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Evaluating Your Success, Not Your Failure – Cross-posted at BlogHer.com

If you made a New Year’s resolution, you’ve now had a couple of weeks to work on it.  How are you making out?  Would you say you’ve been successful, or that you’ve already failed?  Don’t answer yet.

My New Year’s resolution included eating healthy, but today my daughter made chocolate chip cookies and I had several of them (they were super yummy too).  Some might say that by eating those cookies, I’ve failed at my resolution.  Have I?  What really matters though, is how I perceive it.  If I perceive eating cookies as a failure, then it was.  However, I choose to not see it as a failure.  I’ve learned from years of dieting that I am less likely to be successful if I’m too strict with myself.  So instead, I remind myself of all the days that I did make healthy food choices, and that I can still continue to make healthy food choices tomorrow.

We’ve all heard that most people will fail at their New Year’s resolution.  In fact, many people will use this knowledge to justify not making a resolution at all.  But should we really avoid resolutions because of a our fears of failure?  Of course not.

Most successful people will tell you that failure is success, as long as you learn from it.  You may have even heard this famous quote from Thomas Edison:

I have not failed, not once. I’ve discovered ten thousand ways that don’t work.

This is the way I see it – If you’ve made a resolution that is really in your best interest to keep, then don’t throw it out the window just because a few weeks into it you are not exactly where you hoped you would be.  It’s the intention that matters most.  If your intention was good, then now is as good a time as any to tweak your resolution a bit, and make it more realistic for yourself.  Remind yourself that you can choose to see your glass as half empty or half full.  Perception is the only thing standing between you and success.

So now, how would you answer the question I asked at the beginning of this post…

Would you say you’ve been successful, or that you’ve already failed?

If it helps, take some time to re-evaluate your resolution, and set more realistic goals yourself.  And remember, it’s much better for you to focus on the ways you’ve been successful, rather than on the ways you believe you may be failing.

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I came across a pretty disturbing article today…It suggests that doctors are bias against overweight women, to the extent of jeopardizing their health and well-being.  It’s no secret that overweight people are discriminated against in many ways.  But recent studies have found that overweight women are actually being discriminated by their own doctors and health care professionals.  With two out of every three Americans considered to be overweight or obese, this bias could be putting many people at risk.  Could you be one of them?

How serious is the problem?

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What is your eating style?  Do you follow one of the popular diet plans?

If you’re looking to eat healthy or lose weight in the new year, there are a lot of diet plans out there to choose from.  But how do you know which plan is best for you?  I’m not a fan of fad diets – Even when they work, they are often an unhealthy choice and any weight lost is usually quickly gained back.  But there are diet plans geared towards healthy eating and healthy weight loss.  Maybe you’re already following one.

In this post I thought we could take a look at some of the diet plans that also focus on healthy eating.  Because, in the long run, changing unhealthy eating habits to healthy ones is the only way to lose weight and keep it off.

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I’ve written several posts on the problems of childhood obesity.  Not only are the number of overweight children on the rise, but even more troubling, is the increase of adult diseases these children are developing.  Obese children are developing life threatening conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure at an alarming rate.  What kind of life expectancy are these kids going to have?   In my own experience, I never had high blood pressure until my thirties, but in less than ten years, my high blood pressure has damaged three of the valves in my heart.  If this could happen to me in such a short period of time; I can’t even imagine what the long-term effects of high blood pressure will be on obese children.  And I don’t think we can afford to wait to find out.

But what can we do?

In the long run, I think it’s going to take both individual changes as well as policy changes to make a real difference in childhood obesity.  And I think banning trans fats in prepared foods is a good place to start.  But until then – Parents need to know what foods are highest in trans-fat and then avoid them as much as possible.

From A Life Less Sweet – Trans Fat:  What is it and why you DON’T want to eat it…

In a nutshell, trans fat is an issue because it is associated with all kinds of health problems. Trans fat can wreak havoc on your cholesterol levels – increasing your LDL (the “bad” cholesterol) and decreasing your HDL (the “good” cholesterol). A high LDL is a major risk factor for heart disease. HDL picks up excess cholesterol and takes it back to the liver, so higher HDL is a good thing.

Trans fat also increases triglycerides and causes more inflammation. Triglycerides are another kind of fat that may contribute to hardening or thickening of artery walls. Trans fat consumption is associated with an increased risk of stroke and type-2 diabetes.

Here are two links that can help you avoid trans-fats…

• The Top 10 Foods to Beware
• Fast Food Items Highest In Trans Fats

So…What if you’re the parent of an overweight child?  Do we start putting our kids on diets?

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How I Plan To Lower My Blood Pressure In 2010 – cross posted at BlogHer.com

My last post was asking the question – Are you healthier than you were 10 years ago?  [If you didn't already, go over and let me know by taking the poll at the bottom of the post].  Today’s post is about how I plan to get healthier (and reduce my blood pressure) in the next year.

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My New Year’s resolution is about doing everything I can do to have more birthdays.  At the moment the one thing that could keep me from doing that, is my blood pressure.  I’ve had blood pressure and heart rate problems since my twenties, but now in my forties, I know I’m at a much greater risk for having a heart attack or stroke.  So this year I plan on taking specific steps to hopefully lower my blood pressure.  Like Morra Arrons-Mele, I would like to make these changes holistically.  I’m still planning to take my medications, but even on medication my blood pressure is still not controlled.

Here are the steps I plan to take in 2010…

1.  Continue to eat healthy, but kick it up a notch.

2.  Reduce stress by using meditation and Reiki on a regular basis.

3.  Get the Wii Fit and begin doing light exercising and yoga.

I’ll keep track of my progress by documenting my blood pressure and the days I’ve used any of the above steps.

Well, that’s my “more birthdays list.”  I hope you’ll join me at the American Cancer Society’s Official Birthday Blog, by sharing a list of your own.

Here are some tips for making and promoting your Bday List and supporting the American Cancer Society’s More Birthdays campaign…

1. Create a list of things (could be one thing or many) you plan to do to stay healthy in 2010 and/or to help create more birthdays. This is your “my more birthdays list.”

2. Share your list on Facebook and/or Twitter (using the #mybdaylist hashtag). These could be anything from losing 5 pounds or eating more vegetables to training for a 10K or half-marathon.

3. Tweet and/or post messages on Facebook about the progress you’re making on your more birthdays list throughout the year. This will help you get support, tips, and encouragement from others who are trying to accomplish their more birthdays lists.

You can also easily share you list on Facebook and Twitter here.

Here is the Facebook group and here is the #mybdaylist on Twitter.

Be Careful of Diet Resolutions – Cross Posted at BlogHer Health & Wellness

Welcome to the dawn of a new decade.  I would be lying if I said I was sad to see the last one go.

It’s a new year, and once again we will all spend time analyzing our lives.  We will wonder if there is something we can change that could make our lives better in the coming year.

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