Every year many of us choose a New Year’s resolution that we feel worthy of effort towards change for the better. Nearly every year most of us fail to follow through on our New Year’s resolutions. My wife is found an interesting article in this week’s Wall Street Journal online by Elizabeth Bernstein.
In this article Ms. Bernstein suggests asking another person to suggest New Year’s resolutions for us and reciprocating by suggesting New Year’s resolutions to them. In order to better follow through on the resolutions she further suggests asking the other person to help hold you accountable to the resolutions. This sounds pretty scary to me but is a mission concept and I’m mulling over the possibility of sitting down with Kay and actually trying this. Check out the article and you might find it interesting too:
To Stick to New Year’s Resolutions, Try Outsourcing Them
By Elizabeth Bernstein 12-27-2011
If you’d like to make your New Year’s resolutions stick, try this: Have someone else—a significant other, your best friend, maybe even your mom—make them for you.
Sure, resolutions are supposed to be personal. People can’t change unless they’re ready to change. And having someone you love tell you how you could become a better person could be terrifying.
But Mark Twain pretty much got it right when he said we make our annual good resolutions on New Year’s Day and “begin paving hell with them as usual” the following week.
I’m over it. We are now on our 12th day of this new decade, and I’m sick of hearing about New Year’s resolutions, “Best of the year, decade, etc” lists, and am ready to just live in this new decade. That said, I read a fun article in the Washington Post by Jennifer LaRue Huget telling the New Years resolutions of three prominent healthful living experts. It’s a quick enjoyable read. Check it out.
It is pretty hard to argue that getting regular exercise should not be a part of each of our everyday lifestyle. Here is a nice article outlining 7 benefits of regular exercise. This Mayo Clinic website has an extensive list of articles that will address most questions you may have about developing an exercise program right for you. My advice is start slow so you don’t get so sore you cannot or do not continue. Also consider cross training so that you avoid injuries from repetitive overuse of specific muscle and tendon areas. Now “Just do it!”
As we enter the New Year many of you have probably made a resolution. Mine is related to a previous post on not putting off having fun. Often these resolutions deal with getting more exercise, eating more, drinking less, or stopping smoking. I thought over the next few days I’d comment on each of these issues. Today I’ll address drinking too much.
First what’s too much? Hey, I like a nice beer or glass of wine, so what’s the problem. Most experts agree that for men drinking less than 4 drinks on a given day, and less than 14 drinks on a given week, and for women less than 3 drinks on any given day, and less than 7 drinks in a week, is probably safe. (no sexism here, just men metabolize alcohol faster and are generally bigger people) There is even some evidence that moderate amounts of alcohol may have beneficial effects on HDL cholesterol and heart disease. None-the-less alcohol abuse is the third leading cause of preventable premature death in the US. (behind tobacco use and poor eating and exercise lifestyles) Most experts differentiate between at-risk-drinking, alcohol abuse, and alcohol dependence. At risk drinking is defined as drinking above the 3-4 drinks in a day more than 12 times a year. This is estimated to apply to about 21% of Americans. Most people in this category just need to drink less and be careful not to put themselves in a position to have life-altering consequences. (driving, handling firearms, etc.) Often they can just modify their drinking behavior, and do not need to abstain.
Diagnostic Criteria for Alcohol Abuse and Dependence
Abuse: Patient must meet one or more criteria without meeting criteria for dependence
Determine whether, in the past 12 months, the patient’s drinking has repeatedly caused or contributed to the following:
Risk of bodily harm (drinking and driving, operating machinery, swimming)
Relationship trouble (family or friends)
Role failure (interference with home, work, or school obligations)
Run-ins with the law (arrests or other legal problems)
Dependence: Patient must meet three or more criteria
Determine whether, in the past 12 months, the patient has experienced the following:
Not able to stick to drinking limits (repeatedly exceeded them)
Not able to cut down or stop drinking (repeated failed attempts)
Spent a significant amount of time drinking (or anticipating or recovering from drinking)
Continued drinking despite problems (recurrent physical or psychological problems)
Spent less time on other matters (activities that had been important or pleasurable)
Shown an increase in tolerance (needed to drink more to produce the same effect)
Shown signs of withdrawal (tremors, sweating, or insomnia when trying to quit or cut down)
note: The threshold criterion for any alcohol use disorder is a dysfunctional pattern of substance use causing clinically significant impairment or distress.
In general people who meet the criterion for alcohol use disorders need to obtain help to find a way to abstain from alcohol. Your physician can help you find resources to move toward this goal.
