1/9/16

Maia Daschke

With every new year comes a new chance to start over. A majority of people set new year resolutions for themselves in order to improve and grow as a person. Many of these resolutions are centered around new health habits, such as eating healthy and upping the daily workout routine. While doing both of these simultaneously after a lazy last year may seem too hard to handle, researchers everywhere have proposed the best way to tackle these ominous resolutions.

To start, eating healthy does not mean that you have to change your entire life and go vegan forever (unless that’s what you want, then you do you). Rather, it means looking for healthier alternatives, like eating a bag of carrots at lunch rather than a bag of chips. It could also mean embedding yourself into the cooking world and looking towards healthier recipes with organic ingredients; maybe even taking a cooking class with your friends! Buy ingredients that look delicious and cut them and store them into planned meals for the week, so even when you’re in a grab-n’-go situation, you have something aside from McDonald’s to grab. Plan your meals for the week and try new things. Don’t eat extra calories out of boredom or drink your calories in coffee or soda. But also, don’t cut out everything that’s not a fruit or vegetable. Everything in moderation is the biggest key to a healthy lifestyle. The more you make eating healthy fun and interesting, the more likely you are to stick to it.

When it comes to exercise, start by getting yourself a local gym membership and working gym time into your schedule. This doesn’t mean you must go every single day for three hours, but try to go for an hour or two on days that you have some time to kill, or even a half hour on busier days. Sometimes going to the gym does seem like a chore, but there are ways to make it more interesting. For example, you could buy some cute gym clothes that will serve as motivation to get you there, or enroll in a zumba or spinning class with a friend. Take a yoga class, which has been proven to drive down stress levels and improve mental health. Most importantly, experts say not to set goals that are too hard to handle right away. Begin by setting goals like, “Run 20 minutes on the treadmill,” or, “go to the gym five times this week.” Setting easily achievable goals will more likely lead you to success.

With the new year, I also gave myself this exact resolution-lose weight, eat better, and just be healthy. Healthy does not mean look good in a bikini, it means feel good about yourself. Be happy mentally, and be comfortable with how you look, despite what other people may think. Healthy also does not mean lose 10 pounds in one week; it means gradually lose weight (if that’s your goal) in a healthy way, like eating well and going for a jog every day. Forget diets and cleanses-those are not good for you and won’t permanently keep the weight off. If you follow this advice and keep your head up, this resolution will seem like a piece of cake.