Starting small can help reach New Year's resolutions, trainer, dietitian say

Did you start 2020 with visions of traveling more, being healthier or spending more time with family? Or maybe you set a fitness goal for yourself. Regardless of how lofty the goals were at the start of the year, things probably did not go the way you’d planned because of COVID-19.

Southeast HealthPoint Fitness member Kerstin Brown uses a machine to do weighted squats at the facility's gym Wednesday in Cape Girardeau.Sarah Yenesel

Making resolutions entering 2021 may seem futile and as unpredictable as 2020, but some may see the chance to make a change in their lives.

Typically, top New Year’s resolutions revolve around getting healthier and eating better. Research shows up to 50% of adults make New Year’s resolutions, but less than 10% actually keep them longer than a few months.

Jack Hembree, director of operations at HealthPoint Fitness and registered dietitian Tori Mincemeyer offer guidance on how to look to 2021 with a fresh start when it comes to fitness and nutrition.

Dropping the pandemic pounds

Treadmills are separated with cones to mark what members should not use in order to social distance at the Southeast HealthPoint Fitness gym Wednesday in Cape Girardeau.Sarah Yenesel

Hembree said one of the things to do when setting a fitness goal is to identify it will be difficult.

“When you’re making lifestyle changes — sedentary ... to a more active lifestyle — you have to enter into it with the understanding that it is one of the hardest things you can do, just like modifying your nutrition, modifying your activity level or eliminating a bad habit,” he said. “Those are the hardest things that we do as people because we tend to get in ruts; we tend to get in routines. And when we try to change that routine, it’s really difficult.”

Secondly, Hembree recommended finding a support system.

“The support system piece is where the fitness center comes in,” he said. “Our goal and job is to facilitate people making permanent lifestyle changes.”

Adjusting to home workouts became popular during the pandemic, but, Hembree said, “One of the problems with home exercise is, when you’re at home, there’s always something competing with your time. There’s the laundry, the kids, the dishes, a project — something that needs to be done all the time. When you come here (to HealthPoint Fitness), there’s no laundry to do, no dishes to do.”

Trainer Jorden Glasco runs on a treadmill at the Southeast HealthPoint Fitness gym Wednesday in Cape Girardeau.Sarah Yenesel

If you are new to exercising and want to set a fitness goal in 2021, Hembree suggested checking with a physician first. Then, set specific goals.

“It can be outcome goals, which is, ‘I want to lose 5 pounds by such and such day,’ or ‘I want to be able to walk a mile in 15 minutes by such and such a date,’ or it can be behavioral goals, which is, ‘I want to exercise four days per week for the next four weeks,’” he said.

He also recommended not setting one major goal for the end of the year, but set small ones you can achieve.

“When you’re climbing Mount Everest, you don’t just look at the top and head for it. You take it in pieces,” he said.

A sign Wednesday at the Southeast HealthPoint Fitness gym in Cape Girardeau thanks members for social distancing.Sarah Yenesel

HealthPoint has seen a steady flow of members during COVID. The fitness center has had some members cancel but also new ones join because of the pandemic.

“They are concerned about the fact that, maybe they have Type 2 diabetes and obesity, and those two things actually increase your risk of having a really bad outcome of COVID,” he said. “So their goal is to change their physical health status so that they can overcome it should they get it.”

“Proper nutrition, proper rest and proper activity help maintain a stronger and more robust immune system, which, theoretically, should help you reduce the risk of COVID,” Hembree said.

Hembree noted that during news conferences about the pandemic touting wearing masks and social distancing, there has not been discussion of staying healthy and getting healthier as an effort to combat the virus.

“Obesity, diabetes and hypertension are the things that are going to lead to heart disease and all these other things,” he said. “It’s also true that the pandemic is causing more mortality among those folks than anybody else. So, it seems like it’s a perfect time to remind people that, ‘Hey, this is how you deal with that — you eat good food, which is the foundation to the whole thing, and you increase your activity level.’”

Eating better to feel better

Tori Mincemeyer, a registered dietitian, says making small changes will help people reach their health and fitness goals.Submitted

When it comes to eating better, registered dietitian Mincemeyer noted “Usually, people struggle with an all-or-nothing mentality” when setting and trying to meet nutrition or fitness goals. “People think, ‘I’ll be better once the holidays are over,’ and then they binge on everything over the holidays, and then try to change everything at once. Then, whenever they’re not successful with that and they’re not perfect, they start to slip out of it really quickly.”

University of Scranton research suggests only 8% of people achieve New Year’s goals. But as we near the end of 2020, many are looking to 2021 for new beginnings. Eating healthier ranks as one of the top New Year’s resolutions every year. Mincemeyer offers guidance to put a plan in place.

“I think it’s always good to keep a food journal; an actual pen and paper to document what you’re eating daily and how it makes you feel in order to learn how your specific body reacts to different types of foods,” she said. “You might notice, ‘Oh, I had a salad for lunch with my sandwich and I felt more energized this afternoon.’ Writing it down helps to identify those trends.”

As owner and dietitian at Balanced Meal Prep, Mincemeyer believes prepping food ahead of time is helpful because “the last thing you want to do when you use up all your energy doing other things is make dinner.”

Even with COVID, people are busy, so having healthy meals ready to grab and heat up can be beneficial in helping achieve nutrition goals. Mincemeyer said she built the business around the notion that whether want one meal a week or 20 prepared for them, Balanced Meal Prep will accommodate that. No commitment or subscription required.

As for changing habits, as a coach for health and nutrition, Mincemeyer is running a consistency challenge in January to help people pick “one very small, meaningful behavior to commit to every single day.” On her Facebook group, people will choose the behavior they want to focus on. It could be a fitness goal or nutrition goal.

“I’ve been doing it in December — mine is trying to run 1 mile a day,” she said. “I used to be a really big runner. But I got out of it for a little while and so I was struggling with it. I would try to go for a 4-mile run and then, not again for two weeks. So I’m trying, and I haven’t gotten it every day, but I figure if I get 80% of my days with 1 mile, that’s a lot better than one or two runs a month.”

Mincemeyer instructs her clients to “really enjoy foods, because what happens is, we’re so either worried about what we’re doing, or we get so overwhelmed because we know we’re going to try to change all of it whenever the New Year hits, or we don’t really take time to just enjoy the moment, then we end up overeating.”

Many people may have put goals for 2020 on hold, but Mincemeyer and Hembree want people to focus on the future and becoming healthier.

Mincemeyer added, “People get caught up in either the past or the future. They think about what they were before COVID and how to get back to that.” She said she tells them, “‘OK, let’s just slow it down and focus on what you’re doing today, because if you dwell on what you were, you’re never going to feel confident.’”