For many people, the new year brings the opportunity for a fresh start towards nutrition and fitness goals. With this opportunity usually comes a great deal of HOPE – the hope of a way to quickly shed holiday pounds, get killer abs, set new personal records in the gym, or have more energy to go about the day.
I get it – we all want to look good, feel good, and we want the results immediately. Unfortunately, there is a portion of the “health community” that preys on your short-term emotions to get you to buy a 30-day crash diet with juice cleanse, tea, or other bogus supplement. The only cleanse going on is in your wallet, and the marketing around these quick fix systems has only gotten worse as our digital attention expands. Please, treat all information you read with a healthy dose of skepticism – check facts.
The sooner we accept that the path to success has no shortcuts and is instead built on a foundation of healthy habits we execute day in and day out, the sooner we achieve sustainable, real results. To kick off the new year, rather than committing yourself to a crash diet, I instead encourage you to initiate one or more of these five keystone healthy habits:
Cooking at home is more frequently associated with higher dietary quality and lower body fat. A large population study of healthy adults conducted in 2017 [1] indicated that those who ate five or more meals cooked at home per week (versus 3 or fewer) ate more fruits and vegetables, were less likely to be overweight, and less likely to have an excess amount of body fat.
How to start the habit: On Sunday mornings, map out a week’s worth of dinners and then hit the grocery store. Take a different route home from work to avoid temptation to stop at your usual haunts. As an added benefit, you will quickly realize you are saving quite a bit of money on food every week!
Ultra-processed foods are engineered to be hyper-palatable via addition of added sugar, salt, and/or fat so that you buy more and eat more. It’s clear to see how this could lead to weight gain. In one recent study [2], subjects on an ultra-processed diet for two weeks consumed over 500 additional kcal/day, resulting in an increase in bodyweight of 1.8 lbs. When the same subjects were then transitioned to a diet comprising unprocessed foods, weight decreased by 2.4 lbs.
If you are daily consumer of ultra-processed, pre-prepared foods, take the transition to less processed options in steps. How to start the habit: make a small swap first, e.g. an afternoon bag of chips for a piece of fruit or chopped up veggies. After this gets comfortable, try transitioning dinner. If you are committed to more home cooking as well, make sure your Sunday grocery list includes more fresh/minimally processed items. Purchasing pre-cut vegetables is one way to save a few minutes in the kitchen; I have a few meal prep recipes in the resources section of this site for some batch cooking ideas.
As a society, we are becoming more obese and sleeping less. Evidence from a number of epidemiological studies suggests that chronic partial sleep loss (generally <6 h per night) is associated with an increase in the risk of obesity in both children and adults.[3] [4] Practically speaking, how does chronic sleep deprivation cause fat gain?
Unfortunately, it hits us on both the energy expenditure and energy intake sides of the equation. On the energy expenditure side, it increases the likelihood that we are too tired to hit the gym and that we spend more time sitting/not moving about because we are exhausted. On the energy intake side, if we are awake more hours, there are simply more opportunities to eat. Secondly, sleep deprivation disrupts the key hormones that control our appetite (decreases in hunger suppressing leptin, elevation of hunger. Further, chronic sleep debt increases the stress hormone cortisol. Elevated cortisol levels put your body into a state of energy conservation (reduced energy expenditure), making it more difficult to maintain or lose weight.
How to start the habit: 30 minutes earlier than usual (or longer if you can manage it), make sure you are cleaned up and ready for bed. Turn off the TV and put your devices in sleep mode for the night. Making sure your room is dark and relatively cool, get into bed and try to fall asleep. If you still can’t after 10-15 minutes, try reading a book until your eyes are tired, then try again. I’ve found I can fall asleep easier if everything I need for the morning is already prepped the night before – you may want to give this a try.
Note on alcohol: Falling asleep quickly is not the same as good sleep quality. While alcohol may help you fall asleep, it is deleterious to sleep quality. Consider ditching it completely for a little while. Journal any changes in your sleep, eating habits, and overall energy level. You will likely find you feel more rested overall.
No surprise – a sedentary lifestyle is associated with obesity and increased all-cause mortality. Both obesity and insulin resistance are the result of caloric surplus in combination with reduced physical activity. For more sedentary individuals, recent studies have suggested daily physical activity, including non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT), to be favorably associated with metabolic risks and mortality. [5] [6] Simple increases daily physical activity, for example going on a walk on your lunch break, taking the stairs instead of an elevator, and walking across the hall to speak to a co-worker instead of texting them can all contribute to weight management. How to start the habit: stack a simple activity onto an existing activity at work. For example, after a trip to the bathroom or coffee machine, do a lap around the office before returning to you desk.
If you you already go to the gym or get some form of regular fitness – congratulations on forming this amazing habit! And since you are already there, we can build or “stack” another good habit on this habit. After your training, add on some finishing moves! How to start the habit: Do something simple, requiring little time, for example for example 10 air squats, 10 push-ups, and 2 minutes of jogging or stationary bike. Week over week, gradually add additional reps or time as possible. You would be surprised how these small adders accumulate to your benefit over time!
If you are looking for accountability and help reaching your goals, please reach out.
[1] Mills, S., Brown, H., Wrieden, W. et al. Frequency of eating home cooked meals and potential benefits for diet and health: cross-sectional analysis of a population-based cohort study. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act 14, 109 (2017)
[2] Hall, K.D., Ayuketah, A., Bryctha, R. et al. Ultra-Processed Diets Cause Excess Calorie Intake and Weight Gain: An Inpatient Randomized Controlled Trial of Ad Libitum Food Intake. Cell Metab 30, 1, (2019)
[3] Patel, S.R., Hu, F.B. Short sleep duration and weight gain: a systematic review. Obesity 16, 3 (2008)
[4] Beccuti G, Pannain S. Sleep and obesity. Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care 14, 4 (2011).
[5] Loeffelholz C, Birkenfeld A. The Role of Non-exercise Activity Thermogenesis in Human Obesity. [Updated 2018 Apr 9]. In: Feingold KR, Anawalt B, Boyce A, et al., editors. Endotext [Internet]. South Dartmouth (MA): MDText.com, Inc.; 2000-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK279077/
[6] Hamasaki H. Daily physical activity and type 2 diabetes: A review. World J Diabetes. 7, 12 (2016)