Ten Percent In 2010

By Anne M. Rensberger, LICSW

Ten Percent In 2010

New Years Resolution 2005
I will go on the Grapefruit Diet until I get my weight down to 190 pounds.

New Years Resolution 2006
I will go on the Pritkin Diet and go to the gym once a week until I get my weight down to 200 pounds.

New Years Resolution 2007
I will go on the Atkins diet and go to the gym twice a week until I get my weight down to 210.

New Years Resolution 2008
I will go on the South Beach diet and go to the gym three times a week until I get my weight down to 220.

New Years Resolution 2009
I will go on the Mediterranean Diet and go to the gym every morning until I get my weight down to 230.

New Years Resolution 2010
I plan to gain at least 30 pounds, stop what little exercise I do, and watch more TV.

Have you looked back at your heartfelt New Years resolutions of the past and decided to chuck them all? Have you tried and tried but each year ended up heavier than you were the year before? For those of us with chronic weight management issues, New Years brings both hope and fear. It is not that we havent tried to diet, or that we never lost any weight. It is just that we havent lost enough weight and we havent been able to keep off the pounds we did lose.

Id like to suggest a new goal lose 10% of your current weight in 2010. So if you weigh 250 pounds, make it your resolution to lose 25
in 2010.

Why 10%?

Those of us who are obese are at increased medical risk. Medical complications of obesity can include pulmonary diseases, nonalcoholic fatty liver diseases, gynecological abnormalities, gout, phlebitis, certain cancers, hypertension, coronary heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and the especially dangerous metabolic syndrome.

But research has shown that even the modest weight loss of ten percent of body weight can help restore your bodys ability to function and serve as a protection from some of the most debilitating illnesses. Small changes in what you eat and in how much you exercise can make that goal very attainable.

So take up the challenge and end 2010 ten percent thinner than you were on 1/1/10. Just imagine what your New Years resolutions might be in 2011.