Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, January 5, 1993 TAG: 9301050215
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jane Brody
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
A BATTLE PLAN CAN HELP MAKE SURE YOUR NEW YEAR IS A HEALTHIER ONE
It is time again for New Year's resolutions, in which millions of people make commitments to self-improvement. So what will it be this year? Stop smoking for the umpteenth time? Lose those extra pounds, an annual pledge that gets broken earlier every year? Start exercising? (Well, you did make it to February last year.) Learn to relax? Great idea, but when will you find the time?The trouble with most resolutions is that they do not come with a battle plan. Few wars have been won without strategies and goals to guide the troops.
So this year, instead of resolutions, consider setting some long-term goals and a series of steps to help you reach them, say, by January 1994. In health improvement as in politics, revolutions only inspire counterrevolutions. Most health changes are easier to achieve and far easier to maintain if they are made in a gradual, evolutionary fashion.
Changes are also easier if they mesh with the kind of person you are, biologically and psychologically. Be realistic; consider who you are, what you enjoy, what you have been able to achieve in the past and what you really want to do for yourself, lest you end up feeling like a failure who cannot even keep promises to yourself.
Although most people know by now that regular physical activity can improve their health and sense of well-being, if not their life expectancy, at least half of Americans exercise little more than the finger that works the television remote. And too many, when they finally decide to start moving, fail to think through an approach that could make exercise as much a part of their daily lives as eating and sleeping.
After two decades as a fitness buff, nothing short of incapacitating illness keeps me from devoting an hour or so a day to the activities that make my engine hum.
Several things keep me on track, even when the weather is awful. From past experience I know that even when done under terrible conditions, exercise leaves me feeling uplifted, invigorated and self-satisfied. I avoid boredom by choosing daily from among several activities I have come to enjoy - brisk walking, biking, tennis, ice skating, swimming, hiking - as circumstances permit.
When starting a new activity, I avoid pain and exhaustion by gradually increasing my workload as my exercise tolerance improves.
Before taking the plunge, think about the kinds of activities you might enjoy, what would best fit into your life, and how you might prefer to work out: alone, with a friend, in a class, indoors, outdoors, morning, lunchtime, evening. Whatever activities you try, give them at least three months before you decide whether you have made the right choices.
Yes, you can reprogram your appetites and taste buds so that sooner or later a bowl of fresh berries will have more appeal that cheese cake, fatty foods will begin to feel slimy instead of yummy and soft drinks will taste sickeningly sweet. The trick is to make gradual changes in your diet, not to banish favorite "no-no's" forever from your lips. If you change only one meal or snack each week, by the end of 1993 you will have entirely new eating habits and you will be less likely to miss the old ones.
Specific aims include using less fat in cooking and at the table, eating fewer foods that are high in fat, sugar and salt and eating more fruits, vegetables, whole grains and other starchy, high-fiber foods. Also start eating more of the less popular but more healthful protein foods like fish and dried beans and peas.
But if eating and dining out form a focal part of your life, do not resolve to skip or skimp on meals. And if you come from a family of full-bodied people do not expect to become sylphlike.
Above all, resolve not to diet. Diets are something people go on to go off. They rarely result in lasting weight loss. Instead, restructure your eating plan to favor low-fat, high-fiber foods and you will find yourself losing weight without having to eat less or live on formulas or expensive and unappetizing packaged diet foods.
Many people pay a hefty price for the myriad opportunities afforded by modern life. For with opportunities come increasing demands on personal time and energy and greater chances for things to go wrong and throw off already tight schedules. This is the stuff of stress.
Too many people spend most of their time worrying about what lies ahead. While they fret about the future, they fail to savor the present. As life becomes increasingly complicated, it becomes more important to take time to smell the roses.
Stopping long enough to notice delightful, uplifting things around you, like patterns in the snow and the laughter of children, should help you keep the trials of life in perspective and to recover quickly from unnerving situations.
Also take advantage of one or more of the many health-promoting methods available for reducing stress. In addition to exercise, they include deep muscle relaxation, meditation, prayer, yoga and daydreaming. Growing numbers of people are discovering the life-enhancing rewards of volunteer work, from tutoring to feeding the homeless.
Make an objective assessment of how you spend your time and rank your activities in order of their importance to you. If you are now doing to much, eliminate some of the activities you most resent or those that can be abandoned without undue consequences. Keep in mind that unless you know your days are numbered, you do not have to do everything at once. Practice being less than perfect and worrying less about things that you cannot possibly control.
Smoking is fast going out of fashion. But unless you really want to quit, do not bother trying. Smoking is both a physical and a psychological addiction, one that requires fierce determination to break. Obviously, it can be done, although you may find it hard to go it alone without help from a professional, a group or an aid like the new nicotine patches.
Remember, the physical discomforts of nicotine withdrawal are short-lived, gone within days. But the behavioral discomforts, like the temptations to smoke when you work, eat and socialize, linger for months. Both, however, can be overcome if you are determined to end the habit.
Here's to a happy and far healthier New Year.
Jane Brody writes about health issues for the New York Times.