Looking toward the New Year
By Ruth SoRelle, M.P.H.
It's two weeks into 2008, and many of our good intentions/resolutions have already gone by the wayside.
- You were going to stop smoking, but it got tense at work and home and you fell off the wagon.
- You had planned to exercise every day, but it was cold, rainy and the streets looked too slick, so you took Monday off. Then you took Tuesday off, and now it looks like the week is a goner.
- You were going to start the family off on a whole new eating plan – fresh foods cooked at home daily. Then your teenager had to stay late at school to finish a project, your spouse wasn't hungry and you didn't feel like cooking.
Try again
It's not the end of the world – or even your good intentions.
If you couldn't follow that new resolution yesterday, then start again today. Don't smoke a cigarette today. Do get on a treadmill or out on the pavement this afternoon. Make the family an omelet (maybe even an egg-white omelet) when you get home and ignore the grimaces.
Sometimes, we expect too much of ourselves and our families. We've drifted into patterns that lend themselves to bad habits, and it's difficult to change those patterns.
Discover new methods
Strategize with yourself. What can you do when things get tense that won't lead to tobacco and a lighter? Can you make sure you don't have the change or the chance to buy a pack of cigarettes? Can you tell your friends not to loan you one?
If it's cold and rainy outside, you can choose your temperature indoors. Find a way to exercise inside and out. That will eliminate one excuse. If it seems boring to run or walk on a treadmill, then multi-task. It's a good time to read that trashy book that you always felt was a time-waster before.
Share the cooking, and set some goals. Maybe it's too much to expect you to eat "healthy" every day. Could you do three or four days a week? It's a start, and it could lead to better things and better patterns of eating.
Remember, it's not really how you start 2008 that matters. It's where you end up and the promise that you won't have to make that same resolution next year.
