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Health Tips For New Year: Make these realistic resolutions for a Healthier 2021

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The new year always feels like a fresh start. Many find this to be the ideal time to grow into a better version of themselves by inculcating healthy habits. These habits can range from anything — from more working out, to eating less packaged foods and sleeping more. A common problem with resolutions is that people often overshoot their own expectations of what they can accomplish. These are false or unrealistic resolutions that do not define what a genuinely healthy lifestyle represents.

Not only can false resolutions create a misleading image of what health looks like, but also harm your self-esteem when you are not able to live up to them. How does one identify unrealistic health tips and resolutions? A resolution that makes you feel like staying in bed each time you are meant to act on it is probably unrealistic for you. Luckily, the art of making realistic resolutions is much simpler than it seems. Here are a few health tips to try adding as part of a new year's resolution.

1. Include more whole foods into your diet

Whole foods like whole grains, fibrous fruits and vegetables, nuts, lentils, and more are key to a healthy lifestyle. Not only do these foods aid in improving longevity, but they also help with maintaining or losing weight. Fiber is essential for a healthy gut and adequate digestion. The more you incorporate whole foods into your diet, the more benefits you will see trickle beyond your physical health. For instance, a diet of whole foods is also known to aid in regulating one’s mood. The reason this resolution is more realistic than simply ‘eating healthier’ is that it works on a sliding scale. It is easy to act on resolutions that build up a habit gradually rather than jumping straight into a lifestyle change altogether.

2. Strengthen your financial portfolio

Just like one strengthens their body through physical activity, and their mind through building a new skill, strengthening your financial future is just as crucial. A healthy portfolio is described by experts as diverse with a good balance of risk and reward that is suited to one’s preferences. Instruments like mutual funds, health insurance , life insurance, market investments, and more all make up a diverse portfolio.

Not only is one securing themselves against health and financial adversity through an instrument like health insurance, but also starting to grow their wealth through equity investments in funds or direct shares. The ideal way to know where your portfolio is lacking is to have a professional take a look at it, against what your long-term goals are. Any loopholes can be covered by reallocating one’s investments in the ratio that is best suited to one’s lifestyle.

3. Understand your favorite physical activity

Physical activity is essential when it comes to your wellbeing. Exercise can often seem daunting or frustrating. However, it will only feel that way if one looks at it as a task, rather than a time to play and re-energize oneself. Understand your favorite kind of physical activity so you can be well equipped for consistency in the new year. Resolutions are all about being consistent, so the sooner you figure out where your preference for exercise — be it in powerlifting or football, you will enjoy it. This resolution is far better than simply trying to ‘exercise more’ because it helps you find the means of exercise that you love.

4. Aim for sufficient sleep

Sleeping well and enough is rare in today’s world, where screens dominate lifestyles and affect the average person’s circadian rhythm significantly. Quality sleep involves deep sleep as well as Rapid Eye Movement sleep recommended phases which is within eight-hour phases for most people. Deep sleep is very hard to wake up from and is essential for the repair of one’s bodytissues, boosting one’s immune function, and the build-up of energy for the next day.

5. Practice more mindfulness

In a world that is constantly flooded with a stimulus, being scatterbrained becomes the default for many. A distracted brain is not only unproductive but also unhappy. Mindfulness is the state of being present or to be in the moment, no matter the task one is carrying out. Mindfulness need not be daily meditation at a fixed slot. Instead, it looks like a deeper awareness of one’s experiences throughout the day. From taking a walk to talking on the phone with a friend, mindfulness involves being aware of one’s thoughts, feelings, and any sensory experiences that one is experiencing at that moment. This practice has been shown to aid in the management of anxiety and depression, for an overall healthy lifestyle.

Conclusion

Not only can false resolutions create a misleading image of what health looks like, but also harm your self-esteem when you are not able to live up to them. How does one identify unrealistic health tips and resolutions? A resolution that makes you feel like staying in bed each time you are meant to act on it is probably unrealistic for you. Ensure you make safe, healthy, and realistic resolutions this year.