3Qs: Healthy living beyond the New Year’s resolution

Some of the most pop­ular New Year’s res­o­lu­tions are to lose weight, eat healthier and work out more. Greg Cloutier from Northeastern’s Bouvé Col­lege of Health Sci­ences shares his exer­cise phys­i­ology and nutri­tion exper­tise to help people turn their New Year’s res­o­lu­tions into per­ma­nent lifestyle changes.

When people are looking to take on a New Year’s res­o­lu­tion to better their health and fit­ness, should they focus more on diet, working out or a com­bi­na­tion of the two?

When starting a New Year’s res­o­lu­tion with a goal to main­tain or lose weight, it is best to think of exer­cise and diet as a com­bi­na­tion rather than each one alone. If we only diet, our weight loss will have a higher por­tion of muscle loss, versus a muscle-​​sparing plan of exer­cise in con­junc­tion with healthy eating. If we only exer­cise, we will gain muscle, which helps to boost the metab­o­lism to burn more calo­ries, but we can eat many more calo­ries than what we burn. For example, we may need to run a marathon in order to burn off grandma’s hol­iday meal. We really need to bal­ance our food intake with calorie expen­di­ture. I would like to think of the hol­i­days as a time we take out a calorie loan with good faith that we will pay it back with interest after the hol­i­days. The bottom line is, exer­cise com­bined with a healthy, goal-​​specific eating plan is the best way to lose the unwanted body fat weight.

What can people do to keep their res­o­lu­tions going, to make them more of a lifestyle change? Are there any “don’ts” that often con­tribute to people’s res­o­lu­tions being short-​​lived?

Set­ting a new goal for healthy eating, exer­cise and phys­ical activity for the New Year requires a plan. One of the best things to do is to schedule this plan into your day like a real appoint­ment — and keep it. Start this plan slowly and tighten up the diet and increase your phys­ical activity over time. Too many people fall into the pit­fall of starting off with too strict or too intense a pro­gram. It at first seems man­age­able, but then we start to expe­ri­ence injuries or find our results are not as fast or sus­tain­able for the amount of effort we are putting into it. Thus, we give up or find excuses not to follow this plan for the long haul and fail to make it a lifestyle change.

New Year’s is a pop­ular time to start a new diet or new fit­ness plan. Can tack­ling a res­o­lu­tion to eat better, lose weight or hit the gym be more suc­cessful when you do it with friends, coworkers or peers?

Through prac­tice and research, we now know that those who commit to a friend, family member, group or any sup­port team fare much better at reaching their fit­ness and health goals com­pared to those who do it alone. When we make a com­mit­ment to someone else we feel that it is more of a con­tract to the group. On those cold windy days we may think twice about sleeping in when we know someone is waiting out in the cold for us.

One great way to incor­po­rate a small or large sup­port group for well­ness and fit­ness is to involve co-​​workers. Use a planned pre-​​work, lunch break or post-​​work time on most days of the week to get together for a walk, run or cycle ride. In fact, here at North­eastern, I have had a great time doing charity and training rides with a cycling group this summer. This was such a great way to main­tain fit­ness, reduce stress, have fun and meet and net­work with some great people at North­eastern. We sup­port and dis­cuss healthy eating strate­gies with each other, to learn what makes them suc­cessful and to gain strength in our health and well­ness goals.