January Is the Month for Personal Renewal

Diet is a good word. Diet only means the way you eat. If you eat donuts all day, you have a diet of donuts. If you eat healthy, you have a healthy diet. Diet does not mean deprivation or starvation, it means choosing food items.
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How many years have you made a New Year's resolution to lose weight? How has that worked? If your resolutions haven't worked for you, then it's time to think differently.

This January make a change, not a resolution. Take everything you have learned about yourself from past resolutions and continue with strategies that worked, but others need to change.

It's time to think differently, eat differently, and be different! Rather than simply think about it, do it!

Think differently:

  • Diet is a good word. Diet only means the way you eat. If you eat donuts all day, you have a diet of donuts. If you eat healthy, you have a healthy diet. Diet does not mean deprivation or starvation, it means choosing food items. Start thinking about what food items will nourish, satisfy, and sustain you each day.

  • Eat, rather than overeat. Eating is good, overeating is excess. There is a thin line between eating and overeating and that line changes with the years. Find your line.
  • Eat throughout the day. Never be too busy to eat or too lazy to prepare your food. Busy and lazy will yield the same result. Eat every few hours for eating satisfaction.
  • Eat differently:

    • Eat your veggies. Incorporate fruits and/or vegetables at each meal and snack. This will ensure you get vital vitamins and nutrients throughout the day giving you much needed energy.

  • Eat a balanced diet. Choose and eat food from all food groups and in the right quantity for your age and size. Refer to the Five-Finger Food Guide for a handy food guide that will easily keep you on track with a balanced diet and smart eating.
  • Think outside the box. Combine various foods in ways you haven't before. Eating boredom leads you to reach for the food that keeps you overweight. Keep it simple and keep it fresh. Refer to recipes and/or look for different food in your local grocery store.
  • Be different:

    Care for yourself as you care for others. I would suggest you ask yourself the following questions. Give them careful consideration and continually ask the same questions. In time your answers will be different, allowing you to delve deeper into your positive changes.

    • What exactly do I want to accomplish?

  • How will I stay focused on me?
  • What kind of support do I need?
  • Whose help and support can I enlist?
  • Who will not support me?
  • What will I do or tell myself when I feel defeated?
  • What behaviors or patterns do I need to change?
  • Which behaviors or patterns will I not give up?
  • What one thing am I willing to do each day without fail?
  • Who will I share my successes with?
  • How will I be different, and how will that manifest in my life?
  • Work with what you are willing to do, and you'll find what you are willing to do will change. Change takes knowledge, patience, and practice. Without patience, you'll have no practice.

    You can make this the year of your change, with honest answers and follow-through.

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