I can’t remember a year where ‘losing weight’ or ‘getting healthier/fit’ wasn’t one of my New Year Resolutions!  

The start of a new year tends to bring us all a sense of hope... hope for a better body, a better job/career, love, marriage, children, etc. etc. It’s an excitement that has us all aspiring to do more and be more. 

One main detail to remember this year is that we cannot keep doing the same thing and expect different results. To achieve a new goal, you have to be willing and ready to move away from your comfort zone and take on new challenges.

With that in mind, here are 5 ways to live a healthier lifestyle in 2019: 

1)    Make Small, Realistic Changes

Living a healthy lifestyle is not something that can happen overnight. It takes time, patience and determination (especially when first starting). People often get carried away and take drastic steps which in reality is too excessive to maintain and can lead to disappointment and failure.

Start slow and work your way to harder goals. For example, if you are new to the fitness world, start walking daily or doing 10-20 minute home workouts for beginners.  If you are trying to change your eating habits, start by eating your favorite healthy foods. Whatever it is, continue to make better choices on a daily basis.

The more you continue to practice this routine the easier it will get, and at that point, you can gradually increase your workouts and add different healthy meals to your lifestyle.

2)    Get an AccountabilityPartner ‍

I wrote a blog last year on all the benefits of finding that perfect workout buddy. Having someone available to hold you accountable will help you achieve results sooner. It also gives you that extra motivation to complete workouts and make better eating choices, particularly on the days where you would rather not take the healthier route.

3)    Keep Track of your Progress

Have you ever noticed how things often get done when you write them out and have reminders vs. when you don’t? By keeping track of your progress and writing it down, you can monitor what routines are providing the best results and which ones are affecting your progress. It also ensures you don’t allow a rest day to become a rest week and so forth.  

I found the easiest way to track my progress was by using different fitness apps. My favorite ones are Aaptiv and MyFitnessPal.

Aaptiv allows you to set goals and will track your workouts along the way. The best part is that they also provide different exercises that are fit to meet your goals. The only thing I don’t like about this app is that you have to pay for membership.  

MyFitnessPal is perfect for tracking your calories and workouts together. My favorite thing about this app is that it connects to other electronic devices such as Fitbit or Apple Watch to keep your daily input and output of calories in check and it’s free to use. What I don’t like is that a lot of what I eat (especially Ethiopian/Eritrean dishes) are not listed on the app, which often leaves me having to research the calorie count on different meals.

4)    Meal Prep

Not only will your body thank you, but your wallet will have a huge impact as well. Meal prepping will save you from wasting time, money and calories. It removes temptation and gives you total control of what you are eating while helping you plan out your calories.

5)    Stop being a People-Pleaser

You cannot focus on your happiness when you are worried about everyone else being happy. The minute you decide that your wellbeing comes first is the minute you will feel 100 times lighter from stress and anxiety. It wasn’t until last spring when I started the ‘Yes Challenge’ that I realized how my people-pleasing skills were hurting me. In the end, if you aren’t happy you can’t be healthy.

I hope this blog post helps you or someone you know. If/When you experience setbacks remember to not dwell on it. Just continue to do what you were doing before and move on. The goal here is to create a lifestyle change that is easy to maintain and leaves you feeling fabulous about yourself.

As always, I’d love to hear from you. What will you be doing in 2019 to live a healthier lifestyle? Make sure to leave your comments below.  

Yours,