Now that we’re in February and the Xmas season in Puerto Rico is over… now I can start thinking about my new year’s resolutions.  This year I have included as part of my resolutions:

• To exercise more – that’s why Santa left me at my sister’s house the P90X exercise program that I started last week… and to do more hatha yoga , which is a different kind of psycho-physic exercises to which I attribute a lot of my health benefits in my life…
• To eat one big Green Salad a day – I have been lazier about this one in the first few weeks of the year…

My belief is you can’t create a huge list of resolutions that you might be overwhelmed in keeping.  If it’s too many changes in a short amount of time, something will have to give.  I found myself saying this over and over again the last few weeks – to friends and acquaintances who all are seeking better health, more fitness but sometimes lack the self-discipline to achieve long-lasting changes.  That was the inspiration for this series…

About 5 years ago I gave my friend Ana Yolanda a Xmas gift… when she asked me she wanted to be thin like me, I told her she needed to make small changes in her regular lifestyle that will bring her and her family health on a long term basis.  Her ways of Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers have worked on the short term to lose some weight, but nothing proved to provide her with any long-term results.  Her experience with my Xmas gift… well, I think it had more to do with her attachment to certain foods and certain habits.

What I am about to share is something I have experienced first-hand… This is not necessarily scientifically proven, but these are changes I implemented in my own life and I have seen results – results of a healthier, slimmer and more energetic me.  I will share with you what I wrote to Ana as a Xmas present and I have given to many other friends when they seek my advice on how now I am healthier and in better shape than I was when I was in college.

There are some words of wisdom:

We can’t expect different results

by always doing the same things the same way.

The moral of the story:

To get different results,

we MUST make some behavioral changes

– we must do things in a different way.

When I returned from living in NYC, I was still the same 5’ tall I am now, but I was wearing a size 8.  I have not always been like that, but since I adopted a healthier lifestyle I have really seen a difference in my health and what my regular normal weight is.  Now I regularly wear a size 0 and XS clothes.

I want to inspire you to make some lasting changes in your lifestyle and for them to stay with you for the rest of your life – so you can in turn educate your children the same way and create a generation of healthier and more active kids.  I do not pretend you turn into a full-fledged vegetarian if that’s not your choice.  But I do ask you to ADOPT ONE MONTHLY CHANGE.  Only one.  I have heard that if you implement a change for 15 days straight, it becomes a habit.  That’s my goal – for you to adopt 11 healthier habits into your lifestyle during this year.

I would like for you to forget about weighing yourself…  Your new gauge will be how fit you feel, if you have more energy, how many less colds you have gotten in the year compared to before, if you happen to have to buy yourself new clothes because the ones you have feel somewhat looser…

I know I should have shared this with you back in January, but heck… the idea came just now and I do not want to wait until next year’s resolutions to share:

ELIMINATE SOFT DRINKS

To me, it’s necessary to eliminate all soft drinks from your diet because they have no nutritional value whatsoever.  You need to ingest foods/drinks that will provide some sort of health benefit.

Why?

• You need to drink plenty of water to alleviate any constipation, a great cause of many ailments
• Soft drinks have no nutritional value
• The sodium in sodas only make us retain water
• The chemicals in soft-drinks adversely affect our kidney function

So instead of drinking a soft drink, you’ll now drink:

Water

• In every fast-food out there you can order your combo or sandwich with a bottle of water.
• Try at least to drink 6 glasses of 8oz of water…  it’s not optimal, but it’s a start.

Juices – preferably natural.  I try to buy fruits when they’re in season and make the juice myself… but I know we are always pressed for time so when I buy prepared juices…

• Read the labels to avoid purchasing juices with added sugars
• Some brands to try:
  • Lotus Pineapple Juice – from a container, not the can
  • Tropicana Orange Juice
  • Caribik Sun Passion Fruit Juice
  • Simply Orange or Simply Lime
  • Mott’s regular and Natural Apple Juices
  • Martinelli’s Unfiltered Apple Juice
  • Apple & Eve’s juice boxes – for those who have kids and needs portion control.  I love the Fruit Punch and Berry varieties.

Also, when I go to parties, they usually have these juices as mixers for drinks, so I usually order a glass of Orange Juice, Grapefruit or Pink Grapefruit Juice or Cranberry Juice instead of the typical soda.  And Simply Lime with crushed mint leaves and added fresh lime juice tastes just like a mojito…

Tags: food, lifestyle change, soft drinks, vegetarian