Rosalee Brown

The ability to stay with it, anything, for the long haul is a big reason for success in many areas of our lives. This characteristic is also evident in those persons who strive for good health and balance and seem to be achieving this success in their lives. We are constantly encouraged to assess our lives because we are all unique individuals with different genetic predisposition, risk factors and goals for success.

However, many times we want to achieve the success all at once and therefore set goals which are difficult to achieve and so we end up 'beating up' ourselves and often regressing. Remember to make your goals 'do-able'. Yes, it is good to want to achieve all the good and healthy results, but it is best 'to bite off what you can chew' each time or you stand the chance of choking or losing your appetite.

Many persons have the 'all or nothing' approach to health - "I want to lose 10 pounds by ... or it doesn't make sense to lose less" or "What is one pound in a week or four pounds in a month, that is not enough!" Well, that is 52 pounds in one year, remember the tortoise? Or, many persons want to overhaul their eating habits at one go, because to them any other way seems as if they have not made a change.

Small changes are effective

But small changes are effective if you stick with them and smaller changes are easier to stick with until you are strong enough to add another change. For example, sugar added to drinks are a significant source of unwanted calories in most persons' diet, so one way to reduce excess calories is to cut out these drinks during the week and have them on Sundays when the family eats together.

That may be still too drastic for some individuals, so maybe if you are used to having more than one glass of juice at a meal, simply cut back to one, aiming to keep reducing and replacing the drink with water or coconut water, until you can have some 'drinkless' days.

You can use this approach for many other healthy options in your diet, be it fried foods, pastries, etceteras. For those who need to add healthy options such as vegetables, do it on a phased basis. The same approach can be used for exercise, relaxation, increasing your sleep intake, among other things, all this leading to the goal of improved health.

The art therefore is doing it again each day, increasing the variety, finding pleasure in the accomplishments and making plans for improvements. Each time you will achieve some level of success. The health process must become a way of life or else it will only be a short-lived phase. So, stick to your routine for health and wellness.

Rosalee M. Brown is a registered dietitian/nutritionist who operates Integrated Nutrition and Health Services; email: yourhealth@gleanerjm.com.