7 New Year's Resolutions That Will Actually Help You Lose Weight

7 New Year's Resolutions That Will Actually Help You Lose Weight

 7 Smartest Changes you can make

1. Find a physical activity that you enjoy

Every New Year, people purchase expensive memberships to gyms, workout studios, and online fitness programs in hopes of shedding excess body fat in the year to come. Though most people start strong, the majority don’t make their new routine into a lasting habit.

Still, you can increase the chances of making your fitness resolutions stick. To get started, choose an activity based on enjoyment and whether it fits into your schedule.

For example, taking a half-hour walk, jog, or bike ride before work, or swimming at a gym that’s on your way home, are simple and sustainable exercise resolutions.

Then, set an attainable goal, such as planning to walk a few specific days per week instead of aiming for every day.

Making a more realistic goal can enhance the chances of making your new routine last, especially if you’re new to working out.

2. Cut back on sweetened beverages

Cutting back on sweetened beverages is a smart idea considering that sugary drinks are linked to an increased risk of obesity, fatty liver, heart disease, insulin resistance, and cavities in both children and adults (5Trusted Source, 6Trusted Source, 7Trusted Source, 8Trusted Source, 9Trusted Source).

Though quitting sweetened beverages cold turkey is always an option, gradually minimizing your intake may help you kick your sugary drink habit for good.

3. Spend more time outside

Spending more time outdoors can improve health by relieving stress, elevating mood, and even lowering blood pressure (18Trusted Source).

Making a New Year’s resolution to spend more time outside every day is a sustainable and healthy goal that can benefit most everyone, no matter where you live.

Taking a walk outside during your lunch break, hiking on weekends, going camping with friends, or simply soaking in the beauty of your backyard or local park are all ways to incorporate nature into your daily routine.

4. Add more produce to your diet 

Adding more cooked and raw vegetables and fruits to your diet can go a long way towards improving your health in the new year.

Numerous studies have shown that eating a diet rich in produce helps protect against various illnesses, such as diabetes, heart diseases, certain cancers, and obesity, as well as overall mortality (30Trusted Source, 31Trusted Source).

5. Eat More Whole Food

One of the least demanding and most practical approaches to improve generally speaking wellbeing is to eat all the more whole food. 

Whole food, including vegetables, natural products, nuts, seeds, entire grains, and fish, contain a plenty of supplements that your body needs to work at an ideal level. 

Research shows that following an whole food based eating regimen may altogether diminish coronary illness hazard factors, body weight, and glucose levels, just as abatement your danger of specific ailments, for example, type 2 diabetes (1Trusted Source, 2Trusted Source, 3Trusted Source) 

Also, adding all the more whole food to your eating regimen should be possible gradually and reliably. For instance, in case you're not used to eating vegetables, start by including one serving of your preferred veggie to your eating routine consistently.

6. Cut back on alcohol 

Though alcohol can certainly fit into a healthy diet, imbibing too often can negatively affect your health. What’s more, drinking alcohol frequently may keep you from reaching your health and wellness goals (32Trusted Source).

If you think cutting back on alcohol may be helpful for you, set a reasonable goal to keep yourself on track, such as limiting drinking to weekend nights only or setting a drink limit for the week.

If you need a non-alcoholic beverage idea to replace your usual cocktail of choice, try fruit-infused sparkling water, kombucha, or one of these fun mocktails.

7.  Visit your doctor 

Getting examined regularly by your healthcare practitioner is important for many reasons. Having regular blood work and necessary screenings can help spot potential problems before they turn into something more serious.

Though your pace of doctor’s visits depends on many things, including the type of medical care, your age, and your medical history, most experts recommend seeing your primary care physician at least once a year for a checkup.

The bottom line

Though most New Year’s resolutions are only kept for a short period, the healthy resolutions listed above are sustainable ways to improve your physical and emotional health that can be followed for life.

Creating a healthier relationship with food and taking better care of your body and mind can drastically improve your health in various ways.

This New Year, try out a few of the resolutions in this article to help make this year — and the years that follow — the healthiest and happiest possible.