A Healthier Lifestyle Could Benefit Your “Bottom” Line in New Year

There’s no better time than the present to take stock of your personal goals for a healthier lifestyle in the new year. From eating more nutritious meals to being more physically active or achieving a better work-life balance, many personal and professional benefits are associated with a healthier lifestyle. The key to success is creating a realistic and sustainable plan of action.

“Everyone faces their own unique challenges that impact their personal health journey,” says Jennifer Brooks, president and co-founder of GOLO, the health and wellness solutions company. “So being hands-on in the process and developing a plan tailored to your specific needs is the best way to achieve realistic and sustainable results.”

As you evaluate your goals for a healthier lifestyle in the new year, use this checklist to help build a plan that fits your needs:

• Take control: Play an active role in developing your health and wellness plan, from goal setting to food choices to exercise options. When people play a part in creating a plan, they take ownership of it, setting themselves up for success from the start.

• Get organized: Start planning sustainable and lasting health and wellness by organizing your kitchen and filling it with nutritious food. The more your kitchen is organized, the easier it will be to make better eating choices.

• Find balance: Balanced eating, not cutting entire food groups, is essential to sustained weight loss. Eating whole foods and eliminating or limiting processed foods from your diet can help you achieve steady, lasting weight loss while fueling your body with beneficial antioxidants, fiber, and nutrients to help you look and feel your best.

• Partner up: Holding yourself accountable to a specific health goal can be difficult. Enlist the support of a friend, family member, or co-worker with similar wellness goals who can help hold you accountable and who will be there through the ups and downs of becoming healthier.

• Healthy habits: Forming new and healthier habits takes a lot of time and effort, so it’s important to go easy on yourself as you work through the process. But no matter what your wellness goals are, when healthy choices become automatic, they can propel you from where you are on your journey to where you want to be.

• Stay active: Practicing healthy eating habits is the foundation for steady, lasting weight loss, but adding exercise into your routine can also lead to substantial health benefits. Whether you prefer cardio, strength training, or a mix of both, you can improve your overall health by adding exercise to your daily routine. It can be challenging to plan exercise into a busy day, but even with a packed schedule, there are plenty of opportunities to exercise that can lead to significant results.

• Get some sleep: When thinking about the most significant factors that can improve your health, the main focus tends to be on diet and exercise. But there’s a third piece to the health and wellness puzzle that often gets overlooked: sleep. Getting a good night’s sleep is essential for maintaining a healthy lifestyle, with good reason. The average adult requires 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night.

“No one’s journey to a healthier lifestyle is going to be perfect all the time,” Brooks adds. “Everyone will experience some bumps in the road because change and forming healthy habits can be difficult. It’s important to remember that those bumps are just a part of the process, not the end game.”

The good news is that no matter your age, fitness level, or current work-life balance, GOLO has a range of products and services that can help achieve tangible health and wellness benefits. Learn more by visiting golo.com.