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HONESDALE, PA—It’s still early enough in the new year that many of us continue to focus on the resolution to “eat healthier” or “lose weight” or “exercise more.” However, if any of these resolutions were not a part of your lifestyle before the new year, it can be challenging to add them or keep them as part of your lifestyle after the new year.

A major component of Wayne Memorial Hospital’s Well Weighs for Living Program is an understanding of how one’s behavior can affect health and weight-loss goals. Families in the Well Weighs for Living Program take part in hands-on activities designed so they learn to recognize and address behaviors that have both a positive and a negative effect on their fitness goals.

A crucial component of becoming healthier is changing diet and physical activity patterns to new behaviors that promote weight control. Strategies for weight loss and maintenance include:

Setting The Right Goals
Most people trying to lose weight focus on just that one goal: weight loss. However, the most productive areas to focus on are the dietary and exercise changes that will lead to that long-term weight change. Successful weight managers are those who select two or three goals at a time that they are willing to take on, that meet the following criteria of useful goals:

Effective goals are 1) specific; 2) attainable; and 3) forgiving. "Exercise more" is a commendable ideal, but it's not specific. "Walk five miles every day" is specific and measurable, but is it attainable if you're just starting an exercise program?" Wa