SMART approach to fitness may be the best

No one wants to be a “resoloser.”

Michael Brandson, a personal trainer at the Northwest Community Hospital Wellness Center, said a resoloser is someone who starts out with energy and ambitious goals for the new year, such as lose weight, get fit and eat better. But after a few weeks or months, the person disappears from the gyms and quits the diet. Oh, well, maybe next year.

Now that the candy canes and holiday desserts are gone, nearly half of New Year's resolutions will be to lose weight, according to a 2011 Harris Poll. Last year in the same January poll, 1 in 5 people reported weight-related health problems and 1 in 3 said their doctors had told them to lose weight.

But while 40 percent to 45 percent of people make New Year's resolutions, fewer than half keep their goals yearlong.

Several local experts shared their advice on how to keep that resolution to lose weight and get fit. Their best recommendation: get SMART — an approach that stands for specific, measurable, accountable, realistic and timely.

Specific

Chris Horton, personal training department head at Lifetime Fitness in Bloomingdale, said the first component — setting specific, short-term goals — is likely the most important. Other personal trainers, dietitians and doctors agreed.

“You don't want to just say ‘I want to lose 20 pounds this year',” said Anne O'Connell, Vernon Hills YMCA marketing spokeswoman. “You might want to rephrase that and say I want to lose a pound a week for two months. Then you have something a little more tangible instead of this abstract number.”

Measurable

Making measurable goals is a complementary component. A goal to “be healthy” or “eat better” is not specific enough to measure progress or success. Rather O'Connell and Horton suggest that goals like running an eight-minute mile or losing 5 pounds in three weeks are far more likely to be accomplished.

Ron Anderson, a health and fitness supervisor at the Center of Elgin who calls himself Dr. Sweat, said long-term goals have to be divided into subgroups to succeed. Instead of becoming frustrated or overwhelmed with the slow-going process of achieving a yearlong goal, Anderson said achieve 52 short-term goals during the year.

Another way to measure progress and respond to feedback is by logging daily food intake and exercise.

Tom Jordan, a registered dietitian and wellness director for First Health Associates, said charting food makes it easier to understand why you did or did not lose weight relative to your amount of exercise. It also leads into the next component in the SMART formula: accountability.

Accountable

“Most people think New Year's resolutions are things you're supposed to do on your own,” Jordan said.

Having a supportive team — whether it's significant others, friends, family or professionals — leaves little room for excuses and a much higher chance that you'll succeed in your goals, Jordan said.

Joan Giusto and her Pilates workout partner Cindy Metzger said they hold one another accountable for attending classes at Pilates Plus in Schaumburg.

“When you build friendships, people notice when you're missing,” Giusto said. “You kind of feel obligated to come.”

Realistic

Taking a realistic approach requires patience and discipline. Instead of choosing not to eat or giving in to the doughnuts, cake and other tempting foods at the office, Horton suggests bringing breakfast and lunch to work.

“If you go six or eight hours without eating,” Horton said, “then we get really hungry and tend to overeat in that moment.”

Anderson said the root of overeating is biological.

“The body goes into a state of ketosis, starvation mode,” Anderson said. “It could be as bad as overeating in a lot of ways. It's going to store more of whatever you put in it.”

O'Connell and Anderson agree it's paramount that you enjoy what you are doing. If you hate the treadmill, try something different: zumba, kickboxing or Pilates.

Skiing and basketball are also great exercises, Anderson said.

The fitness experts stressed to be realistic about how long it will take to accomplish goals or whether a certain goal will make it to 2013. Long-term goals take, well, a long time.

Timely

“If someone walks up to me and says, ‘Hey, I have a wedding in a month and I want to lose 30 pounds,' I would tell them that's not realistic,” Horton said.

Dr. Paul Kolaski with First Health Associates said most people want quick fixes, but those don't last.

Jordan noted that the goal should never be to lose a lot of weight quickly.

“The goal is to develop a set of healthy habits that is going to keep you (at a healthy weight) for the rest of your life,” Jordan said.

Get SMART

Fitness experts recommend taking the SMART approach when trying to lose weight or starting a fitness regimen.

S: Specific

M: Measurable

A: Accountable

R: Realistic

T: Timely