‘Resolutionaries:’ Some pursue quick fixes, but experts advise caution

If it?s January, that means gyms everywhere are packed with New Year?s “resolutionaries:” those who join right after the holidays and vow to diet and exercise.Maria Calla, group exercise manager at the Jewish Community Center of the North Shore, in Marblehead, said it?s no myth that New Years resolutions really pack a gym. “We?ve been so busy,” she said. “There?s so many people coming to work out right now. Everyone is looking to lose weight and get fit.”Experts agree most of them are likely to stop after a couple of months.Besides gyms that offer specials, there always seems to be a new nutrition product or supplement on the market. This year, a new mushroom energy drink promises to be the “first ever, truly natural and nutritional energy drink and supplement” to power those resolutionaries through their gym sessions to accomplish their weight-loss goals.The drink hits shelves at Whole Foods markets, including Swampscott, this month. It claims to contain a blend of medicinal mushrooms including the Cordyceps species, which apparently was used in ancient Chinese medicine to “boost mental clarity, focus and physical endurance as well as provide immune support and even aid in appetite control.”Dr. Sandra Carter, founder and CEO of NRG Matrix?s parent company, calls it a “healthy alternative to the sugar-laden energy drinks that currently saturate the market.”An energy drink with no sugar and no caffeine? Really?After reports from Food and Drug Administration linked high-caffeine drinks like 5-Hour Energy and Monster to 15 deaths last year, NRG Matrix could be welcomed by those looking for the energy to get off the couch and into the gym this year.Dr. Mona Sigal, a former emergency room physician and medical director at Nourish Health With Food For Life in Peabody, said the “all-natural” claim for drinks like NRG Matrix is no better than “a marketing tool until proven otherwise,” but the appeal for the quick fix, even in “healthy” form, is where our culture goes wrong.?I don?t believe in supplements,” said Sigal. “If you want energy, you need to eat a cleaner diet. Energy doesn?t come from a bottle. It comes from the right diet all day long, every day.”Sigal said Americans are leading the pack in a lifestyle of highly-processed foods and drink with less physical activity that countries like India and China are copying, leading to a rise in obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease “exported around the globe.”?Our whole society lives around quick reward,” she said. “People want a pill, a prescription or surgery to lose weight. They self-abuse and then want to fix it with a drink from a bottle. That?s not going to happen.”She pointed to the American idolization of celebrity diets and trainers as a downfall, using former championship bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger as an example.?Look at him now. He?s fat,” she said with a laugh.Sigal teaches classes on nutrition and lifestyle intervention to show clients how to change their health, and perhaps reverse a diagnosis, by eating a plant-based diet.Sigal said she is not against stimulants like caffeine – she drinks a cup of coffee every morning – but before she switched to a plant-based diet of whole grains rich in fiber and natural nutrients, “I would gargle coffee in the afternoon and evening just to keep myself up and running,” she said. “The way I eat now, energy comes to me through metabolism.”Personal trainer Andrew Simons, who trains clients at the JCC, said he often sees the get-fit-fast schemes fail soon after New Years.?A lot of people make a good effort for a couple of weeks and then trail off,” said Simons. “I think a lot of people get carried away going as hard as they possibly can. They put 150 percent into everything that they do, and they burn out.”Just as important as healthy eating is the judicious use of supplements, if at all. Simons warns against buying pills, powders and supplements without knowing what is really in them and how they affect your body.?Guys run