Eating Smart

Resolve To Set Realistic Goals

By Debra Gibbons, R.D.

You made your New Year’s resolutions with good intentions and now they have gone by the wayside. Maybe you did not make realistic goals or perhaps you made too many and it became overwhelming. Whatever the reason for your setback, it is time to regroup and start over. Remember the phrase try, try again. Just be sure that each time you try you must change your approach. Do not keep trying the same plan over and over only to fail again and again.

Sit down and think about what you are trying to accomplish. Are you trying to lose weight? Eat healthier? Improve your cholesterol levels or blood pressure? These are not specific objectives, but, rather, desired outcomes.

You need to think about behavior changes in your daily routine that you could make to achieve those results. Make your goal specific and assessable, so success can be measured.

For instance, if you would like to lose weight, think about habits you should change. If you dine in restaurants or have takeout for lunch Monday through Friday, a goal could be to bring lunch to work four days a week, allowing you one free day to order from a restaurant. Drinking soda all day? Try eliminating regular soda and drinking only calorie-free beverages. Pick a couple of nutrition-related problems and work on them before taking on more changes. Let them become part of your daily habits before adding another one. And give yourself a pat on the back each time you follow through with your plans.

You may want to add a physical activity component. Do you have a sedentary lifestyle? Sit in an office all day and then sit on the couch all night? Hate to go walking in the cold weather? What are you realistically willing to change in your routine?

Setting a goal of running seven days a week or going to the gym daily is a too high unless you are already a devoted exercise enthusiast. Do not set yourself up for failure, be reasonable and set your goal at walking 30 minutes four or five days a week or going to the gym three times a week after work. Remember, you can always reevaluate your goal and change it as you progress.

Things that are important to us may take a while to obtain. But, if you have the motivation and the confidence, you can make lifestyle changes that will become part of your usual way of life.

(Ms. Gibbons, a Registered Dietician and Certified Diabetes Educator, provides Outpatient Nutrition Medical Therapy at Cape Cod Hospital.)