One of the things I am introducing this year is guest posts from other bloggers. Here is a post from one of my friends Tendai, we went to school together. Tendai is a graduate student in New Orleans; when she is not studying she enjoys reading and writing about health/wellness, studying the bible, shopping, cooking, being adventurous with family/friends, and traveling. This article is an adaptation from her blog healthevangelism.blogspot.com.
It is a New Year and you’ve probably made a list of New Year resolutions that are going to usher in a new and improved you. However, if you are like me, some those same resolutions end up back on the list year after year and never get done! It may be that some of these resolutions are probably too far of a stretch to what you are used to. One of my resolutions has always been to read the bible in its entirety, but every year I end up stopping somewhere after Noah built the ark. But this year is going to be different. Wait, I say that all the time. But, yes, it is going to be different because I actually have a couple of strategies to reach my goal. So far, I am still on target because I have broken down my tasks into chunks that are actually doable.
Stepping out of the festive season, a lot of people make resolutions to get to a healthy weight by working out more and eating healthy. However, these wonderful resolutions are soon ditched if you do not have strategies that will make reaching your goal practical. Maintaining a healthy weight helps with not only preventing disease, but also keeping current disease under control. A modest weight loss will prevent or improve high blood pressure, blood sugars, blood cholesterol, heart disease, sleep apnea and some cancers.
There are some easy strategies you can incorporate into your lifestyle to make sure this year is the year you reach and maintain a healthy weight:
- Plan your meals in advance: Set time aside during the weekend to plan out what you will be eating the rest of the week. It may take 30 minutes but you will be glad you have your chow figured out when you get home feeling exhausted. In your planning, include the healthy snacks you will be eating in between your meals. This will help you stay away from the vending machine and also save you some money.
- Become a ‘flexitarian’: Being a vegetarian is cool because it reduces one’s carbon footprint. Unfortunately, I do not know even a handful of people who are willing to part ways with meat. However, I’m sure a lot of people can reach the compromise of becoming a flexitarian. A flexitarian eats mostly a plant-based diet but still has the flexibility of eating meat. Try it for one day out of the week, and then slowly include other days. Becoming a flexitarian will reduce your fat intake, increase your fiber intake and reap a lot of benefits in your overall vitality.
- Sleep : Getting 7 to 8 hours of quality sleep will help in maintaining a healthy weight because when you are sleeping, you are not eating. It’s as simple as that. Make sure you turn off potential distractions like the television and your mobile phone so you get in some quality sleep. If you have to wake up to your alarm every day, it is a sign you are not sleeping enough. Try sleeping with the alarm off during the weekends to gauge how much sleep you need. You will love the feeling of waking up well rested and guess what, the benefits will not stop there!
- Shun seconds: When the food is good you just want to have more of it, but staying away from seconds is a great strategy to a healthy weight. Having seconds will double up your calories so it is a good idea to eat your first and only serving slowly so that by the time you are done, your brain has had the chance to tell you that you do not need anymore.
- Drink water: Just a little dehydration can leave you feeling thirsty, weak and dizzy. It is easy to mistake these feelings for hunger, so stay well hydrated with water. Stay away from sodas because they add unnecessary calories to your diet. Reserve your calorie intake for food that is actually nutritionally sound.
- Keep a food diary: You may be surprised how much you actually eat after you start writing down everything you eat. Keeping a food diary will help in keeping you accountable and tracing trends over the weeks. If you eat it, write it down. As time goes on you will realize that your eating habits will improve because you would dread having to write down that you ate a whole gallon of Ben and Jerry’s.
- Weigh yourself: If you do not have a bathroom scale, go and buy one. You can find a mechanical one for as little as $10. When you are trying to get and maintain a healthy weight you need to know where you stand now. Weigh yourself at least once a week so you can visualize your progress.
- Watch your portions: This is a hard concept to master because most of what we are used to is usually way too much. A serving size is really small and sometimes you eat a whole bag of chips in one sitting and don’t even realize there were 10 servings in it! Try serving up your food in a plate as small as those TV dinner trays. After doing it for a while you will get a feel of the right portion sizes.
- Move: It’s always good to remember that when it comes to exercise, something is always better than nothing. Time seems to be a constraint most people complain about, however physical activity can easily be incorporated into your lifestyle-no gym membership is needed. Jumping jacks done for 10 minutes in the morning count as physical activity. Jogging around the block for another 10 minutes later in the evening also counts as physical activity.
Adopting some or all of these strategies will have you on track to a healthy you. You will look great, feel good, have more energy to live life to the fullest and the health benefits are an added bonus. Don’t overwhelm yourself by trying to incorporate all of these changes in one month, give yourself the whole of 2013 to work on it. That way you won’t give up before you even get through with the beginning like I have done with my Bible reading project.