Improving wellness by doing more exercise and eating better is a popular New Year’s resolution. However, by now – not even two weeks later – many people have  a hard time sticking to these goals or even gave already up. According to a study by Richard Wiseman in 2007, ultimately more than 80 % of the resolutions will fail.

My experience with my clients is that many people simply want too much and too fast without being able to incorporate necessary life style changes into their daily life. If you didn’t exercise for many years, don’t expect suddenly to spend five hours in the gym per week.

I was asked recently how it comes that I’m able to stick to my running regimen of 15 – 20 miles per week for two years now though I was never running before. Here is my answer:

After several failed attempts earlier, I did two things differently in 2010:

First, I started with a small step, just learning to run a half mile daily. I was in such a bad shape that this was difficult enough, however it took only a few minutes out of my daily schedule. I could afford these minutes and this way, I experienced at first the advantages of more exercise in the form of feeling better and being more energetic before I had the price to pay – giving up something that I did for fun to free up time for exercising. Once I got in better shape, I slowly increased the distance. The pounds started to come off when I was at about two miles per day. The weight loss was of course a big motivator and today I’m running in average a 5 K on most days of the week. I lost more than 30 pounds and I am in a better shape now than I was 20 years ago.  I’m sure had I started with a longer distance right away, I probably would not have made it.

The second reason why I’m still running is that I learned to incorporate the exercise into my daily life. It takes out 30 to 45 minutes every day, and to make this work, I started combining my errands with running. I do as much as possible local now and run to the post office, library, hair dresser, subway station etc., often carrying a small bag. I found out that it doesn’t take much more time than going by car because I can use a different route when running without having to stop at traffic lights, and of course at my destination, I don’t have to search for a parking spot. Being able to combine exercise with errands makes it much easier for me to stick to my close-to-20-miles-per- week- goal.

In summary, like many people, I also had failed in the past with my resolutions. Two points  made all the  difference in 2010: starting slow and finding a way to combine exercise with my day to day life .

Christiane Turnheim is life coach in private practice and psychologist instructor at a community college in the Boston area. You can reach her at ten.u4hcaocnull@enaitsirhc

Only a few days into January and many New Year’s resolutions are probably already abandoned.

One of the most popular resolutions is to lose weight. This year, I joined those who want to shed some extra pounds in 2011. I’m optimistic that I will be successful as for me it’s about continuing what I achieved last year. 20 pounds are already gone; another ten shall follow in 2011.

Like many people, I have tried in the years before several times to lose weight. Like so many others, I also struggled with the typical pattern of losing and gaining back – until last March, when I had enough.

Two ways to lose weight:

There are only two ways to lose weight. Either you cut down on calories or you burn more than you consume by increasing physical activity.

In previous diets I focused on cutting calories. As this didn’t work so well because I can’t deal with hunger, I had only one path left: exercise! I have never been the athletic type, and frankly, I don’t enjoy workouts in gyms or running on sidewalks of busy streets, right next to car exhaust fumes. But I needed to do something and so I began jogging, and was at first shocked to learn that I could hardly run for a mile. With time and perseverance, I made it eventually to five miles. The weight loss started when I ran in minimum three miles on at least five days per week. I keep doing this despite winter temps and snow outside, but I still don’t enjoy it – however, I do enjoy the results.

On the positive side, I didn’t need to make major changes to my diet. I did replace caloric drinks like fruit juice and sweetened tea with water, though, and cut down on cookies and candy. Other than that, I’m eating normal meals and don’t go hungry.

After nine months of running, I know that I found a weight management technique that works for me- and will work in future as I will have to keep running to avoid gaining back the pounds I have shed.

It works for me because it didn’t require extreme life tyle changes – I just had to make room for 30 – 50 minutes of running. (Sometimes now, I’m literally running my errands like running to the library or to a store)

Secret to weight loss

I firmly believe this is the secret to achieving your weight loss goal: You must find a way that doesn’t require major changes in your daily routine or diet because it’s hard to stick with something that is totally different. I think, this is the problem with most of these fancy diets – they are too different to our normal grocery shopping, food preparation, and eating routine, and therefore after a while we go back to our old (unhealthy) eating habits and portion sizes.

If you want to lose weight and keep the pounds off, you must make changes that last.

Start by listing your biggest diet sins, and then, perhaps step by step, eliminate or reduce these sins. Instead of two spoons of sugar in coffee, only one; instead of a muffin only two small cookies….eat the burger, but only half of the bun and half of the fries….Also, add exercise. It’s good for your health and will speed up the weight loss. You may not lose 20 pounds in 12 weeks, but if you develop new healthier eating and exercise habits that you can stick with, you will keep off what you lose.

Posted by Christiane Turnheim. Christiane is Life & Career coach, author of “Learn to Love Your Job” , and teaches Psychology at a Community College in Massachusetts.