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Make Small Changes That Add Up to Better Health
Vowing to completely overhaul what we eat and drink is certainly a dramatic way to kick off a new year — but that momentum is tough (and often miserable) to maintain. “When I’m talking to patients about making beginning-of-the-year changes, I’m never going to say there’s something you can absolutely never have, because this is life. There has to be some kind of middle ground,” says Alejandra Ellison-Barnes, M.D., Ph.D., an assistant professor of medicine at The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. When it comes to making health-conscious changes, “making little shifts bit by bit is much more sustainable over time than trying to do something radical and cutting out all of your favorite food for all time.”