New Millennium, Same Old Gut?

In this column:
How to keep your New Year's resolution to lose weight -- realistically, with subtle menu choices and doable exercises.

If your calendar says "2000" and you can read this Web page, the good news is the world didn't end, the sky didn't fall, and hey, your computer is still up and running.

It was touch and go there for a while, at least in the minds of a few. But now that we've survived the Y2K scare, it's time for a celebration. A quadruple celebration: We've begun a new year, a new decade, a new century and a new millennium*.

Unfortunately, we're celebrating all these "new" things in our same old bodies.

It needn't be that way, of course. With just two things -- a little will power and a whole lot of determination -- we can shape up, slim down and fashionably slide into the first year of the 21st century.

We will need one more thing -- a resolution.

That's the easy part. Chances are, you've already made that resolution to lose weight. I know I have. In fact, I've made that resolution every year since I turned 17 (I'm very big on tradition).

Join The Club

In that, we are not alone.

In a recent online poll by Wellness Junction, 86 percent of respondents said they planned to make a resolution. And 68 percent of them -- nearly seven out of 10 -- said their resolutions would involve health, diet and nutrition. It's fair to say that shedding pounds is the number one resolution of this or any other year.

And it's no wonder that many of us think we should lose weight. We've got the figures to prove it.

Bursting Our Promises?

Government studies show that despite an onslaught of advertising for health clubs, exercise equipment and low-fat foods, as well as a never-ending parade of hyper-slim supermodels clogging up our television screens and magazines, Americans continue to pack on the pounds in alarming numbers.

A recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that the percentage of the country's overweight has increased each decade since the 1960s, when only 43.6 percent of all adults were, to put it politely, hefty. That figure ballooned to 46 percent by the mid-'70s. By the mid-1990s, 54.6 percent fell into the category of "overweight."

At this rate, by my calculations, in just a few more years, slightly more than 100 percent of us will be too fat.

OK, maybe that's an exaggeration, but it's clear to see the trend is not a good one.

During the same time period, "obesity" (defined as the state of having a body mass index greater than or equal to 30) spread from 12.8 percent to 22.6 percent of the population.

This is a sad commentary on the effectiveness of all the workout clothes, ankle weights and health-club memberships that were dispensed as Christmas gifts during those decades. It also doesn't say much about the power of our resolutions. For more details from the CDC study, click here to download a table.

In light of those demographic findings, here's another statistic that seems to make sense. Gadget Guru Online! reports that in a nationwide survey conducted last year by AT&T WorldNet Service, less than one-third of Americans who made New Year's resolutions in 1998 were able to stick with them to the end of the year.

That is so '90s.

Is there anything we can do in the 2000s to beat the odds?

Yes. And it only takes two things -- diet and exercise.

Same Menu, Better Choice

It doesn't have to be onerous. Just being armed with a few simple facts can cut calories like crazy. Sometimes without drastic lifestyle changes.

For instance, you're at Burger King and you're going to eat there regardless of whether or not it's good for you. Should you choose the hamburger or the chicken sandwich? The right answer may surprise you.

The chicken sandwich, 710 calories, is more than twice as fattening as the hamburger, at 300 calories.

Also, it's well known by now that a salad bar is not going to do your waistline any favors. But there are ways to make these calorie-packed strolls survivable.

In fact, you could make each trip downright healthy. Load up on greens, like spinach and red lettuce, and pass up the tuna salad, which is loaded with mayonnaise at about 400 calories per tablespoon. A hard-boiled egg can be substituted for potato salad, another item rich in mayonnaise. Even the innocent-looking potatoes are often concealing more calories than you want to know about.

Get The Numbers

On the exercise end of the equation, we all know that running a marathon will lead to weight loss. But that takes months of training and hours of endurance.

Jogging a few miles burns weight, too. How can you motivate yourself to do at least a little -- and feel good about it? Think about how many calories you'll lose with each exercise activity. Look up calories numbers by linking to this chart from thriveonline.com.

Meanwhile, back at the homestead, you'll be happy to know that even the most mundane, around-the-house chores are healthful activities. But you have to do them yourself. Instead of hiring the kid next door to attack that pile of snow on your sidewalk, shovel it yourself and burn as much as 14.8 calories per minute. Even mowing the lawn can burn 4 calories a minute -- and that's with a power mower!

While it's true that 14 calories here, 4 calories there may not sound like much, these activities also raise our basal metabolic rate (the rate at which our bodies burn fat). This gives us the added bonus of increased fat-burning long after we've turned off the lawn mower.

It's worth noting that weight loss is not the most important benefit of exercise. Physical activity has been shown to prevent and manage such life-threatening conditions as coronary heart disease, hypertension and diabetes. Despite all the known benefits of exercise, government surveys show that only a small segment of the American public can be classified as consistently active. In fact, these surveys show, about 40 percent of Americans are completely sedentary. That's a lot of couch potatoes!

If you find it hard to locate good diet and exercise plans, and even harder to stick to them, look for help. Some experts, like those at Wellness Junction, recommend setting low, obtainable goals.

Will You Forget?

Do you fear that your will power will fail you? Surf over to hiaspire.com/newyear. These folks will send e-mail "resolution reminders" every month so we won't forget the promises we made to ourselves. The choice of pre-fab messages includes "Go on a Diet!" and "More Active Lifestyle (exercise!)" as well as broader topics like "Career Advancement!" and "Follow Your Dreams!" There's also a form where you can compose your own message. May I suggest, "Hey stupid, go mow the lawn," or, "Don't forget to lock the refrigerator!"

Unfortunately, my research for this column did not turn up any figures for how many calories we burn when we make a New Year's resolution. Not many, I suspect. But then, at least the process isn't fattening. I think.

*Editor's note: Some pointy-headed intellectuals may insist that 2000 is the end of the last millennium, not the beginning of the next one. Such spoilsports overlook the fact that the calendar is an arbitrary, human-made construct anyway, so if the majority of humanity declares that 2000 is the beginning of the new millennium, it is.

Valerie Alvord is an award-winning investigative reporter who covers government, health and the law from San Diego.

First published Jan. 1, 1900. Just kidding.

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