Keeping Up With Your Healthy New Year's Resolutions!

It's that time of year to start making changes in our lives for the better. Many people will have resolutions involving health, yet more often than not they are not able to keep up with the resolutions they make with a hopeful vigor on an optimistic New Year's Eve. Here are some tips to consider when making resolutions concerning diet and exercise:

1. Consider why you are making this change; if it's so that you can look good in a bathing suit in Cancun over spring break, unfortunately the odds are that you are not going to have enough internal motivation to keep up with your lifestyle changes. That's what becoming healthy really is, after all- a lifestyle change. You have to want to change for the right reasons. You have to want to become healthy for YOU.
2. Remember that the key to losing weight is not through exercise- the key to LOSING weight is mainly through a well-balanced diet that restricts calories so that you are in a caloric deficit. That is the bottom line to losing weight: YOU NEED TO BE OUTPUTTING MORE CALORIES THAN YOU ARE TAKING IN. Keep this in mind before you buy that gym membership. Maybe you can take the money you were planning on using for a gym membership and put it into investing in more wholesome foods that you really do enjoy.
3. Do try to find yourself an activity that you really, really enjoy doing that will keep you active. While exercise may not be imperative in losing weight, it is essential if you want to maintain weight loss. Not to mention exercising has other amazing side-effects such as (but not limited to) lowering blood pressure, reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, etc. So if you don't like the gym find another way to get moving like joining a Hula Hoop class. If you don't have enough time in your busy life to do something like that, making lifestyle changes like parking further away from your destination or using stairs instead of an elevator are also extremely easy ways to become a little more active without even realizing it!

Have a Happy and Healthy New Year, All!
xoxo, Keely