Healthy resolutions that don’t just involve losing weight

AT the top of your New Year goals should be a commitment to overhaul your diet and explore routines to stay healthy. Dietician and nutritionist Jenelle Solomon has outlined health resolutions below, outside of weight loss, that you should aim to achieve this year:

Reduce sodium intake

Try to reduce the amount of salt that you add to your food. Among the most common diseases causing death are cardiovascular diseases and hypertension, which are influenced and exacerbated by the levels of salt intake.

Stop consuming so much unsaturated and trans fat

You want to reconsider the amount of red meat and fried foods that you eat. Apart from their role in building unhealthy cholesterol, there is also the issue of unhealthy fat.

Cut back on the sugar

Sugars play a pivotal role in the development of many harmful diseases such as diabetes. Processed sugar, in particular, is very dangerous, and so you might want to opt for whole foods.

Eat balanced meals

You should aim for balanced meals that go through a healthy preparation process — so opt for more home-cooked meals. Package these for lunch, and avoid the unhealthy stuff sold at the canteen. In between meals, choose fruits, nuts and raw vegetables as opposed to chips and other unhealthy choices.

And clinical psychologist Dr Pearnel Bell said that health is a process that does not only include conditions covered by medical doctors.

“Psychologists believe that for individuals to live fulfilling lives they must fulfil their life tasks. The life tasks are work/career, relationships/love and health and spiritual life. It would be very useful in setting goals for the New Year to set goals as it relates to these life tasks. The individual could examine all these life tasks and see where there may be a need for improvement and then develop a goal improvement strategy,” Dr Bell said.

Career/work

There are so many goals that could cause rejuvenation and improvement in the way an individual approaches the New Year; for example, wanting a promotion, going back to school, a shift in career, wanting to be more organised and better time management.

Relationships

“You want to foster better work relationships and personal relationships, and increase social engagements that will lead to more wholesome friendships,” Dr Bell said. She acknowledged that social engagement is important to achieving balance in life and will help to promote happiness in your daily life.

Health

“You will want to exercise more, meditate, be positive, release pent-up anger, learn how to say no and take better care of your mental and physical health,” Dr Bell advised.

Spiritual

“Religion and spirituality are important to every individual. So whether it is that you want to be closer to God, showing more social interest by taking care of the needs of others, doing more outreach in the community or even meditating and praying, this could form a large part of those healthy attainable goals you want for 2017,” Dr Bell pointed out.

She said that a goal as simple as kicking a bad habit such as smoking, video game playing or excessive use of technology are also healthy choices that could be explored. However, she pointed out that each person will know what their issues are and place them under the appropriate life task.