Tips to Start the Year with Lots of Energy and Health
The holidays are wonderful and allow us to gather with family and friends. After the holidays, it is common to devise routines and habits to improve our health in the new year.
Weight loss and exercise are among the most common purposes. “Weight control consists of understanding the genetic component, as well as our fight with willpower,” says Dr. Jeffeea Dr. Gullet, primary care physician at Houston Methodist Hospital. “Losing weight can be very difficult.” With that in mind, Dr. Gullet gives us some tips to stay healthy after the holidays.
Stop bad habits
To change unhealthy habits, Dr. Gullet recommends taking a cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) approach to become aware of our thoughts and habits around health.
“It is important to be aware of our diet,” explains the specialist. “The first step to improving our decisions is to recognize the impact of emotions and behaviors on our health.”
Detecting all those “meaningless” habits is important. Analyzing our eating behavior can be the start of a healthy new year. Once you have identified thoughts and patterns that drive you to eat unhealthy foods, make a plan to interrupt those behaviors before they occur.
Dr. Gullet suggests posting a “Smart Swap” list on your refrigerator to remind us that we should choose an apple instead of French fries, for example.
Build a healthy lifestyle
Being healthy goes beyond losing weight. In fact, experts say losing weight should be a beneficial side effect of being healthy.
“When you choose a walk instead of dessert, you are developing healthy habits that become a lifestyle over time," explains the Houston Hospital specialist.
These are the steps to follow to get started:
1. Set smart and realistic goals. To make sure you're making progress, set smart goals, meaning: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound. For example: Walk briskly on a treadmill for 45 minutes, five days a week, for the next 30 days.
2. Opt for healthy food options. When it comes to nutrition, there is a lot misinformation on the web and fad diets can harm your health.
Better follow these realistic feeding tips:
• Avoid processed foods and sugar.
• Don't count calories.
• Eat more plant-based foods: fruits, vegetables, beans and lentils.
• Give priority to fiber in your diet.
3. Exercise five days a week. Try to do at least 30 minutes of exercise per day, at least five times a week. Incorporate both resistance training and cardio, maintaining an elevated heart rate (180 minus your age). Your effort level should be high enough that it is difficult to maintain a stable conversation. Walking, running, cycling and swimming are great cardiovascular exercises.
If efforts to stay healthy at home are unsuccessful, it may help to talk with a primary care doctor and evaluate your weight loss process together; he will tell you if it would even benefit you to approach a weight loss specialist.