Weight Management expert Debbie Huxton B.Nurs (Hons) contributes regular guest posts. 

Have you ever wondered why some will and some won't stick to New Years resolutions?

My goodness another decade over and what have we done? Last weekend many people all around the world would have been reflecting, regretting, and celebrating, making plans. As the New Year dawned we take stock of our lives and the way we live them. We decide that this year is really going to be different. This year we are going to keep those New Year's resolutions and live a healthy lifestyle! Then we set a goal: I am going to get slim and lose weight. I am going to start exercising, after all it’s a brand New Year, makes sense. Then we go about our New Year’s Eve celebrations, feeling excited full of expectation, hope and renewed vigor, still eating all we can to store up for the onslaught ahead of deprivation. We wake up on January 1st it’s the New Year but we think to ourselves we might as well delay until the 2nd. After all we have family are coming round for a meal. Good, so tomorrow it is! January 2nd is still just as good as “New Year's." However, now we realise Jan 3rd is a bank holiday, and the kids don’t go back to school until the 4th and we still have all sorts of wonderful treats in the house. Leftovers, beer, wine, chocolate Santa and the chocs on the tree, can’t let them go to waste. We rationalise the situation and the logical choice is to wait a week or so before getting started. Now it's January 5th and you realize that it is no longer a fresh start to the year, you can't boast to friends about keeping your resolution and what you are left with is about the same as that with which you struggle every year, the need to adopt a healthier lifestyle on a regular old day without any big deal being made about it. 

Wouldn’t if we could have our cake and eat it without the fear of piling on the pounds? It’s simple you just have to know how. I’m not talking about counting points, making food a sin, reward or treat. Wouldn’t it be perfect if you could eat what you want when you want without the guilt and your weight ceased to be like the union jack on Buckingham palace up and down. I have some good news, I found a way you can eat what’s right for you. Move away from that one size all diet syndrome, this is about YOU, your body, your health, not your friends or slim club buddy. They don’t have your DNA, your family history or your genetic make-up. You are as different as your finger prints, unique so it makes sense a food plan, new regime would have a long term impact if tailor made. 

After the over indulging has stopped and your feeling resolute that you are going to make the changes, you say to yourself I still have some time left, slim club isn’t until tomorrow. The excuses are still there, and you are still bartering with your health. Funny that when we make our minds up to get a new pet, car, latest gadget, or new home our resolve never wans we can make these goals a real priority and achieve them yet we leave our health and well-being on the ‘to do list’. Yet it’s our body, mind and spirit that will be the difference between our success or failure in health but they can wait, as Cadburys insists I eat my own body weight in chocolate, Ronald is so welcoming when I’m in need of some heart diseased filled food, oh and the Colonel well knows how to pick me up and raise my blood pressure at the end of a hard day.

Already our behavior is setting us up for a fall. I used to think just the same ‘Well I haven’t started yet, so I will finish all those chocs, and that cake is winking at my every time I open the fridge, may as well finish that as well, I’m not starting until tomorrow.’ Tomorrow never comes and you start off with good intentions that soon wane. So does this mean New Year's resolutions are a bad idea? No not at all. The mistake most of us make is the lack of clearly defined and realistic behavioral steps, backed up with the all or nothing mindset to setting the goal. ‘The goal to lose weight tells us very little about what we need to do in order to achieve that goal.’ It does not outline the specific steps that must be taken like shopping fresh unprocessed foods in the house, reducing portions, cooking less food, looking at food labels and seeing the chemicals in them that make us fat. You need to take time to plan your meals and an easy realistic exercise regime to fit into your lifestyle. 

So you’ve made a decision, but have you made a plan? What happens when you feel low or in need of a pick me up? Ok you have chosen the club you will use to satiate your need to get slim. Ask yourself is this a wish or a want? What is my desire level? Are you setting yourself up for failure which is going to keep you on the endless treadmill of yo-yo dieting? Only you can answer these questions. It’s not to make you feel bad it’s to encourage your success. Instead of expecting yourself to stop eating ‘bad' foods abruptly. Take some time today to write out the plan and work on preparing some of the things I have listed above. Preparation is the key to success. Any goal needs critical analysis and evaluation to be implemented. Without any real plan to accomplish the goals we have set out. The goal itself is often unrealistic. It involves setting up a strict and unforgiving diet regime that does not allow for a variety of foods or planning to do some ridiculously overexerting several-hours-a-day gym routine. Or offers you treat, rewards, programming your mind for failure, how can food be a sin? Guilty connotations that will see you fail as your mind is sabotaged by such negative labels. 


Set gradual goals that will help ease you into the whole thing and allow some flexibility to enjoy some of the leftover Christmas fare while still moving toward your health goals. Small steps focus on getting at least a 15 minute walk under your belt each day and build toward increasing this over the next few weeks few and so on. By taking this gradual approach you will feel in control and still make progress without feeling deprived and overwhelmed or a failure when you can’t fit something in.

As I write this I know there are many of you who will feel that this is just making excuses and that you need to step up and just do it! Maybe a more an abrupt just get off your bum approach is the right thing for some, only YOU know what works for you. The most important thing is to ask you, ‘What works best for me?’ Be true to yourself and answer the question honestly. If throwing out all the junk food, setting up a strict plan, and throwing yourself right into it has worked in the past then go for it. Just be on the lookout for the signals that this approach is about to stop working and be ready to adjust so you don't fall from giving your all to nothing overnight. If you notice boredom creeping in, then do something to spice it up. If you feel tired or weak; maybe you are overdoing it in the gym or are not getting enough nutrition? Take a look at what you are doing and adjust as needed. Remember, listening to your mind and body and making adjustments along the way to keep the forward progress moving and avoid slipping right off the plan. 

Setting Goals: 4 Core Elements 

• Realistic 
The goals you set have to be real in the context of your life. They cannot be based on some ideal version of your real situation and more importantly don't base them on some change you are ‘going' to make that will give you more time. Set your first goals according to what your life looks like right now! Look for changes that you can insert into your current routine. If you are too busy to cook, then don't plan to cook every day, share the task or prepare food that can be turned into more than one meal. If you can't see yourself fitting in gym time, add short walks into your day. 
• Specific
Make each goal very specific. Make sure that both the steps to achieving it and that the results are obvious so there is no guesswork in your ability to know what to do. For example, don't say I will exercise tomorrow. Rather say at 12:30 during my break I will walk for 20 minutes. I
• Measurable
In the example I just gave it is easy to measure the extent to which you completed the goal (number of minutes walked) and it is also easy to add up the total minutes per week you accumulate. 
• Back-Up Plan
Once you have set out some realistic, specific and measurable goals you need to set up a second set that mirror these goals but are a little more forgiving. These are useful when the unexpected happens. So for example, using our break-time walking example, we all have days where a 20 min break is impossible--maybe a last minute deadline or meeting was dumped on your desk. For these occasions, instead of doing nothing (which feels like failure and can trigger a bigger slide) simply do 5 or 10 minutes. While it is less than ideal it IS still part of "the plan" and this will have you feeling psychologically that you succeeded whereas skipping altogether would feel like failure.


Follow these simple steps and you might find your desire to achieve a healthier weight and live a healthier more active lifestyle is fulfilled over the next several months. By making a resolution to follow this type of broader more flexible plan you will feel more confident and better able to cope with the reality of your specific life situation and how it influences your ability to lose weight. 

Debbie Huxton is CEO of Mind Diet Ltd ‘The healthy thinking option’ She is a registered nurse & Behavioral Sciences practitioner. Her professional activities include direct patient care, research, and individual consultation services, the development of health promotion in education and corporate wellness environments. 
Debbie can be contacted on 0808 1080754 or discover-yourself@live.co.uk

Do you set New Year's resolutions? How do you stick with them?