering a new workout schedule, to changing your eating habits for ideal weight loss, we are going to break down some of the things that can put a damper on your plans for the new year, and teach you how to re-think these common mistakes.

Planning Too Far in Advance When it comes to issues like weight loss, most of us plan for the long-term. In a month, I want to drop 30 pounds; next year, I want to be half my size. Although long-term goals are important when it comes to weight loss, short-term thinking can give you greater benefits. Instead of thinking a year in advance, tell yourself you will make every effort to go to the gym on a weekly basis. Once you start out in a “slower-paced” mindset, you will see yourself achieving your goals,and that will keep you motivated.

Don’t set a ridiculous workout goal, like 7 days of the week. If you are just starting out in your exercise, you are more than likely to abandon your goals of working out if they are set too high. Instead, shoot for something a little more realistic: like, 3 or 4 days a week.

Quit Thinking “Perfection” If you skip a workout one week, you are more than likely to skip a workout the following week. If you go to the drive thru for dinner instead of cooking healthy for dinner, you are more than likely to do the same thing the following week. This is a domino effect that has an impact on thousands of new year’s resolutions every year. Once people mess up, they fear the worst and think their entire weight loss purpose is doomed for the rest of the year. This is because people think that diet and exercise has to follow a “perfection” schedule. Quit thinking this way!

Not Having a Support System Many people think they can go it alone when it comes to keeping their new year’s resolutions, but often times this is not the case. Many people think that friends or family do not share the same goal to lose weight. I’m willing to wager that you know at least one person who’s also trying to lose weight.

Once you have your family friend or spouse on board, develop a strategy together that will help you both succeed. Share your goals with each other, and develop a plan with these things in mind. Study after study has shown that higher success rates for weight loss are due to the fact that subjects had a steady support system. After all, what better way to lose weight than by doing it with a friend at your side?

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Why Is Diet Soda Bad for You? No Benefits for Dieters.

Sometimes soda is our best excuse for needed energy. Especially because it is loaded with those things we crave—like sugar and caffeine—which gives our otherwise mellow mood the energy jolt it needs. To keep our energy levels up, and to get us through the day, soda can be addictive for many people. It can also be exceptionally difficult to give up if your goal is to maintain a successful diet. During a diet, many people will switch to diet soda, simply because they still crave their energy fix, but think it’s a healthier alternative. Below are some facts on why this is untrue.

How Diet Soda Helps You Gain Fat In a recent study, researchers from the School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio revealed results that showed the link between diet soda intake and weight gain over time. Over a period of nine years, researchers were able to conclude that those people who drank diet soda had a 70% greater increase in their waistline growth.

The brain is wired to expect a big load of calories when foods taste sweet or fatty. When you go a on a diet, this can actually throw your brain out of whack. When artificial sweeteners, like the kind found in diet soda, are consumed, the brain can mistake these calories for fat, which causes your body to store them that way.

How This Fat Increases Your Risk Diet soda is bad for you, simply because of the extra fat you retain around your mid-section, especially around your belly. Which can lead to a list of health problems. As part of this same study, researchers observed that when subjects consumed a high amount of aspartame, a particular artificial sweetener, blood glucose was at an elevated fasting level. When blood glucose levels are in this state, this is often a good indication of a diabetic or pre-diabetic condition. These findings, however, were concluded after experiments conducted on mice. However, this is still a good indicator of how artificial sweeteners in diet soda are bad for our health. Green tea is a much healthier option than diet soda, It also has more caffeine, and is lower in caloriesand better for you. Coffee is also a good option—just go easy on the sugar and the amount that you drink. 

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