The new year may already be here but that doesn’t mean it’s too late to start working towards a healthier life and body. In fact, you can start any time of the year. And, if you falter a little there’s nothing that says you can’t change things back up mid box of cookies and start trying to be healthy again.
Instead of making resolutions, make a plan to better your life, reevaluate it when you need to, and don’t let little slip ups discourage you from getting back on track and going at it again. If you want to start being healthier, this new year and beyond, here are a few good places to start.
Cut Back On Alcohol
Unless you have a big problem with alcohol and you don’t know when to say when, cutting back on your alcohol intake is a good step. You don’t need to completely cut it out of your life if you can stop yourself after a drink or two. However, you may want to make wiser drink choices.
Instead of drinking mixed drinks, which can add a lot of sugar and calories to your diet, do a straight up shot of your favorite liquor. If you’re a beer drinker, pick a light beer. If you prefer ciders and wines, stick to one glass (since these contain sugar and a few extra calories).
Change Your Diet
Start eating differently now. This is probably one of the easiest changes to make that most people try to make more difficult for themselves. You may say, “I could never stop eating bread,” but if you started to have terrible reactions to it every time you consumed it, you would change your tune pretty quickly.
Some of the foods that aren’t so good for you may do nothing to make you feel bad, but you can train your brain to think that they do so that it’s easier to cut them out of your diet. And some things, like greasy fast food, probably do upset your stomach, you just don’t pay attention to it. Swap fast food for bag lunches, eat veggies instead of chips, and curb a sweet tooth with fruit and not refined sugar.
Get Up And Get Moving
No one ever got healthy sitting on their butt all day. Pretty much all they’ve gotten is a bigger butt, and while that may be in it’s not always the healthiest choice. You don’t have to do a strenuous workout routine on a daily basis in order to be healthy, but you do need to fit some physical activity into each day.
It could be something as simple is walking the dog a mile each day, taking a job around the block a couple times a week, or taking the stairs instead of the elevator at work. Get something to tally your daily steps, whether it’s a simple pedometer or a full-blown Fitbit. It will definitely help motivate you to move more!
Originally posted on January 11, 2017 @ 5:07 pm