The New Year is officially here and so are the many health resolutions. Every new year people make many resolutions, but how many follow them religiously?
What is your New Year health resolution?
Do you want to get healthy and fit this new year?
Or do you want to quit a bad habit?
Getting healthy and losing weight is one of the most common New Year’s resolutions, but 80 percent of people who make that promise quit by February and go back to their old ways. Promise yourself to make 2019 a year to achieve your goals.
This is how you can stay focussed:
- Choose your resolutions wisely.
- Choose an activity you enjoy for fitness.
- Motivate yourself daily, make a fitness chart or find a fitness app that keeps you accountable.
- Find a friend or partner to work out with.
- Be specific and realistic while choosing your resolution.
- Make your goals known to others.
Motivation and support can further ensure you’ll stick with your resolution
Once you’ve set your goals, it’s all about motivation. That can come in the form of support from family, friends, doctors, and helpful tools.
Here are a few common Health resolutions to follow:
- Get more and better sleep – Getting more — and better quality sleep — in 2019 can benefit you on multiple health fronts. Insufficient sleep can decrease the immune system’s ability to be as strong as it should to fight common illnesses such as cold and other viruses. It can also increase the risk and severity of various mood problems including anxiety and depression. Most adults need around eight hours of sleep each night to stay healthy.
- Change when you eat – Another trick to losing weight without changing your diet is to only eat while the sun is out. By shifting when you eat, you can capitalize on when your body’s metabolism is running fastest. The way your circadian rhythm works, your metabolism is highest around 10am and lowest in the middle of the night.
- Get and stay active – Regular exercise is well-proven to decrease the potential to develop either depression or anxiety. Get at least 150 minutes of exercise each week. For those looking to change up their sedentary lifestyle, change this habit. Don’t eat while watching television and spend only as much time watching television as you spend exercising.
- Reduce stress – Stress can impact more than just our emotional health. At least 60 to 80% of all doctor visits touch on least one problem related to stress. Stress can impact more than just your emotional health. Stress can be an overriding factor that leads to many lifestyle diseases.
- Turn off your phone before bedtime – People who use a light-emitting device instead of reading a book before bed are more alert, take longer to fall asleep, get less deep REM sleep, and take longer to wake up. Simply avoid your devices before going to sleep.
- Eat more fruits and veggies – Looking to eat healthier? Do not depend on crash diets. For a long-term solution, make a point of adding fresh produce to your plate, rather than avoiding certain foods. You’ll naturally eat fewer unhealthy foods because your appetite will be satisfied with fruits and vegetables.
- Quit smoking – No matter how long you’ve smoked, there are health benefits to quitting. Long term smoking affects your heart and lung health and causes many types of cancer. Seek counselling support but quit today.
- Do one puzzle every day – Puzzles like Sudoku and crosswords are more than just a fun game. The more frequently people engaged in these games, the better their cognitive function as they aged. On tests measuring grammatical reasoning speed and short-term memory accuracy, frequent puzzle players had results comparable to people 10 years younger than they were.
Wishing you all a Happy and Healthy New Year! May 2019 motivate you to make fitness, good sleep, healthy and fresh food a part of your daily life.
