Happy New Year!
With the new year, comes a refreshed motivation to start making healthier choices. Whilst motivation is a wonderful start, it’s also helpful to understand the basic foundations of a healthy lifestyle. Understanding these steers us away from the endless loop of fad diets and wellness trends, and instead, helps us to bring in an enjoyable and sustainable lifestyle change. For 2023, and the rest of our lives.
It’s All About Balance
To make healthy living easy and enjoyable so that you can continue it for the long-term, I encourage you to adopt a balanced approach.
An “all-or-nothing” mindset will only bring pressure; it makes you feel as though you always have to be ‘perfect’. A balanced approach, on the other hand, takes the pressure off, and leaves room for all your favourite foods in moderation. It allows you to make healthy choices most of the time, but still leaves room for celebration, socialisation and things that bring you joy.
It’s what you do most of the time that counts.
Eat a Variety of Wholefoods
I’m talking about vegetables, fruits, wholegrains, legumes, nuts, seeds, as well as quality lean meat and/or meat alternatives and some dairy and/or dairy alternatives. Eating a variety of wholefoods throughout the week helps you to consume the macro and micronutrients your body needs to thrive.
On top of this, research also shows that eating a variety of plant-based foods (vegetables, fruit, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds) results in a more diverse gut microbiome. In other words, it does amazing things for your gut health!
Build Balanced Meals
Balanced meals are the key to satiety, stable blood glucose levels, increased energy levels and improved digestion.
The photo below gives you an outline on how to build a balanced meal. Aim for half of your plate to be filled with colourful vegetables, a quarter of your plate to be a source of lean protein (e.g. poultry, fish, eggs, beans, tofu, etc.) and the other quarter a source of complex carbohydrates (e.g. whole-wheat bread, pasta, rice, sweet potato, etc.).
Move Your Body
Find a form of exercise that you like and do it regularly. And remember that anything is better than nothing. Each workout doesn’t have to be a personal best, just try to show up and be consistent.
It’s also important not to underestimate incidental exercise. To boost my quota, I regularly walk to local cafe’s, grocery stores and post offices. Normally it would be a 3-5 minute drive, but instead I get in a 4-5km walk and some fresh air.
Get Regular Sleep
A healthy lifestyle isn’t just about nutrition and exercise, but also about sleep and managing stress levels. Sleep is important for our mental and physical functioning, and it’s also easier to make healthy choices when you’re well rested. Aim for 7-9 hours of sleep each night.
Drink Water
Water is essential to most bodily functions, so make sure you’re drinking water throughout the day. Individual hydration requirements can vary with different factors, but generally, women should aim for 8 cups and men should aim for 10 cups. Note: you may need to increase this in hot weather or with intensive exercise.
And that’s it! These basic principles are all you need to live a healthy lifestyle. If you’ve been overwhelmed by the amount of health misinformation that circulates this time of year, I hope this has helped. And if you’re coming to the end of January feeling discouraged with any health goals, remember to be kind of yourself!
Until next time,
Chanté
Share it on Pinterest:
