New Exercise:diet tips for 2010

-This morning we’ve got kicking off a new series, New Year, New You. Every January, millions of Americans resolve to stick with diet and get healthy. But research shows more than 80% never follow through. How to beat the odds? Today nutritionist and author of “your inner skinny” Joy Bauer is here, along with today contributing psychologist Gail Saltz. Happy New Year, to both you ladies.

-Happy New Year.

-Nice to be here.

-And I’ll tell you as a guide and health coach. This is my absolute favorite time of the year, because people have ambitious health intentions they believe in their capabilities and believe in that you can do something is the key ingredient to success.

-So then Gail what happens?

-What happens is we feel overwhelmed at the task. No one likes to feel overwhelmed, so they are kind of going to state of denial. I don’t really need it and what is a big factor is a lot of dieting is emotional and if you don’t understand the unconscious motivation for eating for you, what for not exercising for that matter for being generally healthy and it’s very hard to move forward.

-So, what’s the first step?

-You really need to deal with the issue of do I need this or don’t I need this to not go into denial. It’s to say, it’s not just that I like this, I want this, but I really need to this for me and take a look at what the unconscious motivations might be for eating and try to address those as well not just what you diet will be, but you know, am I said, am I angry, am I having difficulty in some arena that propel me to eat.

-In a sense, what’s the motivation for the eating.

-Exactly, and address that.

-As you know that sometimes it's gonna be uncomfortable to sit with those feelings without numbing with food.

-So we want to get started, Joy you say one of the first thing you do should be is a copycat?

-Right, because you want to copy the characteristics of successful losers so to speak, so this is what we know, thanks to the National Weight Control Registry, 78% of successful dieters eat healthy breakfast every single day. They also weigh themselves at least once a week as a sort of reality check they watch less than…

-Or like me once a day?

-They watch less than ten hours of TV per week and on average they excise about an hour a day. And I realize that 60 minutes seems daunting to a lot people, but remember that 30 minutes of exercise is more than zero minutes of exercise and that doesn’t have to be continuous. It can be bite size pieces, ten minutes in the morning, ten minutes in the afternoon and ten minutes in the evening.

-So, but Gail, a lot of people I think when they look at this, they start to panic, like I can’t handle it.

-Correct. Correct.

-How do you deal with it?

-You know, what you need to do is break it into bite size pieces. So, yes, you have your long term goal.

-No pun intended?

-No pun intended, exactly. I’m so glad you have said that, because I would’ve kept going, but you have your long term goal, but you also want to have sort of weekly goal, or maybe even a daily goal and a really useful thing is to write it down, because it’s very easy to fudge with yourself later, say, it’s too scary, no, never mind, forget it. Oh, I didn’t really say that, did I? If you write it down, yes, you really said it. This is my weekly goal and you don’t have to look so far out and it’s less scary.

-And I love the idea of making both. Short-term weekly goals and the long-term goals, the long-term goal might be I wanna lose 60 pounds. But the weekly goal could be, you know what, I’m not gonna eat after a dinner every night this week.

-I think that for a lot of people look at 60 pounds is such a big number, but if you average it out, that’s a little bit more than a pound a week, maybe.

-Right, and that can be another short-term goal. I wana lose one pound this week.

-That would be a weekly goal, I gonna lose one pound exactly.

-And Joy you also say, become a fidgety person?

-Right, you just wanna move more in general, we are talking about form of exercise, so in another words, walk when you talk, pace around the kitchen when you on the phone. Instead of having your kids, be the errand boys, so to speak, fetch the phone, the mail, the remote control yourself. And don’t…

-Apart a little from the mall parking.

-Yes, and don’t be so efficient with your groceries. Instead of bundling five or six, you know, big bags in your arms, take one or two into the house from the drive way at a time. You know, it’s gonna make you walk a little more so it’s gonna extend the time getting the grocery into the house. But you gonna burn calories and also while you flop on the couch watching TV during those commercial breaks, get up and move, marching place, do some jumping jacks, we’ve got this TV workout for free on our website that people can download.

-Well, some good advice for people who want more information, they can also go on our website todayshow.com, and get that information. Joy Bauer, Gail Saltz, thanks so much.