An easy-to-start, simple-to-maintain, scientifically sound, and eminently usable twelve-week program of small steps on the road to better health
Small Changes, Big Results is not about cutting all the carbohydrates out of your diet. Or replacing every single gram of sugar with omega-3 fatty acids. Itโs not about doing one hundred sit-ups a day, or getting on the treadmill whenever you have a free second. In fact, itโs not about any of the total lifestyle-replacement gimmicksโwhether diet, exercise, or pop psychologyโthat have swept our culture in recent years, putting untold millions of Americans on the risky roller coaster of success and failure that defines fad diets and programs.
Not here.
Small Changes, Big Results is about realityโthe reality of what you can do, the reality of what you want to do, and the reality of what works. Itโs about introducing a series of small changes each week for three months in the three core areas of diet and nutrition; exercise and fitness; and emotional wellness. For each of the twelve weeks, nutritionist Ellie Krieger introduces a very finite, completely practical action plan for the weekโand not only are these tasks incredibly doable, theyโre in fact so accessible that itโs tough not to be inspired.
For example, in Week 1 the nutrition task is merely to go shopping, buy some healthful pantry items, and start keeping track of what you eat; the exercise consists of taking three twenty-minute walks; and the wellness aspect is to do a five-minute breathing exercise. Thatโs it. And it doesnโt really get any harder.
But these small changes do in fact lead to big results. At the end of twelve weeks, a totally unhealthy diet has been overhauled: armed with easy, delicious recipes and tips, youโve removed unhelpful munchies and replaced them with healthful snacking, youโve cut down on lethal trans fats while adding beneficial fat choices, youโve replaced refined grains with whole grains, youโre eating more fish and less red meat, and so forth. Yet youโve never been forbidden to eat a single thing: instead of prohibiting entire food groups, Ellie categorizes foods as Usually, Sometimes, and Rarelyโand now you should be eating more from the Usually choices, less from the Rarely category. Furthermore, youโve integrated physical activity into your life, and youโve developed a set of tools to help you deal with stressโyouโre not only eating better, but youโre also exercising better and feeling better.
The beauty of this program is that none of these action steps is remotely intimidating, because theyโre not a full immersion into a totally new lifestyle. Instead, itโs a series of incremental changesโremoving bad habits one by one, while at the same time adding good ones. Thereโs nothing to scare you offโon the contrary, hereโs a whole book full of small changes that produce big results.
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