Transcription:
Keep Those New Year's Resolutions

Melanie Cole (Host): Whether it’s diet, exercise, or any other New Year’s resolution you might be considering, sticking with them is really the real challenge. My guest today is Stacy Bussiere. She is fitness coordinator at Aspirus Fitness Center in Laurium. Welcome to the show, Stacy. New Year’s resolutions--everyone always has the best of intentions. What do you see as the fitness coordinator is the number one thing that happens after those resolutions get made?

Stacy Bussiere (Guest): I think what happens is people think of the term “resolution”, and a lot of times when we think resolution we automatically think of a year-long goal, which can be pretty overwhelming. I think what happens is people start to get ahead of themselves and, in the beginning, they are excited and they think it’s going to be fun. A week or two into it, the excitement ends, reality sets in, and they don’t know how to keep themselves motivated. So, pretty soon, those resolutions die off and people fall off the wagon.

Melanie: Then, let’s start with making those resolutions in the first place. What do you want people to know about making smart goals and making resolutions that they possibly can keep?

Stacy: Well, you said it right there, don’t think of it as a resolution, think of it as a goal, think of it as a mini-goal. We have that acronym SMART guide to keep you on your toes when it comes to setting good resolutions. If you think of the word S.M.A.R.T, there is a word that goes with every letter. For “S”, Specific, you want your goals to be clear and easy to understand. A lot of people say, “I want to lose weight in 2017”, or “I want to quit smoking in 2017”. Basically, how do you want to do that? Do you just want to lose weight from diet? Do you want to lose weight from exercise? Don’t let that goal be too broad. So, narrow it down a little bit. “I want to lose 20 pounds”, will give you more of a direction. If we move on to “M” and we think about “Measurable Goals”, how will you track your progress and how will you know when you’ve reached your goal? So, if your goal is to lose that 20 lb., turn it into mini-goals of each week. “Every Wednesday morning, I will step on the scale and I hope to see at least 1 ½ lb. down. I’m going to do that for the next 14 weeks.” “Attainable”--make sure it’s realistic, don’t make a goal to lose that 20 pounds in the next 3 weeks before you go on vacation, because we see that a lot. If you don’t know what’s realistic, talk to your doctor, talk to a personal trainer, or do the research to see what is realistic for the goal that you’re aiming for. And then, “Relevant”, this is the big one, and I see this a lot with running. People come in and there is a balloon run coming up in four months and they want to be a part of this fun activity, or their friends who are already runners are signing up for this activity, so they want to be a part of it with their friends. They decide that they’re going to start running when, really, they don’t have the desire to run, they just want to be a part of something. So, make sure that the goal is relevant to you. Set goals that are important to you and for reasons that are going to benefit you. And then, make sure that they are all time-bound, including an endpoint. This is where that New Year’s resolution kind of comes into play. If you think, “I’m going to lose 50 pounds by next year,” well, 52 weeks is a long way off. So, start your goals in maybe four-week increments, eight-week increments. I personally like the four-week or the monthly goals because it gives people enough time to see progress, but it’s still short enough a time that people don’t get impatient, so it keeps them motivated and pushing for their goals.

Melanie: Let’s tackle exercise first. If someone’s making that goal to really exercise this year, how do you tell them to get motivated and what do you tell them about incorporating exercise into their daily lives, getting on a program that they actually can stick with?

Stacy: That’s the thing. They need to get on the program that they can actually stick with. A great way to do that is to meet with a personal trainer, that way you have that contact with someone, you have that healthcare professional helping you out. You can discuss what your specific goals are and they can come up with a specific plan to conquer your goal. So, getting on Google and type in “weight loss program” or “cardiovascular fitness program” might not be specific to what you want or to who you are. So, meeting with the trainer can definitely help you come up with a plan of attack to reach those goals.

Melanie: What about getting started? If you’re somebody who maybe doesn’t have the means to necessarily meet with the trainer right off the bat but you would like to do something, is walking sufficient to get you going? And, how often should you be doing some form of cardiovascular exercise?

Stacy: Walking actually is a great beginning exercise. If you haven’t been walking and you are a little bit nervous about getting outside and walking, like up here where we have tons of snow, like I said to you earlier, you can always go to your fitness center. A lot of places will have walking passes, you don’t have to pay for a monthly pass, so check with your fitness center first. And, if you’re starting off with a basic exercise like that, you can strive for mini goals. So, if you haven’t been doing anything, getting at least 15 to 20 minutes in, 3 days a week, is a start. Don’t set yourself up with at least 30 minutes most days of the week. If that’s not attainable, that’s not realistic for you, then don’t go there. Start with the three days a week, every other day. And then, think about your schedule, too--what time do you have, what’s realistic to your schedule and your life? Can you not make it to the gym 5 days a week? Can you only make it into the gym 3 days a week? Can you make it outside? Think about those things. And, again, use those SMART goals that we talked about in the beginning and apply that to your walking goal.

Melanie: What about the tough one, which is diet. With the media and all the commercials in front of our faces for junk food, how do you get that resolution or goal, as we were discussing, to either try and lose weight or just to eat healthier? If someone’s goal is, Stacy, really just to eat healthier this year, what do you tell them about making those healthy choices and what to do with some of the produce they might see at the store?

Stacy: That’s a good question. With eating healthier, here’s the thing. A lot of people will come up to me and say, “I bought these,” and they’re yogurt covered almonds or something, and say, “Are these healthy?” “Well, what do you mean by healthy?” Are you looking to lose weight? Are you looking to become more organic? Are you looking to cut processed foods out of your diet? You have to think about what it is that you’re striving for. So, a common one right now, especially around New Year’s is weight loss. I always tell people to try to cut out the processed food. For any goal, whether it’s weight loss, whether it’s trying to bring down your blood glucose, your blood pressure, cutting out a lot of processed foods, is going to help you hit any of those goals. So, trying to eat simple and trying to stick with the lean meat like the fresh produce as you said, vegetables and fruit, beans, nuts, seeds--incorporating those thing into your diet are going to automatically start cutting out some of the processed foods that you may have been taking in before, and they’re going to take the place of that. It will automatically start to transition. Once you start transitioning into cutting out some of those processed foods and you need to get a little more specific with your diet goals, then you can always, again, talk to a nutritionist or talk to a personal trainer and see what things you can swap out. Or, if you have calorie questions, taking to a nutritionist or dieticians would be a great way to start.

Melanie: Are you somebody who advocates journaling to help keep track of your food? You mentioned also before stepping on the scale at a certain time. Some people say, “Oh, you shouldn’t use the scale, just see how your pants fit.” But, I certainly am an advocate of stepping on the scale to at least keep yourself accountable. What do you think about journaling and the scale?

Stacy: I love journaling. In fact, I have an app on my phone. It’s probably one of the most popular fitness trackers, food diary trackers, MyFitnessPal. I think it’s a great tool to use. It shows people what they’re taking in. A lot of our clients start using it and, right away, they climb up and they say, “Well, I don’t want you to see what I’m eating,” or “I don’t want to see what I’m eating.” But you don’t have to change your diet, you don’t have to start using that tool to restrict your calories or cutting calories down, just track the food that you’re currently eating, keep the same diet that you had, and then will allow you to look through and say, “Oh, wow, I never realized I was taking in this much sugar before lunch”, or “I’ve never realized how small my dinners are”, or “I’ve never realized that I was not taking in enough calcium”, or whatever it maybe, whatever your goal is. So, seeing something visually and having those numbers there to keep you on track is a huge positive, as well as, like you said, stepping on a scale. I always say once week because our weight does fluctuate daily, but it does keep you on track with what your goal is. So, if your goal is to lose 1.5 pounds a week, and you step on the scale and you’re up 2 pounds, you’re automatically going to make smarter decisions in the next 24-48 hours, especially after stepping on that scale. So, it’s just going to keep you in line and keep that goal in the forefront for you.

Melanie: So, wrap it up, Stacy, with your best advice for keeping those New Year’s goals, making those smart goals, and really working to attain them this year.

Stacy: I am going to say think of it as a process. Don’t think of it as a resolution. Don’t overwhelm yourself. Think of it as a goal, and every goal has steps. I always say, “Life is a process. Goals are a process,” and take each process as it is, or take each step as it is. So, when you’re on Step 1, don’t be thinking about step 2 or 3 or 4. If you’re in week 1, don’t be thinking about weeks 2 , 3 or 4. Just focus on the week that you’re in, focus on the day that you’re in, focus on your task at hand, and don’t let it overwhelm you.

Melanie: That is absolutely great advice for this New Year. Thank you, Stacey, so much for being with us today. You’re listening to Aspirus Health Talk, and for more information you can go to www.aspirus.org. That’s www.aspirus.org. This is Melanie Cole. Thanks for listening.