The day after Thanksgiving always finds our family in high gear to put up the Christmas tree and all the decorations. It is also my built in queue to begin thinking about a New Year's Resolution that will increase the health of our family. Notice the "our", not me. It is very important when thinking about a Resolution that has to relate to nutrition or fitness that it is a family goal. Everyone has to be on board!
This can be easier said than done! With a few helpful tips, you can be successful! Let's look at a few things that more than likely would not work: 1. Setting a lofty goal like "we are no longer going to eat junk." or 2. Dictating, "No more pop!" While those are definitely changes that would have positive impact, they are just words, no action and more importantly, a one person goal and not a family goal. For those of you who are in charge of the food supply, it is tempting to just say we are going to do this but really, what happens when they are away from home? The goal you are doing inside the home is only working in the home. Also, it will not have a lasting behavior change in the long run.
Our family has had success for about three years! The two best goals: "We will reduce our consumption of un-healthy beverages in half in 6 months and will not consume any un-healthy beverages except for a special occasion by the end of the year." The second successful goal: "We will reduce the amount of eating out in half each month and by the end of the year, reduce it to eating out only once a month." The key to all of this is to pick one very specific goal with benchmarks. A great rule of thumb is to utilize SMART goals. The S is for Specific, M is for Measurable, A is for Achievable, R is for Realistic and T is for trackable. All of this will find you successful if you are all on the same page, you know the goal and you know why you are doing this.
I have done a lot of research in the area of the over consumption of soda/pop. What I learned is that a lot of it is about behavior, how it feels to have that drink in your hand, why you have to have it and what would happen if you did not have another one of those wonderful beverages. In order to build a lasting belief or efficacy, it will need to be a family desire to change a food or a fitness behavior. I mention soda/pop as it seems to be a subject that either people are ready to learn and then put action into place to reduce it or there is a strong feeling that says, "take my pop and I may as well end everything, I have to have it, it is the only way to survive." if you are at the stage of making change, then I have a great resource for you! The following links are to a UNL Community lesson entitled,
"What's In Your Drink?" It is set up in a fashion that you could do this in a group setting or it is self-directive and you could use the participant guide and go through this on your own. The first link is for the leader guide and the second is for the participant guide. Do be sure to look at the power point included in the leader guide, it gives a nice outline of the lesson and how to have success. Also, I would truly appreciate feedback with the accompanying survey.
http://ianrpubs.unl.edu/live/hef612/build/hef612.pdf
http://ianrpubs.unl.edu/live/hef613/build/hef613.pdf
Feel free to message me with questions. New Year's Resolutions can really be helpful in increasing your health in your family. From my home to yours, a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
I leave you with one of my favorite songs that turned into a theme for Coke and a lot of us do not remember the original, we remember the "I 'd Like to buy the world a Coke" song. This has the lyrics, and I found it impossible not to insert COKE! It really drives home the point that media really imprints on our souls and then it slips into our consumerism! With the use of a SMART goal, you can change this and live harmoniously with your new goal and with your family on board.
