Happy New Year!

Happy 2012!!!  I hope you’ve had a great start to your new year :)
 
It’s the time of year for resolutions and promises and good intentions.  Don’t let those positive ideals get away from you as the weeks go by.  While I believe it is possible to make resolutions and stick with them, it’s also easy to let life get in the way.  I challenge you think big picture in 2012 about health and wellness.  Trust me, I want to lose the same 10 pounds you do, but if you focus on eating food as fuel and be active as much as possible, you’ll reap many benefits!

So, I offer to you a list of five ideas to try and implement in 2012.  It doesn’t have to be a “resolution” if you don’t like that phrase and you don’t have to start executing these concepts today, but do think about what good health means to you!

1. Get your current health “state of affairs.”  Visit your physician and get the baseline of your health numbers.  Many of you may see your doctor for a yearly physical (good for you!) but I’m betting several of you haven’t seen a doctor in years.  Finally getting to know my numbers is how I found out my LDL (bad) cholesterol was high several years ago.  Even though I had been overweight for a while, finding out my body was struggling to function normally motivated me to finally take action.

2. Move.  You’ve probably heard these things before and now is the time to listen and act.  Park in the back of the parking lot and walk.  Take stairs over elevators and escalators.  Walk one errand a week during nice weather.  Get up and walk or run or get outside before dinner.  Sign up for a race.  Do squats in the shower or while cooking dinner.  Make the act of moving a core part of your life.

Build your own healthy salad!  My creation included:
chicken, walnuts, goat cheese, raspberries and apple
served over mixed greens with a splash of balsamic
vinaigrette dressing.  

3. Track your food and drink intake.  Take note of all food and drink you consume during a day, a week or a month.  It’s very interesting to see exactly what you ate during a given time period.  Most important, be honest.  If you snacked on chips mid-afternoon, grabbed a mocha latte on the way home and had a few cookies once you got home, write it all down.  There’s no reason to feel ashamed of how you eat.  You have to first be able to recognize exactly how you do eat on a day-to-day basis to decide if you need to make any tweaks or do a complete overhaul.  Knowledge is power; use the information you gathered to make good decisions in the future. I’ve tracked what I eat in a day for several years now.  It doesn’t mean I eat perfectly then because I track it; it means I’m informed of my choices and use it as a guide of when to say no, when to make change and to track the positives.  If I had an especially good training session or race, I check what I ate during that week to learn what fuel worked best for me.

4. Eat protein.  I don’t count calories; however, I do read labels to see what ingredients are included in the food I eat and how many nutrients I’m getting from the food.  I look for a balance between carbohydrates and protein, lower sodium items and foods without trans-fat and minimal saturated fats.  A common component of food that people tend to skip right over is protein.  When you work out, and especially when you strength train, protein steps in to help repair muscle.  More lean muscle means more metabolism attacking fat.  Look for foods that are good sources of protein to work into your diet.  Lean meats, fish, greek yogurt, nuts and legumes can be great sources of protein.

5. Make time for hobbies.  Does gardening make you feel productive and give you a sense of accomplishment?  Do you like to play a round of golf with friends every now and then?  When you do an activity you enjoy, just for the satisfaction of the activity, you’re getting a great mental boost.  Hobbies should not be a back burner activity that you do once every year or even just once.  Make time to do activities you like!  An important part of health and wellness is having positive mental health.  I love to sew and I want to spend more time in 2012 dedicated to this hobby.

There are so many other health and wellness ideas you can implement in 2012! Take the time to make it an important part of your life :)

Miss FitGab