Ring in 2019 with some SMART Goals!

This new year is a perfect time to get started on some new goals or resolutions! Improving health, nutrition, and overall well-being are popular resolutions, but they can be hard to do. Let’s explore tips for goal setting and example goals that relate to health and wellness!

SMART Goals
What does it really mean to create a “SMART” goal? SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable (or realistic), Relevant, and Time-bound. At the start of the year, it can be tempting to think about “big picture” goals you want to reach. However, small steps are what will help you achieve your goals. SMART goals are targeted at these smaller steps to improve your chance for success!

Stay Hydrated
Fluids are important to keep your body functioning properly. An example of a SMART goal would be to bring a bottle of water to work 5 days a week. To save money on bottled water, try a fun-colored water bottle or thermos that can be reused. When you are feeling hungry, try to take a few sips of water first before reaching for a snack. Sometimes thirst can be mistaken for hunger!

Make Time for Breakfast
Make a quick breakfast before heading out the door to start your day off right Whole grain toast with peanut butter and banana slices or hot oatmeal with dried cranberries and honey will start your day off right. An example of a SMART goal is to eat a balanced breakfast three times a week. Check out these breakfast ideas that can be prepared ahead of time!

Bran Muffins
Breakfast Parfait
Breakfast Roll-Up
Peach Muffins with Oatmeal Topping
Rise and Shine Cobbler
Single Serving Oatmeal

Be More Active
Physical activity improves heart health, lowers stress, and can help you achieve a healthy weight! It is recommended that adults should do 30 minutes of moderate exercise 5 times a week. There are many ways to be active throughout the day! Going on a walk with your pet, taking the stairs instead of an elevator, vacuuming floors, and strength training all count. An example of a SMART goal would be to go on a 30-minute walk Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday and do 30 minutes of strength training on Tuesday. Find some activities are exciting to you and get started!

Add Veggies to your Meals
MyPlate recommend that you fill half of your plate with fruits and vegetables at mealtime. Planning out vegetable side dishes for dinner time will expose you to new recipes you may not have tried before! Leafy greens, crunchy carrots, beans, and winter squashes all count as vegetables. A SMART goal would be to add one vegetable to lunch and dinner each day. Need some inspiration? Check out this vegetarian casserole.

A Healthy New Year Starts Now

A new year means new beginnings and fresh starts.  Be ready for the new year with a plan for making healthier choices for you and your family.  Join our 2016 Healthy Challenge today!

The 2016 Healthy Challenge is all about moving towards a healthy lifestyle.  Everyone has different goals for making healthier choices.  Choose goals that are realistic and that you can carry out all year long.  Let's look at some simple goals to include in your 2016 Healthy Challenge.

Eat the rainbow.
Eating a variety of fruits and vegetable provides many health benefits.  Fruits and vegetables protect against certain diseases and cancer, and are high in fiber.  Eating colorful fruits and vegetables ensures that you are getting the vitamins and minerals your body needs.  Find ways to add a rainbow of colors into your meals.

• Buy in season fruits and veggies.  Fruits and veggies taste best when they are in season.
• Have a color challenge.  See how many different colors of fruits & veggies that you can include in your meals.
• Fruits and veggies are among the healthiest foods we eat.  Choose canned, frozen, fresh, and dried fruits and veggies when planning your meals.
• Have a "try a new food" day.  Encourage kids to try new foods.  Each week let your child try a new food.  If they don't like it, it's okay - offer it again at a later time.  Make an "I Tried It" chart and see what new fruits and veggies that your family liked the most.
• Plan ahead for meals.  Planning meals for the week can help ensure that you have healthy meals for your family.  When you plan out your meals, you can also plan to use leftovers another night.

Be active.
Being active is another way to move towards a healthy lifestyle.  Regular physical activity helps to keep the extra weight off, gives you energy, and makes you feel better.  Plan to be active this year with some of these ideas:

• Include the entire family.  Enjoy spending time being active with your family.  Set aside time 3-4 times a week to be active by walking around the neighborhood, playing ball, or enjoy inside activities like scavenger hunts, dance parties, or set up an obstacle course.
• Find an activity to do together.  Many families enjoy doing activities together like taking a hike or playing a sport.  Look for an activity that all members of the family would enjoy doing and make time to do this activity.  
• Have fun!  Being active also means having fun.  Many activities that you can do are also a lot of fun for kids. Look for ways to make physical activity fun for the whole family.

We wish you a very Happy, Healthy New Year!

New Year's Resolutions: Let's Make Them Work for Us!

This year, I'm going to:

• Make at-home meals so my family spends more time together.
• Lose the extra weight that I gained from last year.
• Get more physical activity.
• Eat better.

Wow!  That's a long list of goals!  By setting New Year's goals, we focus our attention on parts of our lives that we want to improve.  However, if we make goals that are too broad or not specific enough, we might be setting ourselves up for not reaching our goals.  What to do?

Let's look at the goals listed above and try to break them down into smaller steps that will make it easier to meet and track the progress made to keep motivated.

• Family meals.  Choose a reasonable number of times that your family can make meals at home.  What would work for your family?  Can you eat two dinners a week together?  How about "I will make at-home breakfast on weekends" if that is more likely to work.
• Weight loss.  Adding extra pounds doesn't just happen over the holidays.  It will take some time to get rid of the extra weight.  Set a realistic goal of losing one pound a month.
• Physical activity.  Getting more physical activity will help to reduce the weight too.  Set goals on physical activity like "I will take a walk during lunch whenever the weather allows" or "I will bike with the kids two nights a week after dinner".  Build activity plans as specific steps that you can accomplish.  You can always increase your physical activity as you get into a routine and start to enjoy the benefits!
• Eat better.  Look at the way that you and your family currently eat and find ways that you can improve.  Do you drink soda?  Drinking soda provides empty calories.  Set a goal to reduce (or stop) the amount of soda  you drink.  You can also set a goal to eat fruits and vegetables every day.  If you already eat fruits and vegetables, eat one more each day.  Drink lower-fat milk and choose lean meats and poultry as often as possible.

For additional tips on how to make specific, realistic goals check out our previous blog post. 

By making your goals specific, you will have a great change of reaching them!  Have a healthy New Year!

New Year, New You! How to Set Attainable New Year's Resolutions

It's that time of year again!  It's almost the new year and a great time to set new goals or resolutions.  As you may know, New Year's resolutions that focus on health and wellness are wildly popular.  But they are also very hard to keep!  So before we get into ideas for some healthy resolutions, let's talk about the best way to set a goal.

Smart Goals
When you set a goal, it is important to be as specific as possible.  A good way to do this is to make a SMART goal.  SMART goals are specific, measurable, attainable (or realistic), relevant, and time-bound.  What is this so important?  You are more likely to reach a SMART goal than a goal that is not well defined.

Let's go over some specific areas you may want to focus on for a healthier you in the New Year!

 

Be More Active!

 

Physical activity is a great way to improve your health, reduce stress and increase energy levels!  Physical activity can be anything from jogging to weight lifting to taking the stairs instead of the elevator.  It is suggested that you try to get a half an hour of physical activity at least 5 days a week.  An example of a SMART physical activity goal is to power walk for thirty minutes on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

 

Eat More Fruits and Vegetables

Fruits and vegetables are yummy, low calorie foods.  These are high in water and fiber to help keep you full and contain nutrients to help fight disease and keep you healthy.  You should aim for five serving of fruits and vegetables every day.  An example of a SMART goal is to meet your five servings of fruits and vegetables at least three days a week.  Why only three days?  You need to make sure it is a goal you can reach!  Fit your goal to what makes sense for YOU!

 

Eat Breakfast

Eating a balanced breakfast is a proven way to reach and maintain a healthy weight.  It will also help you stay full and focused until lunch.  An example of a SMART goal is to eat a balanced breakfast four days a week.  Need some ideas for a healthy breakfast, check out these recipes for breakfast!

 

Get Enough Sleep

Getting enough sleep is important if you want to stay healthy!  For most people, this means 7-8 hours of sleep a night.  Enough sleep helps to lose and maintain weight, manage stress, and do your best during the day.  An idea of a SMART goal is to go to bed by 10 p.m. five days a week.

 

These are just some healthy ideas to think about for the New Year.  But there are many others!  No matter what healthy goal you decide to take on in the New Year, be sure to make it a SMART goal.  What is your New Year's SMART resolution?