How many of you started the New Year in high gear? Committed to changing your life and health, you visited the gym at least four times a week, monitored your portion sizes and ate out less. Four months later, how are you doing? Are you still on track or have you slipped back into old habits? Eat Smart, Move More, Weigh Less, a new weight management program developed by the North Carolina Cooperative Extension and the North Carolina Division of Public Health may be the program for you.

Eat Smart, Move More, Weigh Less is a weight management program designed around strategies proven to be associated with healthy weight and weight loss. It uses the theory of planned behavior to empower participants with strategies and skills to change their eating and physical activity patterns to be consistent with healthy weight. Each lesson informs, empowers and motivates participants to live mindfully as they make choices about eating and physical activity. The program provides opportunities for participants to track their progress and keep a journal of healthy eating and physical activity behaviors. The program is offered to work sites and to other groups interested in eating smart, moving more and achieving a healthy weight.

The lessons include helpful basics such as re-think your drink, move more, check the facts, right-size portions, eat more fruits and vegetables, pack more lunches and how to plan, shop, fix and eat.

Each lesson includes information about why the behavior is important for weight loss and weight maintenance, strategies for adopting the behavior and a three- to five- minute physical activity break. Because Eat Smart , Move More, Weigh Less strategies can help the entire family, ways to help get your family to adopt the healthful concepts will be shared. There will be a guided discussion for a weekly strategy.

Each participant will receive Eat Smart, Move More, Weigh Less booklet, a magazine style full-color booklet that contains the most salient points from each lesson. Also included are healthy cooking substitutions, recipes and more.