Developing Healthy Habits! In a recent report by our Surgeon General, Regina Benjamin, she shares her goals to decrease our nation’s rate of Obesity both in adults and children by developing healthy habits. Today, two out three American adults are overweight or obese, and another 5.9% are now considered extremely obsess.  Excess weight increases the risk for heart disease, stroke, diabetes, several cancers, gallbladder disease and more. Her focus is to encourage Americans to choose more nutritious food, increase daily physical active and manage stress, which can keep people form developing healthy habits. She states that the causes of obesity are consuming too many calories, not getting enough physical activity, genes, metabolism, behavior, environment and cultures.

This can seem like too many factors to even worry or attempt to control, but I encourage you to look at that list and see what factors you can control.  The truth is that balancing our weight can be difficult. Genetics and environmental factors make it more challenging for some than others, but there are things that each of us can do.  So many times I have people asking me, “will this work?”  They are looking for the answer to quick weight loss with little effort.  My response is always with a question.  “Can you do it for the rest of your life”.  Americans spend billions of dollars a year on diets and products promising weight loss, only to fail along the way. If you are implementing a weight loss plan that you can not do for the rest of your life, it simply won’t work.

So how do we balance our weight? Incorporate healthy behaviors that you can do for a life time by focusing on small changes one at a time.

In a recent study by the National Weight Control Registry, individuals who lost at least 30 lb and kept it off for more than 1 year had common behaviors. They monitor their weight and food intake, maintain a low-calorie and low-fat diet, eat breakfast almost every day (see blog on Time Matters), perform 1 hour of physical activity daily and limit television time to 10 hours per week (another initiative by the Surgeon General).  It seems like a lot of changes and things to do at one time, but with weight loss and weight management there is not a magic pill or special formula, we have to change one behavior at a time.

Weight Loss Tip:

Take just one week to write down everything you eat.    Most people totally underestimate what and how many calories they are eating.  Write down every bite even those small pieces of candy that may not seem that much. (ex: 4 peppermints = 100 calories).  You may learn something about yourself including events or situations that trigger you to eat when you are really not hungry.

To learn more about developing healthy habits that will last a life time with your own personal Wellness coach go to www.crystalclearchange.com and for more information or to receive a free consultation contact me at crystal@crystalclearchange.com or 409-550-7606.