Eat right and exercise?

What is your health goal for this year? We all want to "eat right and exercise" but what does that even mean? Chances are, last year you vowed to eat right and exercise but nothing changed. Or maybe it did…for a week. I am guilty of this, too. I gained about 30 pounds two years ago and haven't taken it off. And I, like you, know exactly what I am doing wrong. 

Here are my whys: In order to be good at my job, or any job, physical health is imperative. I'll be more efficient and be better at sleuthing if I am taking care of my physical health.  Staying healthy for me is imperative. My family history includes heart attacks before age 50 and strokes.  I have been in good shape. I remember how good I felt. The energy level, the clarity of thinking, the decreased need to sleep my life away "catching up" on the weekends. (Which doesn't work. It just makes it harder to get up on time for work.)

Eat right. There are about a zillion different ideas about how to eat out there. Low carb/high fat, high carb/low fat, vegetarian, vegan, fast food…oh wait the last one isn't actually a diet. But wait, if you are regularly consuming fast food, it is your diet (food and drink regularly provided or consumed- Merriam Webster). Do you really think that fast food diet is healthy? Really? So, start your healthy goal by eating less fast food. You know where to start making changes. Start there. And you can go here for help http://www.webmd.com/diet/myths-vs-facts-10/lose-weight-safely.

Fad and extreme eating is all the rage, the names and foods change a little, but the concepts don't. If the diet you are contemplating has you eating fewer than 1200 calories a day, you will not maintain your muscle mass and be unable to add exercise. And you will be going the wrong direction. A loss of muscle mass means that your body is burning fewer calories and it's just not sexy to be all baggy and floppy. There are a lot of current celebrities who are very thin but what my friend, Dr. Willey, calls skinny-fat, higher in body fat and with very low muscle mass. It is not healthy to be so weak that you are unable to pick up your kids or run a mile or ride a bike. The idea of this whole healthy thing is to be, well, healthy. That means you want your body to do anything you want. Run, walk, swim, move furniture, whatever you desire. 

Exercise. How? You already know how to exercise. Move more. Find something that you love to do and then do it. Every day. The only thing I will add is to be an underachiever when you begin. Most of us, especially in January with New Year's goals, will start out by working much harder than we should. Why do we do this? We don't trust that we will follow through with our goals. So, make small goals every day. Start by getting started, but leave something in the tank so that you don't get so sore you can't move. That will derail you. And measure. Keep track of what you are doing, the amount of time you spend, the weight amount if you are lifting weights, the difficulty level. The gains you make will be your inspiration on the day you don't want to do it. 

What do you say we get started? There are so many reasons to get healthier this year. Find your why. What makes your toes tingle when you think about it? What will really get you started toward creating healthy habits? Today I ran one mile. Not much, but it's a start.