It is not unusual for us to think we are invincible.  Even I was guilty, until a year and a half ago I was on a life flight helicopter to a regional hospital with the diagnosis of a heart attack at age 32.  It turns out that was not the diagnosis but it was an eye opening experience.  The goal of my blog entry today is not to lecture you on what you should be doing, but just to make you think about some things that could change your life, your health, and the lives of your loved ones.  All I could think about it that helicopter was my 4 year old little boy.

Developing New Habits

No matter what you do, you will always have some unhealthy habits.  You can not change them all at once.  How about starting with one.  Every year since I can remember I have always made audacious goals of New Year's Resolutions.  I enjoy reflecting on the year that has past, and I enjoy planning for the new year.  Up until 2007 I almost always failed at what really would make an impact as far as health and wellness goes. 

After my life altering experience half way through 2006, I decided that 2007 was finally going to be the year that I lost the 10 pounds I had planned to lose since 2000.  That was my main personal goal for 2007.  (Yes there were and always are other goals - personal, financial, family, etc...) 

Plan in Advance
You need to think about your resolution long before December 31st or January 31st.  (Who says it has to start on January 1st anyway).  Think about the pros and the cons of any behavior change.  Plan times and places that you will be doing the activity to work toward your goal.

Set Goals
Your goals have to be written, attainable, believable to you, and specific.  How will you  measure progress?  Weight loss is pretty easy, you can measure your weight once a week each Saturday morning.  What help might you need to attain these goals?  For example, professional help, trainer, nutritionist, pharmacist, internet, etc...

Break Down the Goal
Every goal can be broken down in to smaller steps that make the task less daunting.  You have better momentum when you have many small victories and build upon one another.  If your goal is 10 pounds.  Set your goal of losing 1 pound in the first two weeks.  Doesn't sound like a lot, but if you lost 1 pound every two weeks you would be at your goal in less than 5 months.  Not bad!  Think of how great you will feel when you get there.  Will you hit stumbling blocks (weeks) sure.  But that is ok, you will learn how to work within your limits. 

Identify Obstacles to Attaining the Goal
Again, written data will help you have your mental survival kit available to work through these and avoid them as much as possible. 

Set a Time Frame
How long should your goal take 1 month, 6 months, more.   Mark your calendar with the dates for completion and immediate goals.

Take Responsibility for your Actions
Only you can make it happen.  Will you need help, maybe.  Will you benefit from blaming others for failure, unlikely.  If your goal seems overwhelming, break them down and go for smaller pieces. 

Short Term and Long Term Goals
This could be as simple as I will cut down on one cup of coffee each day for a short term goal.  A long term goal may be that you eliminate coffee from your daily diet.  Moving slowly will help you change your behavior in incremental steps.

Reward Yourself
Just because your goal may be to lose weight does not mean that you can't reward yourself.  My reward daily was two or three Dove Dark Chocolate pieces.  Not alot of calories, but super rich tastes to curve that sweet tooth.  Oh and we did  still have pizza one day a week at our house. 

Check Your Progress
All told the most fun can be to reflect and look at how you did.  2007 was a great year for me and my family.  My wife and I made a game of our weight loss goal.  Both of us made changes in our behavior that over the course of the year rewarded her with over 20 pounds lost, and me over 19.   This achievement helped me attack other goals that before I couldn't accomplish.   I figured, If i can do this......  there is nothing that is going to stop me from doing this.....    

What will your this be in 2008?

Happy New Year.