As the new year approaches, I don’t know about you, but my winter body is in full swing. So I’ve taken a step back to assess my health choices a bit and make some needed adjustments.
I think everyone’s biggest mistake when it comes to living a healthier lifestyle is often making changes too drastic to maintain long term. It’s not realistic to think that come January 1 you’re going to workout 1-2 hours a day and eat nothing but healthy food. While that is a good goal to strive for, those drastic changes are going to be hard to stick to and frankly hard to enjoy.
Getting healthier does not happen overnight and does not have to be a huge inconvenience, simple choices over time can end up being big changes in the long run.
DIET CHANGES
Your dietary changes are probably the most important to consider, and should be your starting point.
It goes without saying that the holidays bring all the best carbs to the table, and after having 3 Thanksgivings myself this year, carbs are where I’m going to start. I don’t go cold turkey and cut them out completely, but I monitor them. This can be as easy as planning your meals out and only having one meal with carbs such as rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes or bread. While trying to keep your other meals carb free, and eating less of things such as cereals and other refined carbs and sugars.
With carbs being a smaller part of your diet now, its time to add more protein and fat in order to feel full and get the nutrients you need. I find adding more meat, eggs, avocados, and nuts to my diet help me from feeling hungry.
And the last tip is to keep fruit on hand. Sweets are almost always my downfall especially at the end of the night. The more you eat fruit when you’re craving something sweet the more it will feel like you’re satisfying that craving, keeping you from searching for chocolate chips in the pantry.
SUPPLEMENTS
After you’ve made dietary changes you believe you can maintain, it’s time to tackle the next step, supplements.
If you’ve perfected the diet part of this you may not even need to add any supplements, but spiffing up your daily vitamin/supplement routine never hurts. Whether you’re looking to add more protein, more Vitamin C for cold season or even Vitamin A to improve hair health, KBA has a supplement for you. All of our supplements are powdered and can be added to most meals, beverages etc.
Don’t go buy tubs and tubs of protein powder or diet pills. Spend your money on only what your body needs based on your goals. Slow and steady lifestyle changes will still lead you to your goals, having crazy strict rules on your self won’t make for a fun new year or new you.
Paige Peterson