Healthy YOU Through The New Year!

It’s Never Too Late To Start!

With the temptations of the holidays behind us, many of us are motivated to start fresh when it comes to our health. We’re making plans to change the way we live, leaving bad habits behind.

However, when it comes to New Year’s resolutions, whether you want to lose weight, exercise more, quit smoking or reduce your stress, most people slide back into their pre-resolution patterns by spring. This year, I encourage you to take a new approach-increase your health day by day throughout the year.

Forget the grandiose, impossible New Year’s resolutions. The path to a healthier lifestyle begins one little habit at a time…one day at a time!

The best way to jump-start healthy change in your life is to:

Make a personal plan and talk about it.
Break it down into manageable steps and Set realistic goals for yourself.
Track your results!

This way, you can see and feel great about your progress as you make steps towards your goal.

This year, incorporate one healthy change each month, and track your success daily. Mark the days you do this on your calendar.

A great site for a years worth of goals is Cooking Light’s Magazine. I follow this every year and their website has great information and tips for each months healthy habit.

Cooking Light’s 12 Healthy Habits :The plan challenges you to add a new habit each month, and by year-end, the accumulated effect will be a much healthier you. Here’s what to expect, month by month:

January: Eat More Fruits and Vegetables—Add 3 more servings of fruits and vegetables to your diet each day. Download January’s Healthy Habits Tracker PDF.

Feb: Get Moving—Increase the amount of aerobic exercise you do. Download February’s Healthy Habits Tracker PDF.

March: Get Cooking—Cook at least 3 meals more per week than you are now, even if that means cooking breakfast or lunch (for freezing, maybe). Download March’s Healthy Habits Tracker PDF.

April: Go For More Grains—Add 3 servings of whole grains per day. Download April’s Healthy Habits Tracker PDF.

May: Eat Breakfast Daily—Eat a healthy breakfast every day. Download May’s Healthy Habits Tracker PDF.

June: Get Stronger—Add strength training to your fitness regimen: at least 2 sessions per week.

July: Focus on Healthy Fats—Swap unhealthy fats for healthy fats in your diet.

August: Go Vegetarian at Least 1 Day a Week—Expand the number of all-vegetable dishes that you eat by making 1 dinner or main-meal-of-the-day vegetarian.

September: Eat More Fish—Cook fish or seafood for dinner 2 times a week.

October: Ease Up on Salt—Cut back on salt/sodium and increase your sodium awareness.

November: Be Portion Aware—Cut your portion size of less-healthy or higher-calorie foods at least once per meal.

December: Eat Mindfully, Be Thankful—Learn two ways—in this busy season and throughout the year—to find joy in food and to share that joy with others.

The great thing with Cooking Light is that you can customize your plan, making the choices you want most for your health.

Surround yourself with people who support you. There is nothing worse than having negative and/or jealous people around when you are trying to make a healthy, positive change to your life. There WILL be people you THOUGHT were your friends try to drag you back to your old, unhealthy ways. They might tease or grill you for your new habits. Some people can’t handle change. If you find that your healthy habits are being mocked or demeaned by those around you … ask yourself why your ‘friends’ would want you to go back to being unhealthy. Do they not understand the sudden change? If so, explain to them why you’re doing it… Or, are those friends just jealous? If so, CUT THEM OUT OF YOUR LIFE!

After 12 months of tracking these mini changes, you’ll be delighted at how easy it was to incorporate healthy changes into your life and stick to them. By taking small steps and paying attention daily, you’ll find at the end of the year that a healthy you is also a HAPPY you!

Enjoy the results and as always let me know about your progress! If you need any tips or need support just send me an email.