Our Hot List for Healthy Resolutions in 2019

1. Eat More Good Stuff (be healthy this year!)

Now that the festive period is coming to an end, it’s time to put away the champagne flutes and focus on your healthy 2019. Too many articles and ‘diets’ focus on what not to eat but as cheesy as it sounds, your body IS a temple and what you put into it has a lasting effect on your health and happiness. So don’t eat to be thin, eat to be happy, and we don’t mean the ‘happy’ that comes during a five-minute chocolate binge, we mean the ‘happy’ that accompanies that energetic, healthy and satisfied feeling of eating well and knowing you’re eating well.

Avoid beige foods like potatoes and bakery goods and make sure you include lots of dark green vegetables like kale and spinach. Obviously here we’re concerned with eye health, but eating for general good health will always translate into happier eyes. For example, fish rich in omega-3 will boost eye health and help with dry eyes. Leafy green vegetables are high in lutein, zeaxanthin and vitamin C, all of which are great for retinal health. #winning

2. Sleep Better

We’ve spoken before about sleep and circadian rhythms and how they affect your mood, digestion and hormonal balance. Sleep is so important in fact, we can go for longer without food than we can without sleep!

It’s not true that we all need a solid 8 hours, but we do all benefit from regular bed times. Our advice? Find out what your body needs (usually between 6-9 hours) and try to keep it regular, going to sleep and waking at consistent times. Your body will thank you, trust us.

3. Practise gratitude

This is a big one and can have a huge impact on your day-to-day mood. In life it’s easy to overlook the small things and get weighed down by problems that, if we take a step back and evaluate them, they simply do not matter.

Someone cut you up on your commute? Your boss ignored your good idea? A cashier was rude when you bought lunch? All of these have (somewhat rightfully) elicited a reaction, sometimes with a few four letter words thrown in for good measure. Instead focus on the fact you have a job, not everyone does. Be grateful you have great ideas and take your time enjoying that lunch you can afford. Most of us wake up in comfortable lives, with loved ones to share experiences with. It could be worse.
Don’t confuse this with a lack of ambition. Still work for those goals, but don’t get so focused on that finish line that you forget to enjoy the journey.

4. Kick a bad habit

Whether we like it or not, habits – good or bad – make up our personality. If you make the gym a habit, you will inevitably be fitter and hopefully therefore happier (& more healthy!). If you make smoking a habit, you’ll have less energy and be more irritable.

Kicking a bad habit will give you a great feeling of self control and achievement. If you’re sitting there now reading this thinking you don’t have any bad habits, congratulations! Self delusion is your habit! But seriously, most of us can sit down and figure out something about ourselves we’d like to improve (and this self reflection is a useful habit on its own) so working on that through 2019 should give you an achievable and satisfying goal for the year ahead.

5. Travel more

Ok, this one kind of speaks for itself and I’m sure is one on everyone’s list. If you can afford it, go wild and visit somewhere far far away, somewhere you’ve never been before. No one has ever regretted travelling too much (unless you work in Nuneaton, live in London and spend all your disposable income on trains that are always late).

Even if you can’t afford to spend your Summer in The Maldives right after your January trip to Val Thorens, why not use your holidays to explore the UK. We bet there’s plenty of wonderful places you’ve never been. From the beauty of the Lake District to the vibrant culture of Glasgow, to the history of Northumberland, to the beaches of Suffolk – you can travel on a budget within the UK and see some pretty amazing places.

Just don’t forget your reading glasses 😉