Make a change today.

Do not wait for 1st January to make a resolution. Change today!

Many people wait for a specific day of the year (usually New Year’s Day or a specific birthday) to make resolutions, start a change to their life or consider Bariatric Surgery or a weight loss procedure. I suggest that you do not need to wait.

There is not much evidence that change on New Year’s Day is more successful than on other days. Instead resolve to make changes to your life (or any aspect of it like eating, physical activity etc..) today. Resolving to make a change might be the easy part. Achieving the change is the difficult part. You will have very good intentions when you decide to change. But good intentions are not enough. To be able to make a change, you need to some mental work and planning. When you want to change you need to have a specific objective. The action (change) should directly serve the objective.

For example, “I want to increase my physical activity in order for me to be fitter and more able to play and run around with my children”. It is a good objective to be more able to play and run around with your children. The change: increasing your physical activity will help you to achieve your objective.

It is possible that you need an overarching (bigger) objective and smaller objectives to get you there. For example, your overarching objective might be to run a marathon. You will not get there in three months if you do not run at all now. The first interim objective might be to run a mile. Then 3 miles. Then half a marathon before you get to the marathon.

After confirming your objective, you need to create a plan to achieve it. The plan that you make must be SMART.

Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound.

Specific. Instead of saying ‘I will increase my physical activity’ or ‘I will do more exercise’, Say I will increase my step count, or I will increase my walking distance.

Measurable. For example, if your objective is to increase your step count, you might want to make the objective measurable by saying “my objective is that I will increase my step count by 10% every month from my current average of 5000 steps a day.”

Achievable. Do not set unrealistic goals. Instead aim for what is achievable. “I will triple my step count everyday for the next 1 year starting today” is not achievable if you already do 8000 steps a day and you have only extra 30 minutes a day to do physical activity.

Relevant. If your aim is to become fitter to play and run with your children, having an objective to increase the size of your biceps is not closely relevant to your objective. You should consider incremental cardio exercise instead.

Time-Bound. I will increase my step count from 3000 steps a day to 10000 steps a day in the next 1 year.

Change is not easy. We are all set in our own ways. However, change can be very helpful. To achieve change, you need to be clear about why you want to change, what you want to change. To succeed, your goals must be SMART!

People with obesity frequently want and plan to change, but they hit a brick wall and find it difficult to achieve their goals. Bariatric surgery provides you with a strong tool to help you achieve that change. However, the principles of change are the same (whether you are having bariatric surgery or not).

If you are affected by obesity and wish to consider bariatric surgery, please do not hesitate to get in touch and connect with me on my website, on my social media platforms: Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and at my online support sessions.