OH! Magazine - Australian Version December 2018 | Page 14

( NUTRITION )
SET YOURSELF UP FOR A
HEALTHY NEW YEAR
Dr Joanna shares her top tips for a healthy new year.
new year is always a great time to
think about getting healthier, but
what should we be doing? It’s easy to get
focused on the wrong thing with all the
misinformation out there, or to ignore
areas of your life that may, in fact, have
considerable impact on your health and
wellbeing.
A
Making vague resolutions to eat less
sugar or do more exercise really won’t cut
it. Getting more focused, setting proper
goals will help you feel different next
year.
Here are five tips to set you on the path to
a healthier 2019.
1. Embrace whole foods and cut the junk
The essence of how to best feed us
humans is well understood. It’s only the
details we continue to debate, and
research grows at a rapid pace to sort
these intricacies out. Meantime here’s
the deal – you need to eat a wide variety
of whole foods, including plenty of plant
foods, while minimising the junk. It really
is that simple.
14
OH! MAGAZINE ( DECEMBER 2018 )
Focus therefore, on limiting your intake
of fast food, ultra-processed food, foods
loaded with added sugar, refined fats
(e.g. vegetable oil) and refined carbs (e.g.
biscuits, cakes, burger buns and
pastries). Instead, enjoy meals and
snacks based on veggies, fruit,
wholegrains, legumes, nuts, seeds, fresh
meat, seafood, dairy or dairy alternatives,
and use unrefined oils such as extra
virgin olive oil, which boasts proven
health benefits. Do this and you’ll find it
easier to control how much you eat
because the food will be packed with
nutrients.
If you have weight loss goals, consider
adding one or two fast days into your
week, or follow the more conventional
means of restricting your food intake by a
little every day; cutting out snacks might
be all you need to do.
2. Make water your principal drink
We do not need fancy hydrating drinks,
nor is your body designed to get a
significant number of our kilojoules from
fluids. Chewing solid foods is important
to trigger appetite controls, so getting too
many of them in fluid form messes with
the system and makes it harder to turn
down the cues to eat.
We are designed to drink water and
always have been, so aim to drink a glass
of water on waking, and then at least one
every hour – more when it’s hot and while
exercising.
You can, of course, drink too much. If
you’re having to run to the loo every half
hour then you are drinking too much! The
goal is to generate pale straw-coloured
urine – that’s your signal that you are well
hydrated.
3. Move more and sit less
Unfortunately, today’s world is more
challenging on our brains than our body,
at least for most of us. Unless you have
an active job, you need to consciously
build activity and movement into your
day. Sitting for more than eight hours a
day is highly detrimental to health and
wellbeing, so think of ways to break up
the time spent sitting, and build more