I have never been big on making New Year’s resolutions because they are too much like diets…things that tend to be short-term, quickly broken, and leave us feeling worse about ourselves than before. Instead of celebrating our weight loss success, we tend to feel like complete failures.

With that in mind, and at the risk of sounding like I have given up the I Refuse to Diet mantra, I am making 12 weight loss resolutions for 2012 (it seemed like a good number.) Following these resolutions will result in a healthier, and hopefully, happier year—something we can all agree would be a good thing, no matter how wonderful 2011was for you.

Following my normal format, I have divided these resolutions into three categories, with the primary focus being on Mindset—how we can change our thinking in order to drop excess fat and improve our health.

I also have made resolutions for Motion, or how I move my body to improve my health, to increase my stamina, to tone my muscles, and to drop excess fat.

Finally, I have resolutions regarding what goes into my Mouth. I know far too many people who can eat lots of food and do not need to watch every morsel to believe that it is strictly what we put in our mouths that can make us pack on the extra pounds. However, I also know that in order to have optimum health it is important that we pay attention to what we eat. It isn’t as simple as it was 100 years ago when everything was organic by default and food was pretty much all ‘from scratch.’

If this sounds like a lot, it is…but it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Feel free to borrow my resolutions, to modify them to fit your lifestyle, to discard any that sound totally unreasonable (but if any do, think about them before you just toss them aside.) The bottom line is that in order to have weight loss success we must each develop a lifestyle, including our mindset, moving our bodies, and what we put in our mouths, that fits within our budget and the time, and interests, we have! There is no one solution that works for every person—that is precisely why diets do not work.

Please, please, please, PLEASE, hear that…diets do not work. Refuse to diet and find yourself on the path to weight loss success—permanently and with abundant health!

I resolve to recognize and accept that I cannot be at my goal weight overnight

I resolve to love myself, including my body, just the way I am today and in the future

I resolve to remember that I am a good, loving person and I deserve to treat myself with love, kindness, and respect. That means if/when I am not ‘perfect’ I will cut myself some slack

I resolve to express my emotions, and to express them in as healthy a way as possible

I resolve to remember the Law that states a body at rest stays at rest whereas a body in motion stays in motion. My own inertia is the obstacle!

I resolve to move outdoors at least once a week—even if it is cold out—because I enjoy the fresh air and know the change in environment brings me pleasure and health benefits

I resolve to listen to my body and adjust how and when I move it. This will help my body to heal and reach maximum health.

I resolve to HAVE FUN while I move my body and if I am not having fun to find some other way to move!

I resolve to focus on being aware of WHEN I am eating, more than WHAT I am eating

I resolve to have 1-2 days a month where I intentionally splurge, eating more than I “should” and eating very unhealthy foods. By doing this I know I will prevent binges

I resolve that I can eat anything I really want, but to remember that doesn’t mean I HAVE to eat it, nor do I need to eat it daily just to prove I can

I resolve to SLOW down when I am eating and drinking. This is a life-long challenge for me, and I recognize it may not always be easy, but I know that by slowing down I will enjoy the food and the company more, and I will also have better results.

This time of year we see and feel a shift in the earth and in our bodies. As Mother Nature turns her palette to the reds and golds of autumn and the hours of daylight shorten we find it a bigger challenge to fit everything into our busy schedules. We might not be willing or able to safely exercise after dark. Cool salads are less appealing. We want to eat in preparation for winter hibernation as if we were a bear.

Since we aren’t bears and we will not be shedding all those pounds while we sleep for the next couple months, it is important that we check our mindset and make sure we are not sabotaging our efforts to lose weight by misusing one of the most common tools in our weight loss arsenal. This month in Mindset I weigh in on weighing in…the pros and cons of the scale.

We also have to keep moving our bodies, even when there is limited daylight. In Motion this month we talk about keeping motivated to move and how we can measure our success in this area as well.

And this month in Mouth we talk about the abundant autumn harvest and how we can take advantage of it to maximize the precious time we do have.

Enjoy this time of year, and each and every day of your life. And extend that life and increase that pleasure by making healthier choices for your body. Do it for yourself. Do it for your health.

To the healthy, energetic, slender body you deserve! You can do it!

Unlike on The Biggest Loser television show, most of us on our weight loss journey do not have somebody or “somebodies” monitoring our weigh-ins. No, the decision to weigh in or not, when, how often lies solely on our shoulders.

There are both pros and cons to weighing in on a regular basis. I have my opinions based on what has worked for me in the past. But I am also aware that we all operate different, we are motivated, inspired and depleted by different factors. With that in mind, here are some of the pros and cons that I have found regarding weighing in.

Pros

• Objective measurement, proof of your progress/success, validation of your efforts
• Brings awareness to small changes that you otherwise might miss, this can be to help you appreciate progress and also to notice when you are backsliding
• Seeing the proof can help you appreciate and celebrate your successes
• Missing a goal can fuel you to work harder
• Can provide a sense of accountability, to self or to a group
• Can lead us to exam why we are not achieving the desired results—which may turn up some unhealthy patterns we were unconscious of

Cons

• Weight loss is not linear, not every weigh in will go the direction we want—even when we are doing the work
• Easy to be disappointed by negative or less than desired results, which can cause some to give up
• Focus is on the number rather than health or other reasons behind WHY we want to weigh less
• A lower number does not prove we have actually lost fat
• Can lead to unhealthy patterns of eating if focus is on the weekly number rather than the end goal of healthy, permanent fat loss (and we can’t keep those patterns up forever and achieve our end goal)
• Emotional reactions to “poor” results can sabotage the successes that are happening
• Positive results can lead us to think we can have that extra __ (fill in the blank) or skip exercising
• Can lead to playing games to get the number
• Can lead to focusing strictly on the number on the scale as way to value ourselves

Of course the decision about weighing in must be yours. The same result on the scale, either positive or negative may drive one person to feel positive about themselves and fuel their desire to succeed. The exact same result in another person can lead to them feeling badly about themselves, their progress and their abilities.

Bottom line, what is most important is feeling good about yourself, knowing that you are taking the steps necessary to achieve your healthy weight loss goals.

It is crucial we recognize our worth outside of the number on the scale. We are so much more than any number. We have incredible value no matter what the number is—and whether it has gone up, down or stayed stagnant.

When you can hear the news from the scale as if it were delivered by a detached reporter, then the scale can be your ally and a tool that will help you on your weight loss journey.

On the other hand if you hear the news as a personal attack or you use the news as another reason to criticize and berate yourself, then there is no advantage to weighing in…and there are plenty of disadvantages.

Like most things about losing weight, the scale and the number it provides can be a great tool for our success IF our mindset is where it needs to be.

This is just one more example of why we have to work on our mindset first and foremost in order to have weight loss success. Truly, weight loss success starts with the mind, not the mouth—or the scale.

This month in mindset we talked about the pros and cons of weighing in while on our weight loss journey. One of the biggest cons being how it can affect our mindset about our bodies. There is something that we can do to counteract that affect if it should happen. OK, let’s be honest…WHEN it happens, because it will happen at some point to just about everyone who is trying to drop excess fat, whether they ever step on a scale or not.

One of the best things we can do for our body image is to move our bodies more. As we move more, we are able to move more. It is a beautiful cycle.

Often this is difficult at first. We feel fat. We are self-conscious about the state our body is in. It may be uncomfortable for us to move, or even down-right painful. We might not fit into clothing very well and our thighs might rub together when we walk. We may feel so tired that we just cannot imagine getting exercise in on top of everything else that we have to do.

Part of the process of achieving weight loss success is determining why we want to lose weight in the first place. This is a good time to remind ourselves of that why and keep in front and center in our mind. That can help motivate us to move just a little more.

Whether you want to lose weight so you can play with your kids or grandkids, so you can enjoy more activities, or live a longer life, picture clearly that desire in your mind and allow it to energize you into moving. Even if for today it is just one step. Take each day and each step one at a time.

Measuring your success by the end goal of being able to run a marathon or hike a mountain or riding your bike 15 miles or whatever you see as a big fitness goal is like measuring your success at losing weight only by achieving your goal weight. Instead, measure your success as you progress on the path. Did you get out today? Success. Did you do more than yesterday? Success.

While moving the scale around the bathroom floor looking for the sweet spot may not be exercise, there are plenty of things you can do to move your body that will help you reach your fitness goals—even if you are so out of shape that you just don’t think it is possible.

Start where you are in terms of fitness level and do not judge your progress based on anyone but yourself. If you need to sit down for most or all of your exercise time, then do that—and move your arms as vigorously as possible.

• Set a timer and exercise for 5 minutes.
• Remember to breathe while you exercise.
• Get a DVD that you can exercise to.
• Watch your form—develop the proper postures now to prevent injury.
• Mix it up so you work different muscles.
• If you don’t feel like exercising today, tell yourself “just 1 minute”…often if we do that we’ll go for 5 or 10 or 15 or more.
• Be realistic about what your body can handle—that means don’t think you cannot do anything just because of your size, but also don’t try to squeeze through a hole that is smaller than you are.
• Have fun! Moving your body can be fun—sure you might sweat a bit, but you can also laugh!
• Get outside at least once a week—the sun and fresh air will fuel your spirit as much as help your body.
• Get it done early in the day so you can check it off your list! Then anything you do later is a bonus.

This is a great time of year for eating healthy. So many of our summer foods are still available and the fall harvest is coming in, too. We truly have an awesome bounty of healthy foods to choose from.

Unfortunately with autumn our days grow shorter and so we tend to not get out as much, especially after dinner. And with fewer hours of daylight and cooler temperatures we often want to eat more, and turn to carbohydrates for our feel-good hormones.

The good news is that there are lots of healthy carbohydrates that will help boost our endorphins without being just empty calories. And we can make easy meals that minimize the amount of time we have to spend in the kitchen, allowing us to take full advantage of the precious daylight we have this time of year.

If you don’t have one, look into buying a crockpot or slow cooker. You can put lean meats and vegetables and great complex carbs like a variety of beans in them, and have them cooking while you are working or playing. The ultimate in multi-tasking!

Other options can be cooking in a dutch oven type of lidded pot in the oven.

One of the reasons I like these lidded options is the juices don’t evaporate away like they can when cooking without a lid. Adding some plain broth or water can keep lean meats from getting tough and dried out—without having to use fattier cuts.

Fall vegetables like squashes are also great for this time of year. They take a long time to cook, so you must plan ahead, but they don’t require a lot of monitoring once they are in the oven. So you can pop them in and come back later.

Don’t eliminate starchy vegetables like potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams, squash and pumpkin from your menu. They help us feel satisfied and offer a variety of flavors which keep us from getting bored. Be creative, but also be aware that many popular recipes call for lots of added fat or even sugar for these vegetables. Be willing to experiment with different herbs and spices, try some olive oil or guacamole instead of butter or sour cream for a rich topping that is a healthier fat.

Be sure to pop in some extras when cooking these vegetables. They are easy to reheat and can make a healthy snack.

Acknowledge your accomplishments--about weight loss, about health, about anything and everything!

We are well versed in noticing where we fall short in life--the things we don't do or do not do well.

We deserve to shine a spotlight on the things we DO do, do well and the areas where we make improvement.

In order to have weight loss success this is not only something we deserve, it is a necessity!

Focusing on your what you are doing right in your thinking, what you are eating and how your body is getting stronger makes all the difference. Read further for tips for success in all these areas!

It IS the Thought that Counts. Having negative thoughts is normal. what really counts is when you can shift that thinking by countering the negative ones with positive ones.

We each have recurring thoughts that are negative. It might be about our bodies (for me it is my hips in particular). It might be about abilities, or about food, about our likes and dislikes, about our personalities...lots of noise taking up valuable real estate in our minds.

The first step in changing our thinking is to recognize when we are on the hamster wheel, spinning and spinning on those same negative thoughts day in and day out.

When you catch yourself on that negative treadmill, say (to yourself if you are not alone!) "STOP! That is not true. The truth is ___" and fill in the blank with something, no matter how small it seems at the time, that is true about you.

The best way to do this is to have some truths written down ahead of time so that you are not caught on the spot without a good thing to say about yourself.

Then at the end of each day, write down 5 things (more is awesome, but at least 5) that you can feel proud of. They can be little things or big. Some may be about health like making healthy food choices or drinking water, others may be about interactions with people, something you did for someone else, a project that was finished...anything at all.

What this does is train your mind to pay attention to things you are doing right--because you know you are going to have to write it down later!

Some days it feels like a stretch...but you can do it! And the more you do it, the easier it will be.