Skip to main content

Risky Resolutions

The New Year.

It's common to yearn for a return to normal structure of life after the holidays. Let's face it, the holidays are busy, stressful, and lead to more gluttony than one would like to rehash. From a nutrition and body image perspective, the negative feelings you feel January 1st are most likely directly related to the judgment you have on your eating, drinking, or lack of exercise over an extremely stressful time.  What's my advice? I'm glad you asked. First, give yourself some grace. Second, recognize what your obstacles are during the holidays and resolve how you can make a positive change in the future. Third, make a plan to build your support system to meet your resolution DURING the holidays next year.

Perhaps you've already made a resolution though. That's okay. Have you thought of the the steps it's going to take you to get to your resolution or are you just focused on the end goal?  Here's the facts. Only eight percent of people actually achieve their resolutions every year. Eight percent! That's a very low number. Businesses know this and capitalize on it. Do they really care if you get to your end goal? Be smart when making your resolutions this year. Avoid the following broken promises:

1. Purchasing a Magic Pill or Drink- There is no magic bullet. I feel like a broken record. Remember FenPhen? It killed people. Why would you have to spend hundreds of dollars on a powder that is advertised as a SUPER food. There is no such thing as a super food and once something is made into a powder it has been transformed from its orginial whole product that is much better quality. Also, most of the drinks aren't regulated and let me tell you some VERY big names are being pulled from the market because they promise something they don't provide. Last but not least, a drink should only replace a meal after surgery when your GI system isn't working efficiently. Can you really rationalize that a drink is healthier than whole food? I'm intrigued.


2. "Nutrition Coaching" that is based primarily around purchasing supplements- Your body is an amazing machine. It will attempt to digest, absorb and use every vitamin and mineral you give it. Unless you have a deficiency there is no research that proves having extra of anything proves to increase metabolic efficiency, weight loss, or body mass. Anybody who is recommending a supplement should only be doing so after he/she proves you have a deficiency (labs), otherwise you are just paying for expensive urine.

3. Any detoxification agents - Your body has a liver and kidneys and if they are working correctly there is no need for you to detoxify. Plus close your eyes and think rationally. When detoxifying your body does it really make sense to put additional things in before you take the waste out? Newsflash: a true detoxification is Dialysis and trust me you don't want to need that.

4. Exercise products or gyms that advertise spot reduction- How in the world can a gym promise you how your body will react to exercise, especially if they don't know your nutrition? Also spot reduction is not possible. Promising results sets people up for failure. Do you really want to live in that negative space?


5.  Any diet that recommends excluding an entire food group- Eating a variety of food provides you with the vitamins, minerals, and macronutrients your body desires to function properly. I know the media tries to brainwash everyone to believe that your brain has a specific sensor to tell when it's eating a white potato (bad) verse a sweet potato (good) and that white potato can put a pound of true weight on but unfortunately that is not possible. The only time you should avoid a food is when you have an intolerance or allergy.

Always remember. If it sounds too good to be true it probably is and you get what you pay for. Here's to smart resolutions!








Be well,

Amy Goldsmith RDN, LDN















Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Make it Happen

Parents, I see you. I see you putting everyone else's needs in front of yours. I see your dark circles under your eyes, your gray hair, that your wasting away, or that you've collectively gained weight over the years. It's time to put yourselves first because if you don't take care of yourself you won't be around to keep taking care of everyone else. So often friends, acquaintances, or clients say to me, "I don't know how you find the time to exercise." "How can you take the time away from everything else and get away to exercise?" "I wish I could actually focus on myself and exercise." Exercise to me is self care. It produces endorphins faster than any other activity I engage in. It  reduces my stress, keeps me healthy, increases flexibility, and gives me more energy to be on point with my busy kids and my demanding job. My exercise isn't extravagant and it doesn't take too much time. Here's my secret. I always
Post a Comment
Read more

Why this Dietitian Cares more about your PREbiotics than your PRObiotic Pill

Clients ask me all the time what I think of their brand of probiotic or which one they should start taking.  Studies have shown that probiotic supplements definitely have their place in certain circumstances (that’s a whole other blog for another time), but my bigger concern is... what are you feeding the ones you have already? “Probiotics” is just a fancy word for helpful bacteria.  Even if you don’t take a pill, you have these little guys in your digestive track.  The problem right now is that current probiotic supplements can only include the bacteria that scientists have been able to 1) identify and 2) put in a pill without them dying right away.   However, we (probiotic and non-probiotic users alike) have so many different strains of bacteria (somewhere in the neighborhood of billions) who do so much good for us such as make vitamins and help battle bad bacteria.  BUT - just like us - they need to eat!  A recent study showed that a diet high in protein is not in their
Post a Comment
Read more

To The Bones- A review from a dietitian

Friday July 14th, Netflix premiered the movie To The Bone.  Prior to the premier many had opinions of the movie. Some were fearful that it would glorify an Eating Disorder, some felt the movie would put too much focus on extremely thin patients with Eating Disorders neglecting those that are within normal weight but still extremely sick, and many had a lot of opinions about the lead actress who lost a significant amount of weight for the role disclosing she is in recovery for an Eating Disorder. My colleagues and I discussed the pretense of the movie, I communicated to families that the movie was coming out in case their daughters and sons watched the movie, and Friday I went home from work and viewed the movie. Although Hollywood has a way of sensationalizing everything there was a lot that the movie got right. The opening scene where Ellen counts the calories as soon as she sees the food is a good depiction of how someone with an Eating Disorder thinks. Food is not sensual it i
Post a Comment
Read more