It was during the lazy lull of Christmas vacation that my little brother was yet again playing “NBA 2K10,” a basketball video game. I happened to be walking by when I heard something that made me stop and think. The words emanating from the game were “It’s not about how many hours you put in, it’s about how much you put into the hours.”

This closely resembled the cliched but oh so true saying “quality is better than quantity” and had struck hope in me that I might yet reach my fitness goals. For about the past five years, I’ve made some kind of fitness goal, and I’m probably not alone in this. I am also probably not alone in the fact that I failed every one of these goals.

My question was always why can’t I lose weight? For others this answer may vary. For me, it was a combination of setting unrealistic goals, a misunderstanding of how exercise works and not realizing what constitutes good, healthy food. These reasons for failure pretty well lined up with what the experts had to say.

Recently in my journalism class, I had an assignment to create a SMART goal. By merely saying that I wanted to lose weight, I was not making a smart goal. It was not measurable and since it was not measurable it could not be attainable. But even when creating a measurable goal, it needs to be realistic. For instance, one year I told myself I would lose 10 lbs. in a month. This was not at all realistic given the fact that I did not have enough time to consistently work out. I also refused to change my eating habits.  

I firmly believed that I could do a series of low impact exercises for about an hour a day and I would see significant results. But exercising often doesn’t mean a person is exercising better. Low impact exercise is good  for strengthening the cardiovascular system, but it doesn’t quite have the benefit of high impact exercise. During high impact exercise, more calories are burned, and after intense workouts the body continues to burn calories. A challenging workout is a good workout. Good form is also important. Doing a push-up wrong means working different muscles than one was originally intending to work.

In addition to exercising, eating habits should be modified. The whole process of developing a healthier lifestyle is one of reprogramming, or learning to recognize what foods are actually healthy and what foods really aren’t.   

After having been assigned to read “Fast Food Nation,” by Eric Schlosser I’ve discovered how much the consumer has been tricked into believing the health benefits of certain foods. Companies will label their product’s ingredients as being made with natural flavors, when these “natural” flavors contain the same chemicals as the artificial ones. The only difference between the two is the method of harvesting the chemicals.

Though I’ve been guilty of making weight loss resolutions, it’s clear to me now that a much better resolution is to be healthier in whatever way possible. Of course this new health resolution should be refined to fit the criteria of the SMART goal. To live with a new healthy lifestyle, it’s important to realize where your food comes from and to make better choices about what goes into your body. It’s also about being realistic and staying as consistent as possible with whatever fitness plan you can make.

Whatever a person does to improve their health, they must train themselves mentally and physically to make this change. Whether it’s paying closer attention to food labels, or making better choices in their diet, they must be aware of the distinct changes that need to made. Workout to be healthy not to lose weight. Make a plan to do it right. Make the change.