Happy New Year! And here’s to an improved you! Do you want to eat better? Are you going to exercise more? Do you have a plan? You’ve gotta have a plan!
So if you really want to be healthier in the new year (and not just healthier in the year new but always), make it easier on yourself to be healthy. So how are you going to make getting in shape easier? Here are 10 tips to make it easier on yourself to get healthy and stay healthy:
- Dial back on the prepackaged stuff and soda. Turn from temptation! Look away! Don’t look back! If this is a particularly bad habit for you, slowly decrease the amount of processed food you buy incrementally, and slowly increase the homemade foods and snacks you eat. I believe true, lasting change happens slowly.
- Keep your kitchen clean. As soon as a meal is over, clean up. Don’t let the dirty dishes stack. Make it easy for you to make homemade meals by starting with a clean kitchen.
- Increase the amount of homemade meals you make.
- Wash and cut veggies for easy access.
- If you are a dip person, have dips like ranch and hummus on hand so you are even more likely to reach for the veggies.
- Keep a water bottle with you as much as possible…and drink it!
- Schedule exercising. Carve that time out, and set it in stone. It is sacred. No touch.
- Get involved with others and have an exercising accountability partner or two. Decide when to meet each week.
- Make a plan and write down goals that are within your reach. Be reasonable and don’t make crazy, far out unattainable goals.
- If you fall of the horse, it’s not too late to “pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again”-thank you Dorothy Fields and Jerome Kern.
Here are a few additional thoughts. Often times if things don’t come easy to us, we won’t do them, right? I am always thankful that I have taken the time to cut up veggies to throw in a salad quickly or to have as a quick snack with hummus.
Take inventory of your health and how you feel on a daily basis. When I wasn’t eating as healthy (I was exercising regularly, though), I realized how tired after lunch I was EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. After I started eating better, I started feeling better-way less fatigue. So notice how you really feel, and be excited when your healthy habits start making you feel better. Food is medicine.
Some of you are great with making a date with your treadmill. I’ll just admire you from afar. I know myself, and I know that I need accountability in exercising. I meet with different people on different days to make sure that I get out and get moving. Otherwise I can stay in my kitchen and house all day, making food, cleaning, making food, ironing, making food, sweeping…you get the point. My house and to-do list are my weakness. If I am in a groovy-groove, it’s hard to break the groove and get moving. Meeting with people is just what I need. Plus, I enjoy the fellowship of getting together with others.
What do you do to maintain your fitness or what will you do to get there? Are you committed to a better ‘you’? Are there ideas that you would add to the list? Blessings this new year!
Read about maintaining your fitness here.
Great tips! Thanks for sharing at Gluten Free Fridays!
Hi Cindy, You are welcome, and thank you for visiting!
Such great tips! I’ve done so much better this week because I took the time to make a loose meal plan and prep all my lettuce for salads. It makes me so happy to have things ready to go, because I really do love my healthy meals! I have also been making a point to exercise while the kiddos are napping and I’ve written it out in my planner (which I’m using this year!). I also have to say, I love the tip of keeping the kitchen clean! So. True. It’s way less motivating to make use of the kitchen when you have to clean it first – that is such a good one.
We have a healthy living link party on Tuesdays (live now) and we share out tips and tricks – so many of us could benefit from these tips and I’d love for you to link them up with us if you get a chance!! Thanks and have a great week!
Yay treadmills!
Happy New Year, P-S.com!
I will admit there is a (small) place in the world for treadmills. I have to admit I was on the treadmill last week at 10:50pm. Thanks SKH, and a happy new year to you and yours!
Keeping up water intake is a big one for me. I have the AquaPlan app on my phone which, if nothing else, reminds me that drinking water is important. It reminds me 8 times a day, so I’m bound to get water at some point! I find it’s easiest to get my recommended dose when I’m at a desk all day. Getting up and going to the sink definitely breaks up the amount of time I’m sitting! Which is also supposed to be a one-way ticket to deadsville 🙁
Hi Jessica. That’s a great idea to have an app reminder! Especially with all the computer/TV time that many of us get, it’s especially important to get up and get moving. Thanks for sharing and visiting!