Smart Goals for a Smarter Weight

Slide 1 Smart Goals for a Smarter Weight Section 1: Welcome Welcome to Smart Goals for a Smarter Weight. Today, we will be talking about goals you can make to help you achieve a healthier weight. This course will be presented in a voice-narrated format that allows you to follow along with a PowerPoint slide presentation. A high-speed Internet connection is required to complete this course. The course is divided into multiple sections (see menu bar on the left for course outline), enabling you to complete and/or review content at your own pace. Printable handouts, if applicable, will be presented prior to the section in which they are referenced. Please complete a brief, multiple-choice survey before you start this course and again at the end of the course. You will be provided with a survey code number, which you will be asked to write down. You will need this code number to complete the survey at the end of the course. Once you have completed the survey, you will be free to advance to the course content by checking the Next Section button at the bottom of the page. If, at any time, you wish to take a break from the module, simply log out and return to the course when you are ready to continue. When you sign back into the course, you will be taken directly to the section where you left off. To review a section you have already completed, click on the desired section on the left menu bar. Slide 2 Section 2: One Pound at a Time (video) Section 3: An Introduction to Smart Goals If you re like many people, you weigh too much. Lifestyle choices you may be making today could be making it more difficult to achieve a healthier weight and may even increase your risk for poor health. Although losing weight is often difficult, lifestyle choices can help you to be healthier at the weight you are now. Over time, these same lifestyle choices may help you lose weight. Slide 3 Do you have a family member who has heart disease or type 2 diabetes? These conditions lower a person s quality of life, may result in more sick days and added health costs, and could actually shorten the length of a person s life. Improving lifestyle choices can help reduce this risk and/or the severity of these diseases. Slide 4 Over the past three decades, Americans have increased in body weight. While there are many theories as to why this has happened, there is no single cause. One out of every three children and two out of every three adults weigh too much. 1

Many people try to reduce their weight by dieting and exercise. Today, we aren t going to talk about diets and exercise to lose weight. Instead, we ll address healthy lifestyle choices that you can make now to help lower your disease risk. Over time, these choices can help you lose weight. Slide 5 Do you think you may weigh too much? During the last year, has a doctor or other health professional told you that you weigh too much? Body weight is defined as underweight, normal, overweight, or obese depending on a person s height and weight. You can calculate your weight status by using the handout titled, Body Mass Index Table. If you re a normal weight, congratulations! If you weigh too much, join the club! Regardless of your weight status, you can reduce your health risks by making positive, healthful lifestyle choices. Slide 6 Small lifestyle choices can help to decrease your risk for poor health, or they can decrease the severity of poor health. These same lifestyle choices can help you to achieve a healthier weight. Once these changes become habits, you can build upon them by making more challenging goals to obtain the benefits of a healthier weight and better health. Consider: Eating vegetables and fruits more often instead of other foods, Drinking fewer sweetened drinks, and Increasing the amount of physical activity you have each day. To make these changes, it s important to have a plan. Setting goals will help you be successful. Slide 7 Setting goals provides direction, purpose, and motivation. It s important to understand the benefits you ll achieve from meeting your goals. Setting and meeting weight and health-related goals will help you to achieve a healthier weight and have a better life, both now and in the future. Goals should be SPECIFIC. They shouldn t be vague or general in nature. Each activity you want to change should have its own clearly defined goal. Goals should be MEASURABLE. Unless a goal is measurable, you won t know if or when you met your goal. Goals should be ACHIEVABLE. Consider your friends and family members, as well as where you work and live. Will these factors help or hinder you from achieving your goals? Goals should be REALISTIC. Ask yourself, How likely is it that I can meet my goal? Use a scale from 1 to 10, with 1 being not very likely and 10 being very likely that you will meet your goal. What is the likelihood you will meet your goal? Goals should be TIMELY. Your goal should have an endpoint. Having a deadline will help you to achieve your goals. Slide 8 Goals should be specific, not vague. For example, the goal to eat more fruits and vegetables is too general. A better goal is to include one fresh vegetable and one fruit with dinner at least 4 times during the next week. This is an example of a measurable goal. You can track your dinner meals and know exactly if you met your goal by the end of the week. 2

Ask yourself, are you both willing and able to achieve your goals? Think about those things that will make it hard for you to achieve your goals and how you will deal with each barrier. You may have to change your goals to make them more realistic. For example, perhaps fresh vegetables are too expensive, and the selection is poor during this time of the year. How can you overcome this challenge? You could consider using canned or frozen vegetables. You may have to change your goal to make it more realistic. For example, remove the word fresh from your goal statement. Your new goal would then be to include one vegetable and one fruit with dinner at least 4 times during the next week. When you meet your goal for several weeks, celebrate. Then challenge yourself by setting another more difficult goal. We ll be working on setting goals later in this session. Slide 9 Section 4: Choose Colorful Foods Everyday (video) Section 5: Choose MyPlate One change you may need to work on is to choose a healthier dinner. Ask yourself, Is the food that is often on my dinner plate helping me to achieve my goal? We ll hear more about Choose MyPlate in this section. Slide 10 People who eat the recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables are more likely to be healthy and less likely to be overweight than those who do not. Scientific research has shown that food properties found in vegetables and fruits are healthful. These properties can help to reduce the risk for some types of cancer, prevent heart disease, and prevent unwanted weight gain. For example, many fruits are high in potassium, which work in the body to help control normal blood pressure. Eating vegetables with dietary fiber helps people from getting hungry too soon after a meal. Slide 11 Unfortunately, if you re like most people, you re eating vegetables only 1-½ times a day and fruit only once a day. If so, your body may not be getting the nutrients and other food properties found in vegetables and fruit that are needed to stay healthy. Also, you may be more likely to feel hungrier between meals, which makes achieving a healthier weight more difficult. Slide 12 Sometimes, it s difficult to know what kinds of foods and how much food are needed to stay healthy. MyPlate is an image of a dinner plate and a cup that shows a healthy eating plan. About one-half of the dinner plate should be vegetables and fruits; protein foods should cover no more than one-fourth of the dinner plate. Grain foods, such as rice, pasta, or tortillas, should cover the other one-fourth portion on the dinner plate. It s important to have a calcium-rich food at every meal, or three times a day. Calcium-rich foods include milk, yogurt, cheese, or calcium-fortified soy milk. Your body will have a better chance to be healthy if you eat a variety of foods from all five food groups each day. Also, it will be easier to reach a healthier weight while staying healthy if you give your body the nutrients it needs. 3

Slide 13 Covering one-half of your dinner plate with vegetables and/or fruits can be easy. Canned, frozen, and fresh vegetables and fruits all have the nutrients you need to help you be healthy. Some vegetable and fruit combinations are: Canned corn and orange slices, Broccoli and canned pears, and Cooked frozen lima beans and banana slices. For example, a tuna fish sandwich on whole wheat bread, carrot sticks, and apple slices with yogurt can fit into the MyPlate meal pattern. Slide 14 Now that we ve discussed the weight and health benefits of eating more fruits and vegetables instead of other foods, it s time to set a goal to help make that happen. There are several ways you can choose to help increase your vegetable and fruit consumption. Here are some examples: You could plan your dinner meals so that one half of your plate contains fruit and/or vegetables. When packing your lunch, you could include vegetables, such as carrot sticks, and a banana instead of snack cakes or cookies. Try eating vegetables or fruits for snacks instead of snack foods, such as chips. Please refer to your handout, How Will You Eat More Vegetables and Fruits?. Let s think of a goal that will help you eat more vegetables and fruits. Remember, you re trying to replace some of the food you eat now with vegetables and fruits. First, you need a specific plan of action. You could select from the three examples we mentioned or make a goal of your own. Let s say you decided to eat fruits or vegetables instead of other snack foods. Next, make the goal measurable. Perhaps you only want to eat vegetables and fruits for snacks on 5 evenings a week so you don t have to plan your snacks on the weekends. Is this goal achievable? What will be some of the challenges? Perhaps you will have to keep cut-up carrots on hand and buy more fruit at the store. How confident do you feel that you can achieve this goal? Is the goal realistic? Perhaps eating vegetables and fruits for snacks 5 nights a week is too many. Maybe 3 nights a week is more reasonable for you. Is the goal timely? If the answer is Yes, you decided to accomplish your goal each week. In summary, we ve gone thru the steps to make a smart goal. Our goal is to eat vegetables or fruits for snacks 3 times a week. Using your handout, How Will You Eat More Vegetables and Fruits?, write a smart goal that will be meaningful to you. Your goal should be challenging but not out of reach. Section 6 Pear and Celery Salad Recipe (video) Section 7: Smart Vending Machine Choices (video) 4

Slide 15 Section 8: Rethink Your Drink Now that you have an eating goal, let s discuss beverage choices. Some drink choices may be holding us back from obtaining a healthier weight. Slide 16 If you re like most people, about one-fourth of your calories come from your drink choices. Too often, drink choices are high in calories but provide little or no nutrients for your body to use to stay healthy. These extra calories make it harder to achieve a healthier weight and may contribute to poor health in general. If you re like most people, you re consuming about 22 teaspoons of added sugar each day. Much of this sugar is hidden in the foods we eat and the beverages we drink. Slide 17 Sweetened drinks have added sugar or other sweeteners added to them. Examples of sweetened drinks are non-diet soda, sweet tea, juice drinks and aides, and sports and energy drinks. Also, some coffees from the coffee shop have added sweeteners. The calories in sweetened drinks may be making it more difficult for you to achieve a healthier weight. Slide 18 You may be able to lower your calorie intake by making better drink choices. Consider non-fat or fat-free milk, water, fruit or vegetable juice, or unsweet tea. These choices will help you to stay hydrated while not adding empty calories to your eating plan. The term, empty calories, referred to foods and drinks that have calories but few or no nutrients. Examples of empty calories are regular soda, drink-aides, and sweet tea. Slide 19 While it s one thing you say, I ll cut back on my sweet drinks, it s sometimes difficult to actually do it. Often, it takes a plan that can be accomplished by setting and meeting a goal. Several approaches can be taken to cut back on sweet drinks. Some of these choices include drinking water with snacks and milk with meals. Perhaps you re a sweet-tea drinker. You could dilute your iced tea with unsweet tea until you develop a taste for unsweet tea. You can also limit the number of sweetened beverages to one per day, or perhaps four sweet beverages per week. Your beverage goal should be unique to you. Consider your current consumption of sweetened beverages, and develop a goal that is specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely. Develop a goal that is right for you. Remember to think about the challenges you will have and how you will handle them. Here are a few examples of goals: I ll drink water with my evening snack for five times a week. I ll begin drinking unsweet tea by reducing the amount of sugar I add by half for one week. For the next week, I ll reduce the amount of sugar by another half. By the third week, I ll drink only unsweet tea. I ll drink no more than one sweetened beverage a day. 5

Use your handout, How Will You Drink Fewer Sweetened Drinks?, to write your goal. Then use the handout to check off the days when you meet your goal. Writing it down will help you to remember your goal and feel good about your accomplishments. Slide 20 Section 9: An Introduction to the Physical Activity Guidelines (video) Section 10: Move More One of the best things you can do for your weight and health is to move more. Slide 21 There are many health benefits of getting the recommended amount of physical activity. When it s all said and done, physical activity can improve the length and quality of your life. To get these benefits, it s recommended that adults get 2 hours and 30 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity each week. This is about 20 to 30 minutes each day. Slide 22 Add an extra 10 minutes of physical activity to your day to work up to about 30 minutes of daily physical activity. It will help your heart, muscles, and even your brain to be healthy. Activity can be simple. For example, take a 10-minute walk in the morning or evening, or try gardening, running, or even dancing. Find the activity that you enjoy. The handout, Be Active Your Way A Fact Sheet for Adults, will give you more information on physical activity and suggestions for being active. Slide 23 Think of some things you could do to increase the time you spend being physically active. Then make a smart goal to move more. Make it specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely. An example might be: I ll walk for 10 minutes after I clean up the dinner dishes at least three times this week. Use your handout, How Will You Increase Your Physical Activity?, to write your smart goal. Slide 24 Section 11: Conclusion So, what have we done so far? We talked about how our eating, drinking, and activity choices may be keeping us from achieving a healthier weight. We made three goals. When our goals become habits, they ll help us to have better health and a healthier weight. Slide 25 Congratulations! You now have three goals that are as unique as you are! You should know exactly how you will increase your fruits and vegetables, drink fewer sweetened beverages, and increase your physical activity. As you master your goals, make more challenging goals for yourself. What do you have to lose? Educational programs of the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service are open to all people without regard to race, color, sex, religion, national origin, age, disability, genetic information or veteran status. 6