How to stick with New Year’s Resolution to lose weight and get fit.

By Dr. Jon Thomas, DC, Board Certified Chiropractic Physician

Courtesy of Public Domain Pictures

Happy New Year! If you made a New Year’s resolution to lose weight and to become more fit, you are not alone. Making a resolution is the easy part. The big question in January is whether you will stick with it. Waking up on New Year’s Day and realizing that there’s a price to pay for whatever unfortunate excesses may have happened the night before, or throughout the holiday season, is the hard part.

Fortunately, help is available. Joining a fitness club or signing up for a weight loss program are relatively easy. Lots of people do it in January and it works for some of them. However, to achieve your goals, it’s important to find the right fit.

Weight Loss Programs

When considering a weight loss program, the answers to a few simple questions will help people to make informed decisions.

Does the program require prepackaged meals and are those costs over and above other costs? After participating in a program with packaged foods, people are going to return to their local grocery store someday. What will happen when they don’t have prepackaged foods and they walk through grocery stores that are filled with temptation?

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If meals are prepackaged, can you try before you buy? It would be a shame to commit to a program and then find out that you just can’t stand the food. Who would want to stick with that?

Are meetings required? If so, be sure that meetings are at times that fit into your schedule. Some degree of flexibility can be important to many people.

Are the counselors or consultants easily accessible to answer questions that come up? Questions are going to come up from time to time. Getting answers in a timely manner can make the difference between slipping up or staying on course.

Does the program include someone trained in nutrition and in the physiology of weight loss? The training and experience of the practitioner are keys for any weight loss program. Losing weight the right way is fantastic. Losing weight the wrong way can be dangerous. Are you seeing a true expert that has studied weight loss and its effects on the body, managed people through the challenging phases of a program, or is it someone who had some success and is now acting as an expert. It’s important to know that we are not all the same and what has worked for one person might not work for others.

Has the program been working for other people? If it has not been working for other people, what would be the point in trying it. Find a program that has worked for lots of people, preferably people just like you.

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Should you join a gym?

Fitness centers help lots of people work toward their health and fitness goals. Being around like-minded people can be very motivating. Here are several things to check into before signing up. It’s important to remember many fitness programs are for toning, conditioning, and strengthening and are not purposeful in actually losing weight. Make sure your efforts are focused toward the correct goals!

Location and hours of operation. Make sure that the location is convenient and that it’s open at hours when you can get there. If you can’t get there when it’s open, membership is not going to help much.  

Equipment and classes. Make sure the center has the equipment and/or classes you want. Try to find a center where you can change things up once in a while to keep things from getting boring. Boredom is not conducive to sticking with a program.

A few tips to stay focused on your weight and fitness objectives.

Write down your goals. Experts agree that writing down goals is the best first step to achieving them. The act of writing your goals out requires more organized thought than just saying you want to lose weight or get in shape. The simple act of writing out your goals will plant them firmly in your mind. So, if you haven’t already done so, write down your goals. Do you want to lose twenty pounds in six weeks? Write that out. Do you want to walk four miles three times per week at a pace that will burn calories? Write that out.

A fitness tracker can help you to stay motivated.

With a fitness tracker, you can monitor your heart rate while you exercise. This helps users to get their heart rate to the desired level and keep it there for a while.

If you have health issues, a tracking device can keep you aware of how your body is doing so that you can avoid the types of injuries that come from doing too much.

Another benefit of using a tracking device is that it will track your performance over a period of time. This will provide you with a better picture of the progress you are making.

Little Talbot Island
Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Take advantage of the great outdoors.

Northeast Florida is a beautiful part of the country with great weather. There are lots of ways to enjoy the nature surrounding us. Long walks on local beaches are always nice, but there are lots of other options.

We have many beautiful waterways that can be explored by kayak or canoe. Either way, you’ll get a good upper body workout.

For swimming, we have the beaches, although the water is getting cold this time of year. On the other hand, we have several of Florida’s beautiful springs within driving distance. The water’s always refreshing at about seventy-two degrees, but it’s certainly warm enough to swim in.

There are numerous parks with beautiful hiking trails. They include Guana River State Park, Fort Clinch, Little Talbot Island, and many others. There are also excellent trails at the University of North Florida.

The Rail Trail from Jacksonville’s Westside to Baldwin is popular with bikers who want to cover a lot of ground. Hanna Park and Westside Regional Park offer mountain bike trails.

Cut yourself some slack if you fall short. 

Nobody is perfect and most people who want to lose weight are going to slip up once in a while. Don’t get negative. Figure out went wrong, reexamine your goals, and resolve to do better the next time that challenge presents itself.

Courtesy of Vibrant Life

See Your Chiropractor!

January is a great time of the year to see a chiropractor so you can start the year off properly aligned. Also, when you’re losing weight and getting fit, your body is going through significant changes. Everything that happens in your body is directed by the brain, the command center. When that information isn’t flowing properly, your body does not have the information it needs to function optimally. A chiropractor can identify specific areas where your nervous system is not working properly and correct them.

January is Thyroid Health Awareness Month.

“The thyroid’s job is to make thyroid hormone, which is secreted into the blood and then carried to every tissue in the body. Thyroid hormone helps the body use energy, stay warm and keep the brain, heart, muscles, and other organs working as they should.” American Thyroid Association

Thyroid hormone regulates the metabolism in humans. That’s why thyroid function and weight are closely related. Getting the thyroid to function the way it should is important to everybody. It’s especially important to anyone who is trying to lose weight.

I encourage anyone who is considering a weight loss program to seek one where there is a trained practitioner who understands the physiology of weight loss and the relationship of the thyroid gland to weight. A good practitioner will have thorough knowledge of the thyroid gland, and will know what to do if the thyroid is not functioning correctly.

Vibrant Life Health Center’s Personal Connection

Having an accountability partner or a coach to help you stay motivated can make an enormous difference when you’re trying to lose weight and get fit. One of the biggest differences between the NutriMost program at the Vibrant Life Health Center and other weight loss programs is that we maintain a strong interpersonal connection with our patients all the way through the program. We’re committed to keeping them motivated and helping them to maintain their resolve.

Patients can send a text to Dr. Thomas at any time of the day with a question or some challenge they’re facing, and he will do his utmost to answer very quickly. He usually answers within thirty minutes. He is an accountability partner and a coach for his patients and that’s not just lip service. That’s one of the things people mention over and over in their testimonial videos.

If you’d like to find out how Vibrant Life Health Center can help you to lose weight, get fit, and make 2017 your best year ever, call today to set up an appointment.

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In this article, I have discussed how people can make effective resolutions for the New Year. Whether that involves losing weight or getting fit, it is possible. I’ve provided some tips on how to go about that.

If you have a comment about this article, please leave it in the comments section. If you know of someone who might benefit from the information in this blog, please share it with your friends, colleagues, and on social media.

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At Vibrant Life, we address all the key elements to add vibrance and vitality to your life. This includes nutrition, Chiropractic care, and fitness. If you need to consult with a Chiropractor about your neck, back, or any other health concern, please contact our office to set up an appointment.

Courtesy of Vibrant Life

Dr. Jon Thomas is a Board Certified Chiropractic Physician. His practice, The Vibrant Life Health Center, is located in the Mandarin section of Jacksonville. His interest in health and fitness started early, and his athletic pursuits have included BMX racing, Professional Snow Skiing, Water Skiing, Baseball, Weightlifting, and Martial Arts. After studying and learning from some of the top health experts throughout the world, Dr. Thomas dedicated his life to helping people of all ages to transform their lives. The objective for each patient is to initiate the body’s healing and to work progressively toward a body that functions optimally. Dr. Thomas is seen regularly on TV programs where he discusses the transformations of his patients. He also speaks at events throughout the community and writes informative articles to improve the health of residents throughout Northeast Florida.

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