New Year's Resolutions: Which to Choose?
Pat Baird, MA, RD, FADA
The New Year is always a good occasion to set new goals. It’s a new beginning for everyone, a time to reevaluate different aspects of your life an develop a new sense of direction. Whether you call it prioritizing, setting goals or making resolutions, now is the moment to move ahead with yours.
Weight loss, for many people, is at the top of their New Year resolution list. However, if you suffer from frequent heartburn (you experience symptoms more than twice a week) then alleviating heartburn symptoms may be your top priority this year.
Overindulging in rich holiday foods and more than your usual alcohol consumption may cause your heartburn to become a daily dilemma in the New Year, as the pounds may have accumulated. Heartburn of any frequency is painful. It can disrupt your work or family life and even social relationships. In other words, heartburn can affect your quality of life. Like heartburn, being overweight can also be painful: it contributes to back pain, foot and joint pain, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and other physical ailments. In addition, being overweight can also affect your quality of life. People who are overweight tend to be less productive at work, absent more often, more prone to respiratory illnesses, may suffer from low self-esteem – and suffer with heartburn!
Silly, you say? Actually, evidence of the relationship between excess weight and heartburn grows stronger by the day. Once thought to be coincidental or unfounded altogether, health care professionals are now compelled to take another position. A growing body of evidence supports the notion that people who are overweight and obese are more likely to develop heartburn symptoms. In some cases, the heartburn they experience is more frequent and more severe.
Think of this as good news. By shedding the pounds, not only can you decrease your waistline but you can also decrease your heartburn symptoms. Keep in mind that frequent and/or severe heartburn damages the delicate tissues in the lining of the esophagus, so it may take some time to feel the effect of weight loss on your heartburn pain.
Here are some tips to keep in mind when losing weight. Finally, keep in mind the so-called “trigger” foods for heartburn so you lose your heartburn along with the weight.
Top Ten Tips for Losing Weight:
- Make a decision. Is this the right time for you to lose weight? Are other things happening in your life that will thwart your resolve? Do you need some support?
- Make a plan. Think of some things that will help you be successful. If you do not already do so, start to eat breakfast or have a snack in the afternoon. Include items in your plan that may be a problem, like the candy machine outside your office, and how to best handle them.
- Weigh yourself. Get a baseline weight, then weigh in every couple of days (doing it everyday will drive you nuts!). Write your weight down every time you weigh in.
- Personalize your plan. It’s important to allow all your favorite foods – just smaller amounts – so you feel satisfied. Fad diets are often not successful in the long run because any lifestyle modification which employs the “all or none” principle may be difficult to follow long term.
- Write, write, and write. Keep a food diary for three days. That means everything you eat and drink, along with time/place, etc. Note your patterns, where you can make changes, where to eat more/less/different foods, etc. Look at your calendar to see where you’ll be, what you can eat, what you should bring etc. Make a list before you go to the market. Stick to your shopping list and avoid purchasing high calorie and high fat impulse items.
- Get a buddy. There’s nothing like another person to help you along (as you help them) with support and ideas of what’s working for them, etc.
- Become more physically active. Walk, dance, swim, bike even take the stairs – anything! The goal is to get you doing more. It’s about burning calories, not running a marathon. Strive for 10-minutes of exercise a day for a week; then 15-minutes for two weeks; then…You get it!
- Give yourself permission to fail. Eating a hot fudge sundae, or an extra slice of pizza is not a reason to beat yourself up and quit. It happens! Tomorrow’s a new day, and another opportunity to get started.
- Reward yourself for your accomplishments. A reward for the first 10-pound weight loss and maybe every 5 pounds thereafter can be motivational. Make them tangible – not food – perhaps a key ring, pen, etc. The idea is to be reminded of your success every time you see and feel it.
