Every year, many of us decide to eat healthier and live a healthy lifestyle. Since a poor lifestyle often reduces the energy levels in our body, this seems to be one of the most important resolutions of the new year. However, as easy as it is to define these goals, it is hard to accomplish all at once. Hence, the perfect approach is to break these big resolutions and goals into smaller ones – taking one-step-at-a-time approach.
It is natural and common for all of us to make unrealistic big goals at the starting of the year. What we don’t realise is that it is much easier to lose momentum when your goals are too big to achieve. For instance, eating only salad every day, going to the gym, giving up weekend parties, and sleeping 8 hours all at once is not possible.
If you want to get fit and stay healthy, follow these minimal tips and then achieve your bigger goal.
How Can You Adopt A Healthy Lifestyle This New Year?
1. Reduce Sugar Consumption
Needing sugar or something sweet at the time of stress, anxiety, or just a craving is natural for all of us. Reducing the amount of sugar intake all at once won’t be possible. It simply can’t happen overnight. Once you start reducing the intake slowly, you’ll know that you don’t require as much sugar as you think. You can start by reducing sugar intake in your yogurt, coffee, tea, or other drinks. Initially, you can replace it with honey or less calorie supplement. One great way is to increase natural sugars such as put a piece of apple in your soup to make it naturally sweet.
2. Exclude Alcohol from Your Meal Plan
Although it seems as if low alcohol consumption may not harm your body, it regularly messes with your diet and healthy lifestyle. The next day you are more likely to consume unhealthy food, suffer from a hangover, and make poor health decisions. Hence, keep alcohol consumptions for the weekends. Alcohol intake mid-week can be harmful in many ways – your work will be affected, your energy levels will be low, and stamina will be reduced.
3. Add Some Extra Veggies
One of the greatest tips for a healthy lifestyle is to increase veggies in your diet. Half of your meal plan for a day should be filled with green vegetables. Further, it is much easier to increase green veggies in your lunch and dinner than breakfast. So, start with that and later, implement it in your breakfast meals too.
4. Enjoy the Cuisine You Are Eating
In the middle of a fast-paced lifestyle and hectic work schedules, we forget to enjoy and taste the food we are eating. We are more gulping it down our throat in 10 minutes than actually enjoying the meal and savouring its taste.
Eating mindfully and chewing your food nicely can help in improving digestion. Hence, leave gadgets aside, take some time out, and eat. Simply enjoy the food and peacefully have your meal. No matter how stressful the day is, eating mindfully will give a feeling of satiety and calm your mind.
5. Include Prebiotics and Probiotics in Diet
Prebiotics help in promoting a healthy gut through an increase in beneficial bacteria that can lead to a strong immune system, better sleep, and a healthy brain. Consume more prebiotics such as garlic, banana, and onions.
Probiotics, on the other hand, assist in changing intestinal bacteria for maintaining gut flora. The probiotics such as kefir, yogurt, etc. can improve immunity and overall health.
6. Add More Fruits to your Diet
Consuming fruits is a great and very healthy habit. Include fruits in your daily diet such as add some to your breakfast cereal or take a fruit salad to the office for a mid-day snack. Fruits are necessary for our body, so increase the consumption this year.
7. Decrease Ordering In
Every time you order food or eat outside, you are reducing your health. With more oil, less hygienic food, and extra salt and sugar, these foods decrease your health. The holiday celebrations add to this craving for eating out. However, make food at home, make a plan for all your meals, and cook with less oil, sugar, salt, and fats this year.
8. Don’t Reduce Sleep Hours
The adverse effects of disturbed sleep patterns are real. With less sleep, you are more lazy and less focused the next day. In fact, this will also affect your eating pattern, as you will be more likely to consume more fats and sugar. This, of course, increases your chances of obesity, unhealthy consumptions, and overall unhealthy choices.
Don’t change your sleep hours because of extra work, celebrations, parties, or anything else. Every adult needs 7 to 9 hours of sleep. Ensure that you get that every day.
9. Drink Water. A Lot
Drinking sufficient water is necessary for your body. Drink at least 64 ounces of water every day. It will improve your digestion, skin, increase your energy, and even assist in weight loss.
10. Exercise
Get up and get moving. Download an app to count your steps or purchase a fit band for the purpose. Prolonged hours of sitting has its side effects, and an hour at the gym would not necessarily help in nullifying the effect.
So, take the stairs instead of the elevator. Every hour, get up from your seat and stretch. Walk for 5-15 minutes after every meal.
Additional Tip: Skip Work on Weekends
Apart from physical health, mental health is also important. For a healthy lifestyle, you need to stay calm, less anxious, and reduce stress. For that, don’t work on the weekends unless it can’t be avoided under any circumstances.
Millennials today work more than ever. The work hours are flexible and taking work home is a common habit. However, what we don’t realise is that our mind needs time to rejuvenate. Keep the weekends for relaxing, meeting family and friends, or just reading a book.
Conclusion
Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is not the easiest task. It is surely not a one-day task. You need to put in constant efforts and take small steps to achieve a bigger goal. It is best to start by taking 8 hours of sleep and reducing eating out. Then, when that is a habit, reduce your sugar intake, include more veggies, and follow other steps. Take it one-step-at-a-time.