Healthy living

What new ideas do you have for the new year?

Just like we have Christmas in July, February or even March is not too late for New Year’s resolutions. In fact, it’s never too late to make changes to reach the health and fitness goals you want to achieve.

Healthy food isn’t boring food

Many people fear that they’ll have to live off salads if they had to change their eating habits. Or that “healthy food” means you will never get to eat delicious cooked food again. There’s good news for you – there are a million other people who want to live a healthy lifestyle and many share their recipes online, no matter what you’re cutting from your usual eating.

Your new way of eating might take some getting used to. Experiment with healthy foods – did you know baking an apple immediately makes it taste sweeter?

Our suggestion for a resolution

While there is no one healthy eating plan that works for everyone, a good place to start is usually cutting out sugary drinks. This doesn’t mean only giving up carbonated sodas. There’s a lot of sugar hiding in “healthy” drinks like sports drinks, juice and even vitamin water.

Exercise doesn’t have to mean going to the gym

There are many people who enjoy gym culture. If you already gym and your resolution is to spend more time there, that’s very doable. You can start by adding an extra minute to cardio and a few extra reps to weights. Don’t try to jump into new training without building up to it; you don’t want to injure yourself and lose your progress.

But what if you don’t like going to the gym? You can become active without ever setting foot in a gym. The secret is to find something you’ll enjoy doing. Then instead of thinking of your activity as exercise, you can think of it as taking up a new hobby. If you’re very unfit, you might consider an activity like tai chi since the movements are slow. Dancing is also excellent exercise. Anything that gets you moving counts!

Our suggestion for a resolution

You don’t have to decide on a new exercise right away. Instead, we suggest stretching in the morning before you get dressed so you get into the habit of exercising. Stretching before an exercise is one of the best ways to prevent injuries and can help relax you before work or at the end of the day.