You At Your Best

By Karen riCe you at your Best The road to better health is often paved with sugary temptations and disastrous detours. One of the tricks to realizing a health resolution is to continue making progress toward your goal. Finding ways to measure progress can make the difference between staying the course in the year ahead or having your resolution fall short. Here are some tips: • Set specific goals. It's essential that people who are hopeful that a New Year's resolution will help them get healthier be specific when setting their goal. For example, it's easy to determine if you're on a path to success if you declare your intention to lose 10 lbs. rather than simply saying, "I want to lose weight." If your goals are specific, you can set benchmarks throughout the year that help you measure the progress you're making en route to achieving your ultimate goal. If you want to lose 10 lbs. and you've lost six by the end of June, that's measurable progress toward your goal that can motivate you to keep going. • Take a friend along for the ride. Friends also can serve as both measuring sticks and motivators en route to getting healthy. A partner who's also striving to get healthier can make it that much easier to get to early morning or late night workouts. This person can make sure you're up in the morning and let you know if it's been awhile since you've shown the commitment necessary to achieve your goal. If your workout partner is more than halfway to his or her goal by mid-year and you're lagging behind, you can compare routines to determine if there's any tweaks you can make to increase your chances of being successful. • Document everything. There are many apps and online aids that help you track exercise and even incorporate social networking. Strava is one that helps millions of runners and cyclists track their workouts so they can see if they're staying the course each day or falling short of their goals. Such services can be highly effective at tracking progress, but people aiming to get healthier also can use a notebook to keep detailed records of workouts, caloric intake and other factors that can help them get healthy. • Visit your physician. Doctors can be invaluable resources as people try to get healthy. Schedule a physical early in the year and ask your doctor to help you set goals. Then schedule a follow-up later in the year to see how your efforts are affecting your overall health. Few things can prove as motivational as a good report from the doctor. Dieticians and nutritionists agree that our bodies need all the food groups to function well. Brigham and Women's Hospital. "We don't know if it works in the long term, nor whether it's safe." Others may look to a ketogenic diet to combat heart disease, certain brain diseases and even acne. However, WebMD notes that there is not enough research to support the idea that a ketogenic diet can help with any of these conditions. In fact, a study published in the European Heart Journal in September 2019 found that people who ate the least amount of carbs had the highest risk of death from cardiovascular disease, stroke, and cancer. Ketogenic diets carry other risks. The Harvard Medical School notes that such risks include nutrient deficiency, liver problems, kidney problems, and constipation. In addition, the sugar from carbohydrates aides brain function, so a low-carb diet like the ketogenic diet can have an adverse effect on the brain, potentially contributing to confusion and mood swings. Will it help me lose weight? Over the years, study after study has shown that extreme diets produce only short term results. They can also lead to nutritional deficiencies. The pounds may drop off quickly at first, but the body will adjust its rate of metabolism to compensate, actually hindering weight loss. Dieticians and nutritionists agree that our bodies need all the food groups to function well. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Dietary Guidelines for Americans, carbohydrates, such as those found in vegetables, fruits and whole grains, are a foundation of healthy eating. They also provide much needed fiber. People considering ketogenic diets or other drastic low-carb approaches to nutrition should consult with their physicians before making any changes to their existing diets. As boring as it sounds, a good balanced diet, sensible portions and a healthy relationship with food are a better path to your weight loss goals. staying the course Tracking your progress en route to getting healthy sunDay, DeCeMBer 27, 2020 | January - Goals for Great HealtH nWaDG.CoM/youatyourBest | you at your Best | 7

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