Get Healthier This Year

It’s a new year which usually means resolutions. The most frequent resolution has to be to get healthier. If you’ve made this resolution year after year and have failed as many times; it’s ok to try again. Getting healthy generally entails diet and exercise. But, if you’ll start to look at “dieting” as just eating differently, you may be more successful. You’re motivation for getting healthier in the new year can also go a long way toward your success. If you take “I want to look better” out of the mix and just go with “I want to be healthier” you may get more traction.

Let’s focus of healthy meals.

First do some research

The best place to start is to find an app or software that can analyze your current weight and lifestyle to get you the best plan. I lost 90 pounds by simply sticking to a plan that allowed me 1330 calories a day. Using a fitness app I kept a foot diary. Logging in every bite I ate, kept me on track.  Connecting the app to my fitness watch helped tracked calories burned so I knew how close I was on my target caloric intake. If you really wanted something highly caloric, I’d have to trade it for exercise. It was so exciting when I got to the end of the day and had extra calories to spare so I could indulge in a cookie. It’s the little things after all.

Calorie counting is just one aspect of a fitness plan. You can choose to do other plans that use point systems, or shunning carbs. Do what works best for you.

Choose the best plan for you, not the trendiest

Most of the time fad diets don’t work long term because they don’t offer a realistic long term lifestyle change. Taking a supplement and only allowing a small amount of calories a day will cause weight loss. But if you cannot sustain the lifestyle, you’ll likely gain back the weight you lost plus more. It’s also dangerous many times. Your body needs a daily mix of protein, carbs, water, fats, vitamins, and minerals. Generally a diet that is consists of low fats, low carbs, lots of vegetables and fruits along with lean protein will have you feeling and looking great in no time.

Is Keto right for you

The Keto diet is as popular as ever. Basically if you’re doing Keto, you’ll cut your carbs to almost nothing. Simple carbohydrates turn to sugar in the body which we process for energy. Choosing healthy carbs is essential. More and more food companies are offering low carb options. There are many recipes like homemade keto everything bagels) that are also available. 

Ketosis, is what happens when your body doesn’t consume enough carbohydrates to burn for energy. You’re body will begin to burn fat and create ketones that it uses for fuel. This diet works for millions of people. Your eating habits and enjoyment will determine if you can maintain this type of diet. Carbs are included in the types of foods that we often associate with comfort food. Pastas, breads, and starches like potatoes and rice are not conducive to a Keto type diet. 

Exercise

Any way you slice it, exercise will need to be added if you want to start a truly healthy lifestyle. This can be simply walking for 15 minutes a day to start. There are tons of apps that have dancing as exercise, which can be a lot of fun. Just think about it, burning extra calories a day will speed up your weight loss. If you want to lose two pounds a week, you’ll need to burn 250 more calories than you consume each day.

Check out some of the new fitness bikes on the market. They offer simulated rides through mountains or interesting cities. It is low impact if you have issues with your joints. You definitely will get your heart rate up and will start to ride longer and take more difficult courses as you go.

Decide what will work for you

The biggest part of getting healthy is making a commitment to do so. Seriously consider all types of diet plans out there. Choose the one that you can make a lifetime commitment to. At first logging all of your food into a diary will seem tedious, but you’ll learn the nutrition value of foods. After a time, it will be second nature to continue to make those healthy choices without any thought. This will lead to a lifetime of health and wellbeing.