Steppin' it up

Happy New Year!

Weight is a much thought about topic at the start of a new year, so I’ll go with that flow, albeit unoriginal. I just read a brief interview with James O. Hill, (PhD, director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado; professor of Pediatrics and Medicine at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver) co-founder of the National Weight Control Registry which tracks about 6,000 people who have, on average, lost 70 pounds and kept it off for seven years. Taking a look at what those folks in the Registry have done to lose and keep off weight reveals what works – they “tend to do a lot of physical activity. They tend to eat a low-fat diet and pay attention to overall calories. They self-monitor: they weigh themselves and keep periodic food diaries. And they eat breakfast every day.”

Hill goes on to explain what “a lot of physical activity” is: 60 to 90 minutes daily! Which discourages me. But he remind us, “The good news is that you can spread out the exercise throughout the entire day. You don’t have to do it all at once… You could also try using a step counter…They give you immediate feedback and make setting goals easy. We find that people in the National Weight Control Registry take an average of 11,000-12,000 steps a day, which works out to about five to six miles.” [http://www.webmd.com/diet/guide/expert-qa-starting-weight-loss-plan-james-o-hill?ecd=wnl_skin_123108]

We know resolutions don’t last; instead we need to make healthy choices every day.

Shall we aim to step it up?