By Wesley Weight Management Clinic
If you are hoping to make 2010 a year of good health, here are some tips to put on your list of New Year’s resolutions:
1. Make Time for Exercise
Regular activity improves your mood and wellbeing. Plus there are a host of cardiovascular benefits including decreased blood pressure, decreased heart rate and improvements in your good cholesterol levels.
2. Skip the Fries but Not your Meals
Eating every couple of hours over the day will ensure that you don’t get hungry. People who skip meals tend to snack on convenient, unhealthy foods such as takeaway meals, biscuits and chocolate for an energy boost.
3. Balance your Life
Make time for yourself every day – regardless of your work and family commitments. Start by taking 10 minutes to sit and eat your lunch without distractions.
4. Get Enough Sleep
Being tired puts you at risk of making inappropriate food choices. Make your bedroom an inviting place to be with new linen, and ensure that your window coverings can block out the early morning sun.
5. Cut out Unnecessary Fats and Sugars
Ditch soft drinks, fried takeaway meals and cakes and slices. Keep them for special occasions when they will really be seen as a ‘treat’.
6. Moderate your Alcohol Intake
Current guidelines suggest a maximum of two standard drinks per day over a lifetime.
7. Take Time to Relax
Listen to music, take a nap, develop a wind down routine before bedtime, read a book or schedule regular massages.
8. Eat Superfoods
Oily fish such as salmon, tuna and mackerel, broccoli, blueberries and almonds are all recognised for their super nutritional properties – be sure to include them in your diet.
9. Say No to Other People and Yes to Yourself
Continuously placing other people’s priorities above your own may leave you resentful and with little time to focus on your own needs and goals. Offer to help at a time that suits you, or make a compromise that will enable both parties to get what they want.
10. Get an Annual Health Check-up
When was the last time you saw the doctor to prevent becoming unwell? A yearly check up can pinpoint an expanding waistline, elevated cholesterol or glucose levels, rising blood pressure or declining fitness. Catching these symptoms early means you address them before they become a serious condition.