Happy New Year!

Sorry for the unannounced vacation from the blog. My job and family require a lot of my time around the holidays, and so I had to take what I thought would be a brief break but turned out to be a bit longer. I hope to keep this blog updated at least a few times a week in the upcoming months, so keep posted.

I hope you set some challenging, but realistic, goals for the New Year. Most of us set health goals at the New Year, but then they seem to fall by the wayside by late January. Don't let a few stumbles bring you down. Here are a few tips to help keep you motivated when the weather seems too cold to get out or you missed a day or two of your goals and then feel like throwing in the towel. Remember, health and weight loss are long-term goals, and, as I stated in the previous posts, the changes don’t come over night. It takes about two months of consistent work to see and feel noticeable changes and to create the habits that will actually lead to results.

Just so you don’t feel alone in this battle, I set some health-related New Year’s resolutions for myself. One of my friends, Gary, set a goal almost a year ago to ride his bike for at least a half-hour per day. While I think my goals are a bit different than him (I want to run a marathon this year while he is more interested in bike races), I think the idea is admirable, so I plan to copy it with a few adjustments. My goal is to complete at least a consecutive half-hour of exercise per day for the entire year. This exercise can include running, biking, weight lifting, or hiking. So far I’ve kept my goal by riding my bike four days this month and then running today. As I just stated, my second goal is to run a marathon, the Chicago Marathon in October. Lastly, I plan to maintain the healthy eating habits I started last year. The goal of health is not to reach an ideal weight and then return to bad habits but to make healthy choices a life-long habit. Of course, we all are allowed a few fun days, but those should be treats and rare occasions, not daily or even weekly occurrences.

Well, since we are returning to normal routines after the holidays, now might be a good time to start your food calorie journal (see the previous posts) to begin documenting your calorie intake. Once you have that situated, you can begin to make the choices necessary to create the new you. I will further explain this process in upcoming posts. I will then branch out into other areas such as keeping motivated, other considerations regarding food and nutrition beyond calories, and other aspects of general health and fitness.

Good luck, and keep moving!