Buy a Better Toothbrush
Get Your Checkups
This year, you need to get all of your health checkups taken care of and a health profile wrapped up with your doctor. Ask what kind of test and blood work she recommends, and start making appointments. Be sure to get your teeth and eyes checked, too.
Move More
Invest in a fitness tracker and use the first week's numbers as a baseline. Increase the number of steps you take or miles walked a little every week. Find ways to pack in more movement in your day, especially if you have an office job. You don't have to go to a gym or even wear workout clothes. Just move!
Stop Driving
You might need a car to get to work or to go see your mom who needs your help. But figure out ways to use your car less, and bike or walk more.
Stop Dieting
Dieting is the best way to gain weight. Ask anyone who has ever been on a diet, successful or otherwise. Instead, this year make a resolution to change the way you eat—for life. Consider approaching food without a sense of deprivation. Instead, eat fats, which make you feel full, and cut back on sugar, which spikes your insulin and makes you feel hungry.
Cut Out Carbs
Sugar has the strange effect of not filling us up and making us hungrier than we were to start with. Being mindful of carbs intake is a big step toward changing the way you eat. If you love bread and sweets, make sure you're not reducing them to the point of feeling deprived. But moderation, or even less than moderation, might be what you need to meet the health goals you have.
Eat More Fat
Fats are back! After 40 years of stripping them from our eating routines, fats are the new golden child of eating for weight loss, hair and nail growth, and general health. This doesn't mean an all-fried-foods menu. But it means not being afraid of bacon (in moderation) and eating cheeseburgers (as long as the bun is lettuce).
