Happy New Year! 🙂 I am wishing each and every one of you all good for the coming year, which of course includes all good for your health! This brings up the question that I have for you today, on January 1, 2008 – what are you going to change in regards to your health and your weight in 2008? And most importantly, are you fully committed to making these changes in your lifestyle?

Each of us knows that no one else can do this for us. I am in the same boat as you are – only I can improve my health and overweight. However, we can all support each other in a positive manner, support each other to get fit, eat clean, get healthy, and lose weight (if you have weight to lose)! The thing is, you’ve already been through several New Year’s in the past and you might have made resolutions that you were going to lose weight and get fit. Did this really help you? Did you stick to your resolutions? If you weren’t truly committed to making long term lifestyle changes, you probably did not persist with your resolutions.

I encourage you to think about this today and be honest with yourself: are you truly ready to change? Remember that January 1st is just another day, just another one of those “tomorrows”. You know what I mean if you’ve ever told yourself, “I’ll cut out refined sugars tomorrow, I’ll exercise tomorrow”. January 1st isn’t a magical day, but it can be a motivator if you truly are ready to change.

Now I’m not trying to discourage you from taking action, far from it, however I think it’s better to undertake a lifestyle change when you are truly committed to change instead of doing it just because it’s January 1st. Why? Because if you’re not ready and you’re not committed, then you won’t see it through and when you don’t see it through, you just might end up criticizing yourself for “failing”. This will only cause you to feel bad about yourself and feeling bad about yourself will not help you if you turn to food when you feel bad! Please know that I fully believe that if you want to change and you have a healthy plan to follow, then you can certainly lose weight and shape up. I simply think that it can be more psychologically stressing to tell yourself half-heartedly that you are going to make lifestyle changes when you really aren’t in it for the long haul. To lose weight and regain it over and over again not only stresses the body, but also the mind and spirit.

If you are undertaking changes today because it’s New Year’s Day, I encourage you to sit down and list out everything that is motivating you get fit and healthy. Find some strong, emotional motivators to lose weight and make sure that they are personal (i.e.: you aren’t changing for someone else). If you are 100% committed to yourself and your new lifestyle, then go for it. Write down your goals, map out your game plan, and take action. Motivate yourself every day with the positive and remember that improving your health and losing weight is a journey, not a destination. Once you lose the weight you will need to continue living a healthy lifestyle in order to keep that weight off.

Losing weight and getting fit in a healthy manner is not magic and it does require work but if you are ready to get healthy and fit, are fully committed, and believe that you can, then I know that you can. 😉