Ashe about your health: weight loss resolutions for the New Year

From time to time, Dr. David Baron, executive director of the Arthur Ashe Student Health and Wellness Center, will ask other health experts at the Ashe Center to host the column and answer student questions.

Want to make a New Year’s weight-loss resolution that lasts?

This year, make a diet resolution not to set yourself up for failure again. If you are thinking about going on a diet, don’t. You have a track record of diets not lasting. Instead, you can improve your chances for success by making S.M.A.R.T. goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-sensitive) or in layman’s terms, replace your self-defeating goals such as “losing 30 pounds fast,” “hitting the gym every day” or “going on the ____ diet” with S.M.A.R.T. goals such as using a smartphone app to keep daily intake under 2,000 calories, completing 15 minutes of abs with 15 minutes of jump rope daily even if you can’t make it to the gym, and eating five servings of fruits and vegetables a day.

Still don’t know where to start? Think of a small goal you can achieve in one week, like, “I will drink eight cups of water a day.” Just do it and you will get there. As long as you are moving in a healthy direction, any step will get you closer to a better you. Don’t overlook the power of these little steps. Every day you go to class, in a couple of years, you get a diploma: Every day you burn 100 calories, in a year, you can lose 10 pounds. Before you know it, you just might lose 30 pounds, start to enjoy working out and even enjoy eating healthy meals on a daily basis.

There will always be a popular diet at any given time. If it’s not Atkins, it’s South Beach. And today, it’s Paleo; tomorrow, there will be another new diet. Once you are off the diet, its effects will also end. A sustainable healthy diet, no matter what you call it, will universally be recognized as a healthy diet. What lasts are the realistic goals that you can meet with your individual schedule, budget and preference.

So set yourself up for success this new year. Make your personal S.M.A.R.T. goals that you can keep. Let your natural weight come naturally.

If you have to exercise all the time while eating an ultra low-calorie diet to maintain your desired goal weight, then maybe that is not your natural weight. A natural weight should be maintained with relative ease through regular physical activity and a healthy diet. Sound easy?

Remember, small steps will bring big changes. Instead of dieting, give small goals a try. Besides maybe a few unhealthy habits, what else have you got to lose?

Carol Chen is a dietitian at the Arthur Ashe Student Health and Wellness Center.