Published 12:00 am Wednesday, December 2, 2009

If your New Year’s resolution is to lose weight, here’s a little trick.
Remember the letter W.
Make a W with your fingers. You’ve just raised three digits.
Probably index, tall man and ring finger, but possibly pinky, ring finger and tall man. Hey, that’s OK.
Regardless, your W now stands for three things: water, weights and watch.
Water
Drinking more water is one of the cheapest, easiest ways to lose weight while boosting your overall health.
Everyone knows how much water to drink, right? Eight to 10 8-ounce glasses a day. Active people need even more.
But hardly anyone does it.
Many people walk around dehydrated without even realizing it. You can lose a pint of liquid each day just exhaling.
If you don’t drink enough, your body could actually retain water to compensate. Yuck. You also could end up with excess body fat, not to mention a host of other physical problems, because water is crucial to functions like digestion and metabolism.
Too hard to keep track of your glasses each day, you say? Try drinking down instead of up.
Instead of counting up “one, two, three,” each time you drink a glass, fill a half-gallon jug with water first thing in the morning or when you get to work. Pour all your glasses from this jug throughout the day.
When it’s empty, you’ve consumed 64 ounces of water, the minimum daily recommendation. If you’re exercising, and I hope you are, use a one-gallon jug.
Weights
Nearly everyone who wants to lose weight jumps on a treadmill or takes a class, which is great. I’ve taught aerobics for nearly 12 years and love to see people sweat.
But not nearly as many people also pick up weights. Weight training is equally as important as cardiovascular training.
Lifting weights, or strength training, can boost your metabolism by building muscle tissue, which requires calories even when at rest.
So the more muscle tissue you have, the more calories you burn. Even while you’re asleep!
Strength and cardio training should go hand-in-hand, but many folks avoid weight machines and free weights because they either don’t understand them or think it’s boring.
Ask for help. Fitness centers should offer a free session with a trainer, who will teach you how to lift weights safely and effectively. Lifting is repetitious, but it’s also one of the quickest ways to see changes in your body. And there’s nothing boring about that.
Watch
Finally, watch what you eat. Simple as that. Look at the food on your plate. Look at the food on your fork. Look at the food in your grocery cart.
This year, take a moment at each meal or snack to watch your food and really think about it. Is it healthy? Is it colorful? Is it a small portion? If not, make a better choice.
Watch what you order when eating out. Even fast food restaurants now offer salads, fruit, yogurt and other healthier options.
Better yet, prepare your meals yourself. Watch the sign at Koontz Elementary: “Eat healthier. Eat at home.”
Water, weights, watch. Losing weight and living a healthy lifestyle is more complicated than that, but W is a good place to start.
Emily Ford covers the N.C. Research Campus for the Salisbury Post.