10 tips to help you achieve your New Year’s health goals

With the New Year comes the opportunity for a fresh start. For many people, this means leading a healthier lifestyle and losing weight. If this is your goal, follow these tips to stay on track.Find your motivation. What is motivating you to lose weight? Do you want to look better in your clothes, feel more energetic, or simply improve your health? Get clear about what you want, and then use that to inspire you throughout your journey. Have a plan. If you were to go on a long road trip, you wouldn’t just jump in the car and go. If you did, you would arrive hungry, tired, and fatigued. That’s the same way you’d feel if you jumped into a whole new lifestyle with no planning. Outline the changes you want to implement and decide how you’ll fit them into your schedule. Keep in mind that it may be best to take steps rather than tackle everything at once.Make Goals Goals help measure progress. If you don’t know where you want to end up, you won’t really know how to get there. When making your goals, you need to make SMART goals: Specific Measurable Attainable Realistic Timely Track what you eat. Looking closely at what you eat is often an eye-opening experience. You don’t have to do it for the rest of your life, but it is a great habit to start. Tracking will help you tweak your diet so that you can still enjoy foods you love without sabotaging your weight loss or healthy eating efforts.Eat breakfast every day. Surely you’ve heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It is! Eat a big healthy breakfast as early as possible. It will give you more energy, lead you to make healthier choices during the day, and keep you feeling full so you eat less later on.Fill up on vegetables. Vegetables are filled with nutrients, water, fiber, and very few calories. If you fill half of your plate with vegetables, you’ll get fuller faster and cut down your calories without feeling deprived.Exercise. In order to burn calories at a faster rate and build a healthy body, you’ll need to incorporate exercise into your life. Take it slow at first, and then increase your time and/or intensity once you feel comfortable.Be prepared for lapses. A lapse is when you temporarily “fall off the wagon.” This is a normal part of the process; no one is perfect. It is important for you to take a moment to recognize that you got sidetracked, but don’t use it as an excuse to throw in the towel. Every day is a new chance to start over, so return to your healthy lifestyle immediately. For more tips go to www.fitday.com