Healthy Lifestyle Choices

Posted on January 3, 2011

A Healthy Gift to Yourself for the New Year

Millions of people spend billions of dollars each year to manage their weight. They begin each New Year with a diet plan to lose weight. Many times, they just gain it back and start all over again.

Sound familiar? If so, why not make this time different? Why not take a healthy approach to managing your weight? Even small improvements in your weight can have significant health benefits. Progression is the key!

Why Manage Your Weight?
Your overall health and well-being is enhanced by staying within your recommended weight range. Losing weight may not be effortless, but it doesn’t have to be complicated.

For most of us, the cause of excess body fat is simply eating more calories than we burn. It’s all about calorie balance.

Common Reasons for Weight Gain	Eating the wrong types of foods	Eating large portions of foods	Not getting enough physical activity	Suffering an illness that leads to weight gain
Benefits of Reaching and Maintaining Your Recommended Weight	Reduces your risk for health conditions such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, and diabetes	Helps to manage chronic health conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, back pain, arthritis, and high blood pressure	Improves your energy level	Improves your quality of sleep	Reduces stress on your joints
Simple Tips to Get You Started	Read nutrition fact labels	Eat fewer calories		Exercise	Get plenty of sleep
		Choose smaller portions
		Cut down on sweets
		Eat lots of fruits and vegetables
		Drink more water
		Practice mindful eating – Be aware of how much you are consuming

If you eat more calories than your body uses, the calories will be stored as fat.

Too many calories and not enough fuel burning (from exercise) will cause weight gain.

Do you know how many calories it takes to lose just one pound? Losing weight is a combination of calories in versus calories out. To lose one pound, you need to burn 3,500 calories or consume that much less.

The key to maintaining ideal weight is a balanced, healthy eating plan and sensible
regular exercise.

The MyPyramid.gov website helps you to: