It’s once again time for a new set of New Year’s resolutions. A new year brings new beginnings and for most of us, the new year means a new opportunity to start living healthier lives.

That’s why, if your New Year’s resolution list contains healthy nutrition and fitness goals or something of that sort, you are, in fact, in the right place.

Take a look at our list of healthy nutrition and fitness goals that you can set for the new year.

1.    Set goals and turn them into action

Having goals and plans is admirable as long as they are realistic and achievable. Before ever putting your plans into action, you will need to set some realistic goals.

This means that if you want to start a healthier diet or to do more physical activity do it, but don’t set impossible goals. Don’t promise yourself that you’ll lose a lot of weight by a certain date if you know that this will be difficult to achieve.

Start small, and start slowly by putting your plans into action.

2.    Start by cutting out unhealthy food

You can put those plans into action by slowly starting to cut out unhealthy food. This means that you shouldn’t completely stop eating all unhealthy food, just that you should reduce the daily intake of foods that contain a lot of sugar and fat.

You should mostly eat healthy, nutritious food that contains vitamins and just a small amount of food that is considered bad.

This way you won’t be shocking your organism by completely cutting out food that you ate up until now. Plus, you won’t need cheat days where you’re allowed to stuff your face with all the unhealthy things and be back at square one again.

If losing weight is your goal, you can also do this by reducing the amount of unhealthy food you eat, not by eating less and starving yourself. You can effectively lose weight by being in a calorie deficit, meaning you should eat a certain amount of healthy food. This amount will depend on things like your gender, age, and even the amount of physical activity you have during a day.

Once you take all of these into an account you can calculate the number of calories you need to burn, which should be around 500-calorie deficit each day in order to lose a pound of fat per week.

However, you can’t just create a calorie deficit by reducing the amount of food you eat, you should exercise as well.

3.    Make sure your diet is diverse

Food diversity is important because it allows our bodies to maximize the number of nutrients we take it. The amount of food we eat in a day varies from person to person and because of this it’s essential that we eat nutrient-rich food sources such as vegetables, meats, fruit, fish and so on.

Eating just vegetables isn’t the solution. A proper and healthy diet should contain a combination of different types of foods, you should eat fruit and you should drink a lot of water.

Don’t deny yourself food that could be essential to your health just because you think that this food is making you fat. If you aren’t sure what to incorporate or what to cut out from your diet, you can always visit a nutritionist that will give you the right kind of answer.

4.    Be more active

Being more active doesn’t automatically mean that you should hit the gym right this moment. No, it means that you should be active whenever you can. Take every opportunity do be physically active on a busy weekday.

This means that instead of driving to work like you usually do, go on foot. This might seem difficult to even imagine right now, but once you start doing it, you’ll see how much better you’ll feel.

When you’re on a work break instead of going out for a smoke, do some light exercises – stretch your legs, do some squats. Do anything that will fit some form of physical activity into your life.

In case you want to lose weight, you’ll need to start doing more exercise that can burn more calories. Being in a significant calorie deficit will allow you to lose weight faster.

5.    Drink enough water

Drinking water is important. This is something everyone knows but no one really cares about, or at least very little number of people actually remembers to do.

If we are active throughout the day and we don’t drink enough water, it’s our advice to start drinking more water. Our bodies are made of 80% water and when we do any sort of activity our bodies lose a certain amount of said water and may become dehydrated.

By drinking water, we are replenishing the lost fluids our bodies need in order to function normally. And while the recommended amount of water that should be consumed per day is said to be 2 liters, this is something that is individual.

Regardless of how much water you currently drink, try increasing your water intake by 500 ml and watch for positive changes in your concentration, skin and overall health.

6.    Do exercise but don’t be too intense

High-intensity training is ok and there are many benefits from it. However, not all of our bodies are prepared to take the impact of HIIT. Always doing high-intensity exercise is also not good for our immune system as it leaves us more open to injury.

Slow down, do slower-paced exercises that are equally beneficial to our bodies. It would be ideal if you could combine both high and low-intensity workouts into your routine. One day do high-intensity exercises and the other do low and you’ll have the same results but with less possibility to get injured.

7.    Organize well

Having plans is nice and all, and even putting them to action is admirable. The problem is sticking to this routine throughout the whole year. Many of us start nicely this health journey and then the life and other problems get in the way.

Don’t let anything distract you from realizing your goals. Get organized first, start by working out your schedule in order to find the ideal time to do exercises, stock up your kitchen with healthy, nutritious food and visit a nutritionist if you need to. Do everything possible not to waver from this healthier life path that you decided to start following this new year.

This following year, don’t let your resolutions just stay on the paper. Make sure you actually realize them. Set realistic goals, improve your health and become fitter. Working on ourselves is our own responsibility and only we can control what and how we lead our lives.