This is the end of the year. The end of a decade. And with 2020 just around the corner there are many people who are really hoping that they can have a clear vision of a New Year that will be full of healthy choices for both eating and exercising.
Fortunately, even if you do not have the body of a fitness enthusiast, there are still ways that you can start the new decade with a mindset that will help you look your best. For instance, with one little thought in mind you might be able to make some real progress. Did you know, for instance, that you can actually make some real progress by simply eating slowly?
It might seem simple, but one coaching tip for feeling comfortable around food, no matter what situation you find yourself in, is to ear slowly. Even if you find yourself unwrapping and then consuming all the hershey kisses for your cookie exchange, make sure you do it without hurrying. This may seem like somewhat counterintuitive advice since everyone knows that overeating anything leads to weight gain, but if you make the a commitment to slow eating you will find that this works because doing things slowly will at the very least help you create awareness.
Fortunately, awareness increases a person’s ability to sense hunger and fullness and then make a better decision about what to do next.
When we sense fullness before we are overfull this realization often leads to eating less.
Will Your Eating Habits Help You Reach Your Health Fitness Goals for the New Year?
The only people who should ever be eating fast are competitive athletes who have a high training load and who are trying to gain muscle mass. In their case, eating quickly will ensure that they consume more calories and support their desire to gain size, strength, as well as improve performance. If you are not part of this population group of professional athletes, it is always important to make sure that you slow down.
If you doubt that this approach will work, you might make this New Year the time to at least give it a try. When you add time spent in strength training programs, barbell classes, or aerobic workouts, you might just surprise yourself with the progress that you can make.
Consider some of these facts and figures about the many ways that a healthy diet and regular fitness classes can help you reach your goals for the New Year:
- Only 35% to 44% of adults 75 years or older are physically active, and 28% to 34% of adults ages 65 to 74 are physically active.
- Nearly 28.0% of Americans, which represents 80.2 million people, aged six and older are physically inactive. This is a scary trend that can lead to serious future health problems.
- Fewer than 5% of adults participate in 30 minutes of physical activity each day.
- In companions, only one in three adults receive the recommended amount of physical activity each week
- Unfortunately, only six states in the nation currently require physical education for grades kindergarten through 12th grade.
- Increasing in popularity, high-intensity interval training (HIIT) workouts generally last about 30 minutes.
- More than 60% of U.S. women do not engage in the recommended amount of physical activity.
- As an indicator of the benefits of staying active, 60% of people who weight train get an average of seven hours or more of sleep every night.
- It is a known fact that 80% of people do not keep their New Year’s resolution.
- The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends that people between the ages of 18 and 64 engage in at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity or, as an alternative, 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity each week.
This is definitely time of the year when people are making plans for getting as healthy as possible. Beyond slowing down every time that you eat, what are the health and fitness goals that you have planned for yourself? It can seem that the fitness goals that you want to reach will be difficult to achieve, but it is important to realize that there are many resources that can help you make the initial steps in creating the best new year and decade.
