Happy New Year my friends! There is something so refreshing about the New Year. It’s a new beginning for many, a chance for us to let go and forget those habits that do not serve us any longer and create new habits to help make our lives more positive and healthier. Many of us will start this New Year with a list of inspiring goals we want to achieve as we move into the New Year. There is a good chance that you are thinking of ways to live healthier. Whether you want to lose 10 pounds, improve your sleep, improve your cholesterol or have more energy, I have five smart and healthy ways you can improve your health this year without restriction or guilt. 1. Increase your H20 It is important for all of us to make sure that we are getting the amount of water that our bodies need and for the most part… the majority of us don’t. The old rule of thumb states that we need to drink eight glasses of water per a day, and while that definitely has some validity to it, that is really on the low end of our needs. I always tell my clients to take their body weight and divide it in half. That is how many ounces of water your body really needs a day. For some… that seems like a daunting number, but it’s a good rule of thumb to go by. Having trouble getting your water in?? Remember that not all the water we consume daily has to be in a glass. Fruits and vegetables make up roughly about 20% of our daily water consumption. So… increasing our fruits and veggies also helps increase our daily water consumption. It’s a win, win! This leads me to tip number two… 2. Increase your consumption of Fruits and Vegetables Before you start to roll your eyes because you feel like this is such an obvious recommendation that just isn’t realistic… just give me a chance to explain! Increasing your consumption of fruits and vegetables does not have to be a difficult task or require hours of food prep in the kitchen. It can be as easy as adding a banana with your oatmeal or your yogurt at breakfast, eating a salad at lunch instead of that wrap you usually enjoy and adding an apple instead of chips, or choosing berries with shredded coconut for dessert instead of that bowl of ice cream you have been enjoying. Some great ways to get more vegetables in at dinner include sautéing mushrooms, onions, broccoli, carrots, etc. and cooking them into your traditional spaghetti sauce. It’s an easy way to get more veggies in to your traditional pasta night. I also have found that when clients have some grab and go veggies on hand ready for them they are more likely to grab them when snack time hits. Things like organic tri colored carrot sticks, celery, grape tomatoes and cucumbers are great grab and snack options and can make yummy snacks! 3.Practice Mindful Eating Being mindful when you are eating can help you shed pounds and keep them off if you tend to grab a bag of chips or a carton of ice cream and nibble in front of the TV. Often times clients of mine will express that they don’t even realize they have walked in the door from a busy, stressful day at work, grab the bag of chips, sit down on the couch and before the nightly news is over the bag is gone. Being fully present around the food choices we make particularly helps if you tend to eat in response to your emotions. Practicing mindful eating has helped many of my clients pinpoint why it is that they are overeating, so they uncovered their source of non-physical hunger. Maybe it is that they are hungry for more time with a spouse, maybe they need more time for themselves, a hug, they feel lonely, they are stressed and unsettled about their career, etc. There is often a deep rooted cause to the emotional overeating habits that many find themselves in. By sitting down and figuring out the root cause of the mindless eating, they can achieve a more balanced life. So all this mindfulness talk sounds great right, but you are now probably wondering how you can put it into action. A great place to start would be to take a moment before every meal and snack and just pause. Pause before your first bites and take 1-3 deep breathes. This can help you become more in tune with your hunger cues. Another helpful tool is to ask yourself before every meal or snack, “On a scale from 1-10, how hungry am I?” And then when you are finished, how full are you? Even if you don’t know the answer that question the first couple times you try this, it is an excellent practice to get into to create that awareness with your self before and after every meal. 4. Cook at Home More Often When cooking at home, you have full control over what is going into the food that you are preparing. You can be sure that you are using the best possible ingredients available to you and that no added sugar and vegetable oils are making their way into your dish. Cooking at home allows for you to use fresh ingredients that you can source from your local farmers markets or favorite grocery store. You can create meals around what foods are seasonal. To get started with cooking more at home, I think its smart to create some sort of cooking plan. Gather recipes that sound like something you may want to try, any necessary kitchen tools you may need and then determine the number of times per week you might plan on cooking. A great rule of thumb I tell clients is, cook once, and eat twice. This means that when you are preparing a meal, plan ahead of time to have enough to make another meal or two out of it. That way you don’t need to be in the kitchen on Wednesday night when you work late for example. Also, if cooking is going to be a new experience for you be realistic. Maybe start this month with committing to cook one meal per a week and see how that goes. Then next month you may want to consider getting in the kitchen and cooking twice a week. Cooking doesn’t mean you need a bunch of fancy tools either. A large cutting board, a sharp chef’s knife, a large saucepan with a lid, a spatula and a cooking spoon will take you a long way for most recipes. 5. Get Quality Zzz’s Don’t underestimate the power of sleep. Getting consistent quality sleep every night can really help our bodies to achieve optimal health. Some helpful things you may try to improve your sleep is to find a routine if you don’t already have one. Have a time that you start getting ready for bed and try to keep it the same most nights. Maybe you start your routine by turning on your diffuser with your favorite essential oil, or maybe you start to dim the lights. Leave the electronics charging in the kitchen or anywhere other than your bedroom. Leave your bedroom for sleep and quiet time, keeping work and social stuff out. If you use your phone as your alarm clock in the morning, go buy an alarm clock. They are inexpensive and a very easy fix to help improving your sleep. Keep your bedroom cool, ideally you want the temperature to be anywhere from 60-67 degrees when you are sleeping. Lastly, try to move for at least 30 minutes a day. Exercise is an excellent way to improve your nightly Zzz’s. Categories All
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