Philip J. Goscienski, M.D.
October 2007
Of course we need goalposts! Without end zones football teams could run around all day and never score. Motivational speakers tell us that only about 2 percent of the population keeps written goals but those that do almost always fulfill them.
Setting a goal is a waste of time unless it's meaningful and maintainable. If looking good matters to you, getting down a couple of dress sizes for a woman or packing on a few pounds of muscle for a man will have more meaning than bringing down your cholesterol by 40 points. But if your brother has just had a quadruple coronary bypass, how you look at your next class reunion won't matter as much as avoiding the same disease.
Can you still remember your last New Year's resolution? If you can't it might have been meaningful but not so easy to keep up all year. A goal is maintainable if you can do it for a lifetime, for that's what most health goals require. About 40 percent of the U.S. population has tried the Atkins diet or something like it. If you are one of that group I'll bet a high-carb lunch that you're not still on it. If it wasn't the constipation or the bad breath that made you give it up it was probably the boredom.
Some goals that sound good are not as healthy as they seem. Lowering your weight might be one of them. That's because the pounds that we lose on a very low-calorie diet consist of about 60 percent fat and 40 percent lean body mass — an expensive proposition — and early loss is simply water. The lean body mass that disappears while you diet consists largely of muscle and it won't come back when you start eating again. It's fat loss that matters, not water or muscle.
It takes about an hour's worth of moderate-intensity exercise every day in addition to cutting back on calories in order to lose fat without giving up muscle. It doesn't have to be done all at once or every single day. If you can't work out at home, neighborhood fitness centers that provide a 30-minute workout are almost as ubiquitous as Starbuck's and they are usually open before the morning commute starts and well into the evening.
You can restructure your food intake without feeling hungry by making a few simple substitutions. Aren't whole grain cereals and bread at least as tasty as those made with refined (white) flour? Is asking the butcher for leaner cuts of meat a big deal? Replacing sweet desserts with fresh fruit is an effective, appetite-satisfying anti-fat tactic and a whole lot less expensive. Keep a bag of almonds or a couple of protein bars in your desk at work. The fruit basket at home should be your "snack basket" and it should always be well stocked.
Whether your goal is to reduce your waist size, to boost your good cholesterol and lower the bad, to bring down your blood pressure or your blood sugar or simply to feel better, the path outlined above will do it all. And you can do it forever.
Philip J. Goscienski, M.D. is the author of Health Secrets of the Stone Age, Better Life Publishers 2005. Contact him at drphil@stoneagedoc.com.