Intermountain Health Experts give tips on making goals realistic and meaningful to help people continue and achieve better health in the New Year.
Losing weight is one of he most popular New Year’s resolutions, but studies show the majority of people will fail and give up by February.
Health experts say there’s a variety of reasons for this which include setting unrealistic expectations and only focusing on overall weight instead of other important health milestones.
“Our sports medicine team often are focused on health and wellness on decreasing people’s pain, increasing their function, but ultimately trying to achieve their goals,” said Dr. Marcus Alexander, Intermountain Health sports medicine provider in Nevada. “This time of year, people are setting all kinds of health and wellness goals, trying to feel better, like the way they look, feel better. But those habits and goals are really hard to maintain. Most goals take eight to 12 weeks to get set. Many of us stop at four weeks.”
Dr. Alexander said to set challenging, yet achievable goals is the start to success.
While a healthy weight is important for people to maintain, there are several measurable factors which can determine a person’s improving level of health.
Weight can go up and down for several reasons, and just because a person is losing weight doesn’t mean they’re reaching their overall health goals. Setting goals around our overall health means we can still be improving even if our weight loss has stopped.
An important first step is meeting with a doctor and receiving a physical. An annual checkup can help with guidance on becoming healthier and tests for important health markers like cholesterol, kidneys, and A1C levels which checks for diabetes and prediabetes.
A doctor may also recommend further testing of metabolism and other health measures to ensure there aren’t other factors preventing people from reaching their goals.
“If I was to pick one goal, I would say is to get good sleep,” said Dr. Alexander. “It’s one thing we don’t think about, we don’t do well. But seven to nine hours of sleep makes a big difference on how we feel.”
Dr. Alexander said to think about health goals in what you want to accomplish.
Feel Better:
- Sleep – 7 to 9 hours of uninterrupted high quality sleep each day (helps physical health, cognition, mental health)
- Hydrate – 64 ounces of water a day but can vary with exercise, your environment, and your health conditions
Like the way you look: One objective measure can be a body mass index or BMI with
- BMI 19-24 = normal ( less than 25 is optimal for cardiovascular health)
- BMI 25-29 = overweight
- BMI over 30 = obese
- Overall mortality significantly increases with BMI > 30
Health benefits with as low as 5% loss of body weight.