Your Top 3 To-Do’s:

1. Dump The Junk

JUNK FOOD: IT’S CALLED GARBAGE FOR A REASON.
Junk belongs in a dump, not your body. Chips, candy, sodas and most pre-packaged snacks, juices and drinks — your body can’t process a lot of what’s in them. They’re stored longer in your body, wreaking havoc on everything from heart to skin (hello, acne!) and even your brain. Finding it hard to quit? That’s a big reason why you must: they’re designed to be highly addictive on purpose. It’ll be difficult at first but your system will eventually revert to preferring what was meant for it.

2. Trade Up: Go Wild

CHOOSE “WILDER,” LESS PROCESSED OPTIONS.
Choose brown or wild rice over white (almost the equivalent of sugar), and whole grain, fibrous and nutty bread over white bread. Try wheat pasta or other, healthier grains like quinoa. Eat more small, oily fish like sardines and uncooked veggies and fruit. And look to the coconut for a pantry’s worth of healthier alternatives: coconut sugar or syrup to sweeten, milk as a dairy substitute, flour to bake, oil for cooking and salads, and its water as a juice or sport drink. There are healthier, less processed options for everything you’re eating.

3. Get Moving

STILLNESS IS FOR THE MIND.
Exercise daily. Studies show that constant activity is better than even extreme workouts 3 times a week. Make sure you get in 3-5 days of sustained cardio. They don’t have to be killer sessions: get to 50-85% of your maximum heart rate and sustain this for 45 straight minutes (see the American Heart Association’s heart rate calculator and heart.org). On other days, mix it up: weights, yoga, pilates, walks outside. Variety makes it interesting and keeps your body challenged.
And move more in general! New studies are showing that sitting for more than two hours at a time is extremely unhealthy. During the day, set a timer, get up, and walk around for 10-20 minutes. However you do it, make this the year you get moving.