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Where
do you start?
You see
yourself in the mirror and know you should do something about
how you look and feel. But how to begin?
"People
need to work on the easy things first," says Susan
Bowerman, assistant director of University of California at
Los Angeles’ Center for Human Nutrition.
With so
many of us launching diet and exercise plans for the new year
— and often giving up within a matter of weeks (if not days)
— I asked Bowerman for some strategies to get started.
Strategies, that is, that aren’t too hard to stick with.
"People
always get overly ambitious at the first part of the
year," she said, when they really should begin with
"things that are doable that they can absolutely
sustain."
Such as?
Bowerman’s
doable dietary suggestions include:
Eat a
piece of fruit instead of cakes or cookies for dessert.
Include
one dairy serving per day (if milk, switch from whole milk to
2 percent).
Eat
airy, watery foods that will fill you up and have fewer
calories (vegetables, not Cheetos). "Think of your
sandwich as a salad between two pieces of bread."
Switch
from high-calorie drinks (sugary soda, fruit juices) to water,
even at just one meal a day.
Substitute
100 percent whole grain for white bread.
For more
tips and encouragement, Bowerman’s blog is a readable,
supportive guide: discovergoodnutrition.com.
It’s
not just food she’s concerned with, and she offers some
sustainable tips on exercise too.
"Sometimes
the idea of 30 minutes a day of exercise is so daunting to
people. Break it up. There’s evidence if you do three
10-minute stints it’s just as good.
"Also,
just move around a little more. Talking on the phone like I’m
talking to you, I’m pacing around the room.
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