My TOP 5 health goals you should be aiming for in 2023
Let's throw out elimination diets and what we “should” remove from our lives and focus on what we can add in to improve our health!
1. Count your veggies!
Depending on where you are at with consuming vegetables will depend on where you need to start!
Try adding 1 or 2 extra vegetables each meal or even replacing a snack with a vegetable snack! I have so many suggestions for this that I may need to do a separate post!
If you are already pretty good with your vegetables, I challenge you to increase your variation of vegetables and legumes, maybe plan one meal a week where you add a different vegetable into your meal! Research shows that increasing the variation of vegetables and legumes significantly improves your gut health, and the benefits of good GUT health well that is another post also! Watch this space!
2. Eat breakfast! Repeat after me! I will eat breakfast!
We have great research (not funded by breakfast cereal companies!) that demonstrates that eating breakfast is so important for regulating blood sugar throughout the day! It can also help reduce the 3pm pick me up binge urge! There is also evidence to show that making breakfast your biggest meal of the day can aid long term weight loss!
3. Improve your sleep hygiene
SLEEP! Is so important for our mental and physical health! I can NOT stress this enough. I promise you, if you focus on improving your sleep then you will find an additional power to combat other things during the day! Lack of sleep = binge eating all too often! Or reaching for the lolly jar to try and perk yourself up!
So some suggestions here:
Try for a consistent wake up time!
Don’t force yourself to sleep at night but give yourself the best opportunity by making your surroundings very relaxing and sleep appropriate:
Turn of devices well before you want to sleep
Reduce lighting
Use relaxing scents
Use relaxing sounds
Read etc
4. Add Steps and Fresh air
Every day! Even if you are a super exerciser! You should be doing this one! This is about moving in a really peaceful and enjoyable way! Not all workouts and exercise need to cover us in sweat and blow our heart rates out! So no matter what step target you are currently hitting or if you have never had a step target, I highly recommend doing this! The current recommendation in Australia is 10,000 steps per day, however this is an average and you need to be realistic with yourself!
5. Add white space into your day
Start adding white space into your day! What do I mean by this? Allow spaces in your day for absolutely nothing! Yes that right! We actually need white space! If you look at this blog for example, there is some writing and photos but between the writing and edges and images there is “nothing” or “white space” in order to be able to read this and not be overwhelmed we needs spaces of nothing! This is the same for your days and life! So don’t beat yourself up for doing nothing! You need it! Your brain needs it! The hardest thing people find with this goal is ACTUALLY DOING NOTHING!!! So some suggestions for you to try and see what works for you!
Sitting down for a cup of tea outside! No devices
Laying on the floor or couch with some music playing
Pat your pet
Sit anywhere and take in your surroundings! Like really consciously! Think about all your senses when you are taking it in!
I hope this inspires you to work on adding health elements to your life that will have great flow on health benefits and provide further foundations for you to build on!
AFP provide consultations to help our clients improve their health outcomes by setting really specific goals. We also provide follow up for when at some point you fall off the bandwagon! We believe here at AFP you should never expect to be 100% consistent with any goal you set, especially at the start. In this early period of goal setting, you have not yet created a positive habit and naturally it won't happen at times. It is about consistently re- implementing the same goal until it does become a habit and we can help you with this!
