Healthy new year

New Year’s resolutions are a great concept. It’s too bad they rarely last through the month of February.

By the time Groundhog Day rolls around, I’m back to the same habits I believed made me a less-adequate person the year before.

I would be wise to stick to my resolutions. They are often very sensible. But sadly, the moment I feel myself returning to my old ways, I don’t really do anything. I just roll my eyes and say, “Here we go again.”

It’s times like those when I would benefit from a life coach – or a super-ego. I need a little angel on my shoulder telling me to put the cookie down, or to stop procrastinating and get to work. 

I don’t even think last year’s resolutions made it to Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
But something tells me that this year is going to be different. My resolution this year is similar to the resolution made nationwide. 

I want to start eating healthier. So do the readers of Cosmopolitan, Glamour, SELF and countless other publications. So these publications decided to help us keep our resolutions.

These magazines have contacted expert nutritionists, personal trainers and doctors. With the help of these professionals, they were able to construct diet plans, develop healthy five-day cleanses and include healthy recipes throughout their pages.

Their January issue targets women across America who are hoping that 2010 will be the year they forfeit their super-sized order of French fries for a healthier lifestyle.   
These articles and reports will be effective because they are convenient and written in such a way that will make a woman excited to diet and anxious to start eating the right way. 

They were also written in an incredibly timely fashion. In the wake of a new year, women across the country are resolving to lose weight, diet or begin leading a generally healthier lifestyle. The editors of these magazines must be psychic (or not blind to the fact that a huge percentage of American women are overweight). 

According to data collected by the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 24.8 percent of women were obese in 2007. 

Obesity is dangerous and can lead to heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and even some forms of cancer.

Beginning a healthier lifestyle is very important – not just in the interest of losing weight. Leading a healthy lifestyle is the most important responsibility we have to ourselves.

This includes limiting the consumption of alcohol. Sorry, kids – I know it’s fun, but our livers want to punch our lights out every time we take a shot.

I understand that we’re college kids and we feel like now is the time when our priorities are forgiven for being a little bit out of whack. But in this New Year we should be realizing that our health is all we have.

Taking care of our health is the best way to guarantee a healthy future.


E-mail: jzaslow@indiana.edu