It’s the time of the year again when we make resolution for one of our most challenging goal to achieve, fit body. Come another new year, and with full enthusiasm we promise ourselves to meet our health goals by following a set regime throughout the year. Yes, January is a good month to make health resolution, but February is not far behind and neither are the ensuing months, when for most of us health tends to take a backseat amidst family/friends get together, celebrations, festivals, travel and other occasions; wherein, we indulge, we feast, only to shift our health goals again to next year.
But can we really improve our health if we keep procrastinating in hope to achieve the goal the next year? Highly doubtful. To look at it in another way: though everybody does realise that with each passing year we will have more body weight and equally more inches to lose from our waistline, yet we fail to stick to our health goals because we make big resolutions in the first place. We are too quick to make resolution and equally quick to give up on it.
Trust me, we don’t need to pledge on one-hour gymming or go on a strict diet at the beginning of the year, instead we should ease into our health routine by making some minor and doable changes. Last year I consciously tried these small changes to see huge difference in my health by end of year. So, here’s my list of small doable goals that will ultimately lead to good health.
1. Be mindful of what goes into your mouth. If you are consuming calorie-dense food on special occasions or outings, cut it down on other days. Avoid buffets, instead go for a la carte when eating outside. Try to wash down food with plain water, instead of fizzy drinks.
2. Tweak a bit in your style of exercise. If walking daily is your exercise routine, do so before breakfast. This will help you to burn fat fast as body use stored fat for the energy required for exercise. Ditch the habit of talking to someone over mobile while walking as it diverts the attention and slows you down. You can use your mobile for listening to music though, which is in fact recommended as it reduce distraction and improves your pace. Walking as a health regime can be done anywhere, anytime and is also the most inexpensive way to keep you fit. Consciously take small, rapid steps while walking with arms swinging front and back, something like march-past; you will yourself notice that it engages more muscles in your body than a leisure walk.
3. If walking daily becomes boring, alternate it with cycling. Cycling is a low-impact exercise which involves all major muscles of your body as you pedal and helps reduce overall body fat. It is supposed to be a good exercise for knees too. Alternatively, try running but do invest in good pair of shock-absorbing running shoes. If you are a gym person, break its monotony by working out with your friend, for it will motivate you to exercise harder and longer. You can also try meditation or yoga as a primary form of exercise which not only help sculpt the body but are proven to reduce stress, anxiety.
4. Always remember that a snack is a snack and a treat is a treat, and never mix these two. So, to beat those 12pm and 4 pm cravings, always grab a healthy snack option: like fruit, nuts, yogurt instead of processed snacks. This not only satiate the cravings; which BTW according to researches last only for 15 minutes, but can provide you with fibre, vitamins, minerals rather than empty calories.
5. Move around more often: A simple activity like walking to a nearby shop for your grocery needs rather than ordering it online can help burn calories. Other simple things which you can try are: Park your car at a distance from your destination to walk more. Use stairs instead of elevators wherever you can. Dance to your favourite song. Also, if yours is a sitting job, consciously do short burst of activities which requires you to move around or better still, learn some office stretches to release stress form your body.
6. Our health goals usually go for a toss during holiday travels; and why not, after all one interesting aspect of travel is trying new food. So in this scenario in order to stay pink in health you have to get little creative; whenever you travel carry along some play items with you; frisbee, skipping rope, bat-ball, badminton rackets etc. will keep you moving even during holiday. Every hotel/resort has recreation room whose facilities you can utilise. If it’s a family trip, play group games like kho-kho, beach volley-ball, ring toss, tug-of-war etc. In case you are staying at some beach resort, don’t miss to go for a run on the beach early in the morning. This will not only burn your fat but gives you an opportunity to take Instagram worthy pictures of the rising sun too, bonus isn’t it?
So, these are my top 6 tips to get started on creating a healthy change, one step at a time.
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Good to see that you have covered and discussed this issue with helpful suggestions, being a physical exercise enthusiast(to some extent a body builder) i always try to make people aware of their good health and fit body.
Few little changes, like, bringing the grocery materials by walking, are really fruitful ones.
Loved reading this post.
These goals are certainly easy to implement. I especially like your point about “snacks being snacks and not treats”. Thank you for sharing.
We like to set goals but are usually very unrealistic about them. It’s important to break a big goal inti smaller steps. You have presented nice views over why we fail. Great job.
Its an interesting article to read. Everything written is so true. I like where you have mentioned ‘snack is a snack and a treat is a treat’ Thanks for sharing this post.
Indeed this things are doable as I personally follow all of them and could feel positive change in myself.
I agree with you, it is better to watch on what we intake rather than making resolutions which we might not fulfill at the end.
Small Doable and workable Goals is totally my thing. and its easier to keep a track of development, great tops and tips