Texas Lap Band Surgeons Talk With You

It’s the new year so it’s the time to start again fresh.  Do I think there’s something completely new or different just because it’s January? No, but it’s a great time to make a mental break and start afresh.  Whatever happened last year, whatever mistakes were made – they are now in the past.  You get to start again fresh and make new choices and start new behaviors that will help change your life.

But let me tell you, starting all at once (with every change that you might need to make) can be a Herculean task (can you tell I signed up for a word-a-day email? herculean means something that would take the strength of Hercules to overcome).  Not even Lance Armstrong could step out his front door one day and run a marathon.  He would have to start with short runs and gradually build up to longer more extensive training as he got stronger.

What does this have to do with you? It’s extremely hard to change all of your habits in one fell swoop.  What would I like to see in an ideal world? I’d like to see all my patients exercise 5 hours per week, I’d like to see 80+% of your meals be within the box and I’d like to see everyone lose 1-2 pounds a week until they reached their goal. 

But Hekier and I just started a new nutrition program ourselves and making all of the changes above would be well nigh impossible given how hard it is for us just to make some minor adjustments in an already healthy lifestyle.  We’re trying to really focus on cutting out “carbs” (e.g. bread, rice, pasta) and focus on fruits and vegetables instead.  Just one little difference, and boy-howdy….. it’s tough!!  And when you don’t succeed it’s really tempting to just give up.  “Well, I already cheated with some toast, might as well just have rice with dinner.”

So my tips for getting started and staying on track-based on recent personal experience-are:

prepare, prepare, prepare: plan out your menu for the week, shop for everything you need, make as much as you can in one day so you don’t spend every day in the kitchen for hours.  Always bring your lunch/snack/dinner with you to work, never leave it to chance to figure out what you’re going to eat

Do a mental clean-up: get rid of any thoughts of who you “used” to be, of what you used to be able to wear or how long you used to be able to exercise.  Figure out where you are NOW, and then celebrate every success, no matter how small.  Doesn’t matter what was, only what is and what will be.

Get your posse behind you: want to start walking on the track? Great! Bring your children and let them run around on the grass in the middle of the track while you walk.  Or even better, let them roller-skate/bike/skateboard on the streets while you run/walk along with them.  Make your spouse vow to eat healthier with you.  Get some friends to join you in signing up for a 5K walk and train together.  The more people you have supporting you, the better you are likely to do.

“Just Do It”: there are lots of times I just don’t want to exercise but I promise myself I can quit after 5 minutes if I’m still not in the mood.  Know what? In the last 10 years, I’ve only quit once.  Once you’ve started, you’ll keep going 99.9% of the time.  If you can just start, you’ll finish.  But if you never start…… you’ll never finish.