New Year - New You?

With the New Year here we often start with new resolutions and new goals, but simple and concrete goals may be more long lasting.

New Year Resolutions always sound grand and is a great way to motivate you and set new goals, but can it actually be hurtful?

There is much to be said about the tradition of setting up new goals and resolutions for the new year. Things that you want to accomplish, things that you want to improve on, things to be thankful for.. Far too often, I see many people set goals that are well intended but fall short.

I want to eat more healthy

There is nothing wrong about wanting to eat healthy. People generally have an idea about what is healthy and what is not, but all foods are not made for everyone. Many people's concept of healthy food is a nice bowl of salad for every meal, and eliminating pastries and carbohydrates. While in a broad sense this maybe true, the winter may not be the best time to start eating salads.

Winter, in the realm of Chinese medicine is when you should be concentrating on foods that are warmer and well cooked. Root vegetables that have been sitting in the crock pot for an extended period of time is what is more nourishing and well digested during the cold winter days. A cold salad will actually drain your internal heat from the body, and may cause digestive upset for some. While carbohydrates may seem like the enemy in so many dietary instructions it is essential for your body and can not survive while completely avoiding them. This is said with a broad audience in mind, and individually you may have further restrictions and recommendations that do not adhere to the conventional concept of eating healthy.

Even if you decide on the right diet, and start implementing correct alterations to your diet, if it is a drastic change from your prior diet the body may initially respond with an adverse respond of nausea, fatigue, insomnia, joint pain, or even headaches. The body may start a detox that it was not quite prepped for, and you may feel that the good changes are not "for you," and lead you to give up on eating healthy all together.

Making a resolution to eat healthy is great- just make sure it's eating healthy for YOU, and make concrete changes that will make it easier for you to keep track of. Adding x amount of water a day, not eating after a certain time, reducing/eliminating one thing at a time. Make it concrete, make it simple, and make sure it's geared toward making you healthy and not just following a trend.

I'm going to start exercising

Exercising is always a good idea, no matter when you start it. Start things slow, and build it up. Don't strain yourself, and don't set unrealistic goals. Working out in the winter helps in improving mood and helps improve the body's circulation system. However, a few disclaimers. Winter is a more difficult time to lose weight, due to the fact that the body holds onto the fat cells a little bit more to improve insulations- so don't be discouraged by that and keep going.

Starting slow is key. If you were not used to working out before, your muscles and body is not prepared for sudden excessive workouts. Make sure you start with stretches. Do gentle exercises in short spurts, monitor yourself for the next few weeks to make sure you don't have unusual aches or pains in certain areas of the body, and make sure you combine it with a well rested regime to optimize the exercise that you are doing.

I want to lose weight

New Year tends to be a time when we reflect on our habits that we let slide during the holidays. We notice the extra pounds we may have added due to the more sedentary lifestyle and the abundance of delicious food that tends to surround the winter holidays. This goal to lose the weight that you gained is admirable, as we try to set a new course to undo where we may have slipped with the hype of the holidays. However, there are a few things that you want to be mindful of when you set a goal that surrounds numbers.

Losing weight- albeit a good measure of change and an easy thing to keep track of- is more deceiving. The weight gained could be due to the actual act of overeating, but can have many other causes. It can be due to inflammation from eating foods that you may be sensitive to or that you are not accustomed to. It maybe due to your body storing fat for the winter to help in keeping the body warm and protecting from the harsh outdoor elements.

Most people will start by either eliminating certain food and to start exercising. Both are great ways to start but may not actually reflect on the numbers of pounds and could end up being disappointing and discouraging. Exercise tends to add muscle mass, and even while losing some fat, the muscle mass may end up making you gain pounds which tend to be discouraging. Food changes will not reflect immediately for many people- and may not seem like any progress is being made, because the body will take time to adjust to your new habits and new routine.

Making goals to improve on yourself and your health is great, and I will never say not to that. Just have realistic expectations and goals so that it will be something you can incorporate into your lifestyle, and not something that is so drastic that you are setting yourself up to disappointment and perceived failure.

Happy New Year everyone!

For this year let's make it the New Year, improved you!.