Weight Loss & Diet Plans

Making Resolutions Stick in 2002

Dec. 4, 2001 -- Go from a size 16 to a size 4. Run a marathon. Quit smoking. Sound familiar?

Sure, some New Year's resolutions are far-fetched and may be unattainable, but many are well within grasp, and experts tell WebMD that making small changes can bring about big differences. After all, Rome wasn't built in a day. Here's how you can make sure that your 2002 resolutions stick.

Losing 10 pounds

While singer Carnie Wilson made headlines by having surgery to shrink her stomach and shed about 100 pounds, that's not the norm.

"Do it in small steps. Try to lose a pound or two per week, and at the end of the month, you can re-assess and see where you are in terms of your main goal," says Pamela Peeke, MD, author of Fight Fat After 40, and an assistant professor of medicine at University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore. "I would be less worried about scale weight and more worried about size."

Her tip is to use a "clothes-o-meter." Here's how: "Let's say you are a size 16 and you would like to be a comfortable 14 or 12. Put on a tight size 16 once a week. Stick it in front of your closet so you always see it. This keeps you focused," she tells WebMD. "Before you get on the scale, put the clothes-o-meter on; if it feels fabulous, who cares what the scale says?"

To drop weight, Peeke recommends that a person should "blow off starches -- not carbohydrates. Blow off bread, pasta, rice and potatoes after 5 PM; instead eat vegetables, protein and fruit and you will never see weight fly off of you faster.

"Limit starch to breakfast and lunch and in the mid-afternoon have a definite formal snack or mini-meal such as a cup of soup and a piece of fruit."

Peeke tells WebMD that exercise and eating healthy must be done together for a weight loss program to work "Never do one without the other."