Coach Ellie's Blog
Nine Avenues for Success in "Oh-Nine"
Nearly everybody makes grand resolutions on January 1st. Most folks have given up on their resolutions by March 1st.
(Sigh!)
In a world where stress is an every day challenge, wouldn’t it be nice to get to the end of each year with a long list of successes?
Nine for Oh-Nine—Strategies for Winning Resolutions in the New Year
Weight
The preponderance of resolutions each year revolves around weight loss. Yet, ninety percent of people who lose weight will regain all or most of that weight within two years.
If you agree that maintaining an ideal body weight is one of the single most pro-active things we can do for optimal health, how do you join the 10% of those who lose weight and keep it off?
- Those who are most successful at weight loss and maintenance weigh themselves regularly. Choose one day each week. For better or for worse, get on the scales and record the data.
- We know there are significant health negatives to belly fat. This is more a factor in being healthy than body fat located elsewhere, say, on the thighs. While you’re in your skivvies for your weekly weigh-in, pull out the tape measure and wrap it snuggly around your waist. The ideal waist measurement for women is under 35-inches and for men, under 40-inches. How’s your middle
Exercise
Everybody says their going to exercise, but as we face down 2009, less than 20% of Americans exercise even three times per week. Chances are that you are part of this minority—excellent! What can each of us do to come to the end of the year with lots of personal kudos on the calendar?
- Consistency matters. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends a minimum of 30 minutes of aerobic exercise (total) each day. More importantly, everything counts—including yard work, housework, gardening as well as, walking! As 2010 approaches, will you be able to say you’ve exercised 328 days (90% of the time)? 274 days (75% of the time)? More than 183 days (better than half the time)?
- Journal for success. Those who are most likely to succeed at a stated goal keep track of how they are doing! There are any number of exercise journals from a simple notebook to online calculators such as the exercise and shoe log at http://www.everything4walkers.com. Find the one that fits your social style best and resolve to use it. TIP: Write exercise into your day planner. Keep your appointment as diligently as you would if it were with a client or your dentist.
- Use exercise as a social outlet. Nothing makes exercise quite so pleasant as spending it with interesting people. Walk with your partner, your kids, your neighbor or co-worker. Walking with a buddy some of the time helps you maintain a pattern of consistency so that you’re more likely to get out there on the days when you are walking on your own. Smile at the people you meet and greet them with a “good morning”. You’ll be delighted at what this simple act does for you.
Go green!
In the boom of exercise consciousness in the last century, we separated exercise into it’s own compartment apart from daily life. As we look at our lives and activities as more integrated, having a green impact through our choices is ever more possible.
- It only takes a decrease of 2.31 miles per week to drop your driving total by 1%. What’s your green footprint this week? (If half of the population of Portland, Oregon—600,000—drives 2.31 miles less per week in 2009, that’s over 36 million fewer miles driven!) Baby steps really do matter!
- Go online and look up the dates and locations of farmers’ markets—some are open year ‘round. When you buy from local growers, you decrease the pollution caused by long haul trucking of produce from out of the are, you support local commerce and, you eat fresher produce. Clip some packable grocery bags to your fanny pack and walk to the market for a doubly satisfying green day.
- Replace paper tissues with cloth hankies/bandanas. These are indispensable in cold, sniffly weather and make great neckband coolers (wrapped around ice) in the heat of summer.
- Get a refillable water bottle and use it at work, at home and during walks. Just for fun, every day that you use it, pay yourself $.05, the amount of a refund under the bottle bill. And, at the end of the year, you’ll a) still have your water bottle, b) you’ll have $18.25 in your piggy bank and c) you’ll smile ‘cause you’ve put less in the local landfill. And, suppose you and, say, 100 of your likeminded “green” friends all decide to donate your stash to a struggling non-profit? Wow!
Resolutions down the drain yet again? Not you, not this time! Happy New Year!!
Happy walking!
Coach Ellie