First of all, Medical Specialists® Pharmacy would like to wish a belated Happy New Year to our thousands of patients and everybody else around the country, and hope you have now settled back into normality after a hectic festive period. Let’s be honest with ourselves, most of us probably overindulged during Christmas and New Year, ate too many mince pies, drank too many ‘festive tipples’, and had more roast dinners than usual. This can all start to show on the waistline rather quickly, and we reported in December how the average Brit can typically eat and drink their way through a staggering 5,240 calories on Christmas Day alone! Moreover, a recent study conducted by Discount Supplements discovered that adults in Britain as a whole – around 52 million - will gain a staggering 20 million stone between 25^th December and 1^st January. This equates to over 5lbs each and the weight is the equivalent of just under 10,000 double decker buses. Medical Specialists® can reveal the extent of how people relaxed their eating and drinking between Christmas and the New Year, after conducting a survey into people’s lifestyle over this period. In particularly, we were interested in the time from 18^th December – one week before Christmas, to 1^st January – one week after Christmas. We quizzed 1,000 of you about your habits over the festive period and received some very interesting statistics indeed! Some of the key findings included:

• 42% didn’t gain weight.
• 48% gained 1-7lbs.
• 8% gained 8-15lbs.
• 2% gained more than 15lbs.
• 11% didn’t drink.
• 38% drank alcohol on 1-3 days.
• 27% drank alcohol on 4-6 days.
• 15% drank alcohol on 7-10 days.
• 9% drank alcohol on more than 10 days.
• 31% would consider a weight loss aid.
• 73% of those who gained weight have made a New Year’s resolution to lose weight.

Some interesting facts indeed! More than half of those surveyed (58%) gained at least 1 pound or more, with only 42% of people not gaining. Astonishingly, only 11% were completely sober throughout the festive period, and almost a tenth (9%) drank alcohol on 10 or more days across a fortnight. Nearly a third (31%) would consider a weight loss aid in order to help them shift the pounds, with some popular treatments being Xenical and Orlistat, both provided by Medical Specialists®. If your New Year’s goal is to lose weight, here are some useful tips courtesy of NHS Choices:

1. Make only one resolution. Your chances of success are greater when you channel energy into changing just one aspect of your behaviour.
2. Don't wait until New Year's Eve to choose your resolution. Take some time out a few days before and think about what you want to achieve.
3. Avoid previous resolutions. Deciding to revisit a past resolution sets you up for frustration and disappointment.
4. Don't run with the crowd and go with the usual resolutions. Instead think about what you really want out of life.
5. Break your goal into a series of steps, focusing on creating sub-goals that are concrete, measurable and time-based.
6. Tell your friends and family about your goals. You're more likely to get support and want to avoid failure.
7. To stay motivated, make a checklist of how achieving your resolution will help you.
8. Give yourself a small reward whenever you achieve a sub-goal, which will help to motivate you and give you a sense of progress.
9. Make your plans and progress concrete by keeping a handwritten journal, completing a computer spreadsheet or covering a notice board with graphs or pictures.
10. Expect to revert to your old habits from time to time. Treat any failure as a temporary setback rather than a reason to give up altogether.