Dear Chef Kathleen,
 
If I had followed through with the New Year's resolutions I made last year, I'd be in perfect shape.
How do you do it?

Annie


Dear Annie,

I'd be lying if I told you sticking to my New Year's resolutions is a cinch. You should have heard the Oscar-worthy conviction in my voice as I reached for a third bite-size brownie Christmas night: "I'll ride my bike every day. I'll work out with weights three times a week. I'll take yoga five times a week. I'll drink eight glasses of water and eat all the fruits and vegetables I'm supposed to."

After years of overeating and making grandiose plans to change my ways, I've come to the realization that making New Year's resolutions is a way to purge myself of all the undigested guilt lingering from poor holiday food choices. The very act of announcing a laundry list of New Year's resolutions is a way to wash away my culinary sins.

Announcing them, I reason (usually when I'm eating something I have no business consuming), allows me to eat more because I have every intention of becoming gym religious every January. The degree of absolution you can achieve with this type of denial depends upon your ability to actually believe what you say. If you really, truly believe you'll straighten out, there's no reason not to over indulge just one more day, right?

After all, how much damage can you do in one little old day? Your blue jeans aren't going to explode off your body and hurl themselves across the room if you have one dessert more than the three you shouldn't have had already. You'll wake up feeling a little puffy and tired, but other than that, with minimal effort, you can rationalize all the bad choices you made by lunch time.

Making New Year's resolutions with the best of intentions is all well and good, but research clearly shows that most of us abandon our goals before we get the holiday decorations stored away for next year. So why make them?

I don't know about you, but I'm tired of hearing on the evening news how we've collectively failed to reach our goals as a society, again.

I don't want to hear growing obesity statistics, I want to hear shrinking obesity statistics.
This year can be different, Annie. First, make a list of last year's resolutions. How long did you stick with them? If you could make them work for one day or one week, what happened that caused you to ease off or in some cases, abandon them altogether?

Identifying why you chose not to follow through with your resolutions is key to succeeding once and for all.

10 ways to ensure success

1. Set small, achievable goals. If ever they feel too hard, give yourself permission to modify them.
   
   
2. Write down your goals and share them with someone you trust.
   
   
3. Plan to succeed and you will. Next to each goal, in as much detail as possible, map out your game plan.
   
   For example, if your goal is to work out three times a week after work, where will you work out? Will you bring your gym clothes to work? Will you take a class, or work out alone, at a gym, with a trainer? Do you need to sign up for the class? Purchase an exercise video? Do you need new gym shoes? After working and working out, how will you ensure that you eat a healthy dinner?
   
   
4. Accept no excuses from yourself – a long commute, long work hours, too many responsibilities, too many after-school activities to shuttle children to and "I don't have time" are elements you control. Plain and simple.
   
   
5. Acknowledge that if you want change, you have to make change.
   
   
6. Ask yourself if the rewards of achievement are greater than the cost of the sacrifices you may have to make.
   
   
7. Acknowledge that sacrifices are choices in your best interest. Embrace them.
   
   
8. Own that the power to choose is a privilege you control.
   
   
9. Choose to exercise the power you possess and you can control at least as much as any of us can – your good health.
   
   
10. Succeed. Because you have the opportunity to do so.

kd@chefkathleen.com