Hi SNO friends, I’m back from my little hiatus. I hope everyone had a lovely winter break and a happy New Year celebration. I’m choosing to use this space and time on the SNO blog to talk about the fateful promise 99% of our population makes to themselves every year on January 1st. That’s right, I’m talking about the dreaded New Year’s resolution. Kacey touched on starting the New Year off right with her post about healthy tips for 2018, but I’m going to assume that a few of you out there are itching to know more about the phenomenon that is the New Year’s resolution and why it usually doesn’t work out. As nutrition majors and/or future dietitians, I think we all understand the concepts of health and balance, but that means it’s our job to spread the knowledge to those people out there still deciding that “new year, new me” means losing 20 lbs in a month. Health is all about knowledge, moderation and mindfulness. Lack of moderation and mindfulness are exactly why extreme starts to the New Year don’t make good long-term plans, and lack of knowledge is why people keep doing it. So if you’re crashing and burning after cutting out all carbs and counting all calories, here are some tips to modify your resolution into a lifestyle. I want to talk about one of the most popular New Year’s resolutions: to lose weight. Think about your plan in the long term, and make sure you start somewhere tangible and doable for you. Unless your goal is to lose ten pounds or less, you most likely won’t reach your goal weight in the first month, so you need to be thinking past January. Making a tangible, doable weight loss plan that fits your lifestyle is key for sustaining your goal. If at this point in February, you’re feeling like you can’t do another sit-up or you’ll die, try and adjust your workout schedule to fit the rest of your long-term schedule. If, like many others, you went for the extreme on January 1st, switching from a daily to to an every-other-day workout is a really good change to make. Pick days that fit your schedule, and go kill it those days, then don’t feel bad about relaxing on the days in between. It’s more effective to have general guidelines than hard and fast rules. You’re more likely to want to deviate or “cheat” if you have strict rules that aren’t easy to follow. Here’s an example of a helpful thought process for general guidance: You know that you don’t want to go more than three days without working out. Here’s an unrealistic plan that would be super easy to ditch because it’s so hard: Vow to work out 2 hours per day, 6 days per week and stick to a daily caloric intake of just 1500. Beyond the gym, we all know the real work is done in the kitchen. Make sure you eat enough and stop eating when you’re not hungry. It’s super easy to find information on caloric needs on the Internet. Your number will be based on your body weight and lifestyle. From there, you can figure out how many you need to lose or gain weight. If counting calories works for you, make sure you stick to your number. Making drastic cuts will not help your weight loss journey because you need fuel to burn build muscle and therefore burn fat. In fact, it could lead to disordered eating like binging/restricting etc. Cutting calories and carbs will also cut fuel to your brain, which is no good for your productivity at work and school. And as we all know, refueling after workouts and staying hydrated are highly important, otherwise all that exertion in the gym or out and about won’t do you much good. Hope you all are having a happy and healthy New Year! Eat well, live well and study hard y’all. Oona AlbertsonJunior. Foods and Nutrition Major.
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Our goal is to present nutrition facts and advice in a fun and interesting way! We want to get our members involved in a healthy lifestyle as well as share articles that shine a light on nutrition and health. Archives
November 2022
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