Happy New Year New-You! ~ YOUR HEALTH with RICK BELLANTI

By: Rick Bellanti – Jan, 2020

Happy New Year everyone, yes that time again when everyone is gearing up with their 2021 New Year’s Resolutions and putting 2020 behind them. The stress from the past year is now behind us, even though we are still in the midst of this unprecedented pandemic.

Yes, we are still trying to be accountable on our own but also helping others by remaining social distanced and wearing a mask in public when we can’t social distance. Everyone’s State has different rules and regulations they are imposing, and now with the vaccines rolling out, it shouldn’t be long till we can get back to some type of normalcy. (We can hope anyway, and just stay positive).

2020 took its toll on us on a healthy wellness journey (I know it affected me greatly, by my business pretty much closing for the year after 20 years). I lost the will power to get to the gym even after they reopened for business, and put on some weight (the 2020 weight gain).

Like everyone else, the New Year brings a time for a new plan and a new clean slate, so here we are. Everyone’s motivation for losing weight, working out and getting into shape will vary, but we all pretty much have the same goal in mind: being healthy. You may have a reason such as an upcoming wedding or class reunion where you want to look your best, or it could be something more serious like a doctor’s warning that you need to get healthier.

Some of the best ways to keep motivated is to find a friend to partner up with and workout together and by making the workouts fun, you will enjoy it together and help motivate each other. Make sure you always have a “before” picture, so you can always see how far you’ve come. Set and track goals; it will help motivate you as you see your progress.

The health benefits of physical activity and regular exercise are hard to ignore. Exercising regularly can boost your energy levels, boost your muscle strength (which boost your endurance levels), helps to build lean muscle which burns fat, exercising burns calories, improve your emotional mood and promote better sleep habits (a huge one for me).

You will feel better about yourself, get around much better and increase your chances of living a longer, healthier life. It doesn’t take much, as a general goal; try to aim for at least thirty to sixty minutes of physical activity every day.

Stay away from crash diets and also, skipping meals are not going to help you and in fact will do more harm than good. If you don’t consume the right amount of nutrients you may experience blood sugar fluctuations which in many cases will lead to fatigue, poor concentration and mood swings, and bring on more unnecessary stress on your body.

Did you know that about 75% of people stick to their resolutions for at least two weeks and less than 50% are still actively working their resolutions within six months? The most common reason for people failing their New Year’s resolutions is setting themselves up with unrealistic goals. It’s something we all do because we seem to be a quick-fix generation and want to see results immediately or we lose interest, get discouraged, and just give up.

If your New Year’s resolution is to lose weight then don’t set yourself up for failure by having unrealistic goals to attain, set smaller goals and each time you reach your goal, push it further again until you hit that one.

Please stick it out; you didn’t gain the weight or become unhealthy overnight, don’t expect results to happen overnight. You may have a bad day or two, keep going, string a couple of good days together, then stretch it to a week, then a month. Let the good days outweigh the bad days and you’ll be surprised at your thirty day results. And always: think about why you started in the first place.

This is all about self-improvement, so do it for you, and at your own pace, no one says you need to start everything on January first and remember, you don’t need a new year to make a change, all you need is today and think of how you will feel when next December 31st rolls around.

Rick Bellanti is a wellness columnist and is on a journey himself to lose 240lbs, and has lost 125lbs since the start of 2015. If you have any questions or comments, please post them to his Getting Healthy with Rick Bellanti Facebook page and once a month he will address a few of the topics here. ◊