Help for your New Year's resolutions

by Beth Cronk
Have you made any New Year’s resolutions? According to the federal government’s website, USA.gov, some of the most popular resolutions every year are to eat healthy food, get fit, lose weight, get a better job, manage debt, and manage stress. Here are some resources our library has gotten in the past year that can help you with these goals:

The Buena Salud guide for a healthy heart by Jan L. Delgado. Written by the president of the National Alliance for Hispanic Health, this book covers lifestyle changes to make to improve heart health, including quitting smoking, getting exercise, and eating and drinking right. It also goes into details on heart problems and treatments.

Prime time: Love, health, sex, fitness, friendship, spirit – Making the most of all of your life by Jane Fonda. This book takes a holistic look at life and health for people age 60 and over, which she calls “the third act”.

Ripped in 30. This DVD features Jillian Michaels with a 30-day plan for getting in shape. It includes four 24-minute workouts of increasing difficulty. It’s hardly practical to use the DVD really well when you can only check it out from the library for 2 days at a time, but you can at least get an overview of Jillian’s ideas and see if the DVD is something you’d like to buy to use for at least 30 days.

Kara Goucher’s Running for women: From first steps to marathons. If you have a goal of running a marathon, or just of getting started as a runner, this book covers all the basics and then some.

The 17-day diet: A doctor’s plan designed for rapid results by Mike Moreno. This best-selling book is about a rotation diet created by a family practice doctor. Medical reviews of the diet say that the metabolism shifts are not really what make it work, but that it is healthy advice for eating low-calorie, real food and getting regular exercise.

Eat to live: The amazing nutrient-rich program for fast and sustained weight loss by Joel Fuhrman. This is an update of a diet classic by Dr. Fuhrman, family physician. It features a restrictive diet designed for clinically obese people who need to lose weight because of health problems.

Dig this gig: Find your dream job – or invent it by Laura Dodd. This book is geared to students and people in their twenties who are trying to figure out what they want to do in their careers. It focuses on finding your calling rather than finding a job.

Lost and found: Unexpected revelations about food and money by Geneen Roth. The author of the bestseller Women, food, and God takes on the psychological aspects of spending, saving, and other aspects of personal finance, and how we may use money in unwise ways as a substitute for love.

10 mindful minutes: Giving our children – and ourselves – the social and emotional skills to reduce stress and anxiety for healthier, happier lives by Goldie Hawn with Wendy Holden. Goldie shares the principles of the MindUP program she created to help children understand how their brains work, become more aware of their emotions, and learn to manage their stress and treat others with compassion.

You can find these and a variety of other books and videos on creating new, healthy habits at our library. Have a happy 2012!