Let’s start the new year by creating a new healthier you.  Making a few simple changes in your diet and lifestyle can have a positive impact on your health—and can also prevent a variety of health problems in the future. The traditional diet, such as coffee and doughnuts for breakfast; a hamburger for lunch—or no lunch; candy, cookies, and a soft drink for a snack; followed by a huge dinner with more protein than a person needs—are unhealthy dietary choices. The American diet is high in fat and sugar and low in fiber, fruits and vegetables. As a result, younger people are starting to suffer from heart disease—not only because of poor diet, but also because of an epidemic of inactivity. There is a increasing number is people becoming overweight, obese, and diabetic. To reverse the alarming trend, many doctors of chiropractic urge patients to stop smoking, eat a balanced diet, drink plenty of water, exercise regularly, and augment their balanced diets with appropriate nutritional supplements.

Making lifestyle and dietary changes is a process...to achieve your goals...set S.M.A.R.T. Goals.

Specific - A specific goal has a much greater chance of being accomplished than a general goal. To set a specific goal you must answer the six "W" questions:
Who: Who is involved?
What: What do I want to accomplish?
Where: Identify a location.
When: Establish a time frame.
Which: Identify requirements and constraints.
Why: Specific reasons, purpose or benefits of accomplishing the goal.

EXAMPLE: A general goal would be, "Get in shape." But a specific goal would say, "Join a health club and workout 3 days a week."

Measurable - Establish concrete criteria for measuring progress toward the attainment of each goal you set. When you measure your progress, you stay on track, reach your target dates, and experience the exhilaration of achievement that spurs you on to continued effort required to reach your goal. To determine if your goal is measurable, ask questions such as......How much? How many? How will I know when it is accomplished?

Attainable - When you identify goals that are most important to you, you begin to figure out ways you can make them come true. You develop the attitudes, abilities, skills, and financial capacity to reach them. You begin seeing previously overlooked opportunities to bring yourself closer to the achievement of your goals. You can attain most any goal you set when you plan your steps wisely and establish a time frame that allows you to carry out those steps. Goals that may have seemed far away and out of reach eventually move closer and become attainable, not because your goals shrink, but because you grow and expand to match them. When you list your goals you build your self-image. You see yourself as worthy of these goals, and develop the traits and personality that allow you to possess them.

Realistic - To be realistic, a goal must represent an objective toward which you are both willing and able to work. A goal can be both high and realistic; you are the only one who can decide just how high your goal should be. But be sure that every goal represents substantial progress. A high goal is frequently easier to reach than a low one because a low goal exerts low motivational force. Some of the hardest jobs you ever accomplished actually seem easy simply because they were a labor of love. Your goal is probably realistic if you truly believe that it can be accomplished. Additional ways to know if your goal is realistic is to determine if you have accomplished anything similar in the past or ask yourself what conditions would have to exist to accomplish this goal.

Timely - A goal should be grounded within a time frame. With no time frame tied to it there's no sense of urgency. If you want to lose 10 lbs, when do you want to lose it by? "Someday" won't work. But if you anchor it within a timeframe, "by May 1st", then you've set your unconscious mind into motion to begin working on the goal. T can also stand for Tangible - A goal is tangible when you can experience it with one of the senses, that is, taste, touch, smell, sight or hearing. When your goal is tangible you have a better chance of making it specific and measurable and thus attainable.

Lifestyle & Dietary Change Recommendations:

• Exercise at least 20 to 30 minutes three or four days a week.
• Eat out more sparingly. Eating more frequent small meals is better than eating fewer large meals.
  Brown-bag your lunch to control your fat and sugar intake while adding nutritious fruits, vegetables, and grains.
• Limit alcohol and quit smoking. Drinking alcohol excessively and/or smoking hinder your body’s ability to absorb nutrients from your food, along with other detrimental effects.
• Eat more raw foods. Cooking and canning destroys much of the nutrition in foods. With the exception of canned tomatoes, which can help prevent prostate cancer, fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables always have more natural vitamins and minerals.
• Select organically grown foods when possible because they have lower amounts of toxic elements, such as pesticides and heavy metals.
• Remember to consume dark green vegetables, oils, nuts, and seeds, which are sources of magnesium, fatty acids, and many other vitamins and minerals.
• Consume 25 to 30 grams of fiber a day. Whole-grain breads and cereals, beans, nuts, and some fruits and vegetables are good sources of fiber. High-fiber diets can help prevent digestive disorders, heart disease, and colon cancer.
• Numerous studies investigating water balance have demonstrated that the minimal water requirements of inactive adults who live in normal temperate climates are approximately 1 to 3.1 liters (or 34 to 105.4 oz.) a day. This amount should adequately replace estimated minimum respiratory, urinary, fecal, and insensible water losses.
• Avoid fruit juices, carbohydrate gels, sodas, alcohol, and high-sugar sports drinks. These may dehydrate the body further by stimulating excessive urine production and/or decreasing your overall beneficial fluid intake.

Source: American Chiropractic Association and Top Achievement