New year, new you?

At this stage in January many peoples new years resolutions are beginning to wane. Here are my top tips on becoming the healthier you that you are striving to be:

1) Diets don't work (in the long term)! The whole idea of a diet is flawed: eat differently or barely anything at all for a set period of time and you will lose weight, yes correct, however when most people finish their diet they go back to what they used to eat and will quickly put the weight back on. 

If you want the weight to stay off then you need to make achievable long term changes to what you eat, don't tell yourself you will never eat chocolate again; that will never happen (not for me anyway!). Try to eat meals that are going to fill you up until the next meal, and if you do get peckish swap fruit and nuts for crisps and chocolate. At breakfast change from sugary cereals to slow releasing carbs (e.g. porridge) or protein (e.g. eggs). Finally don't eat too late at night - a recent 'Trust me, I'm a doctor' episode on BBC2 found that the later you eat the longer your blood sugar and fat levels stay elevated for. 

2) Look at labels. You have probably heard this a lot over recent years but studying labels gives you a lot of control over what you are putting into your body. Have a look at the ingredient list, not just the nutritional information on the front, it can be really interesting and sometimes scary what the manufacturers put in our food. Also be aware that the fat in 'reduced fat' products is often replaced with sugar. 

3) Pick a type of exercise that you like. If you enjoy a particular activity you are more likely to continue to do it in the long term. When you start your chosen exercise don't expect that you will be as good at it as when you last did it 5 years ago, you most likely won't be and then you will be bitterly disappointed or your body will complain and pick up an injury. Both of which may cause you to give it up. Finally, at this time of year, picking an outdoor sport is really difficult to keep up; you have to be supremely motivated to go out for a run when it's windy, rainy and freezing cold. It will be far easier to start in the spring when the weather picks up (hopefully) and the daylight lengthens, then you get the bug and next winter you won't care about the rain! 

4) If you pick up an injury doing your new sport get it treated quickly, don't just try to ignore it. This will get you back to doing what you love more quickly and will prevent the injury turning into something worse further down the line.  

Here's to a happy, healthy 2016!