Remember the age old saying “Healthy mind in a healthy body?” May be we’ve been ignorant all these days about all those basic, simple, safe practices to stay fit but I’m making it a New Year Resolution this time to take care of mine and my family’s health by adopting these simple tips, would you like to join me?

The prime resolution would be to stay healthy with less hospital visits and anything else from here would be a step in that direction. Here they are:

• Will quit smoking.
• Will limit alcoholic drinks to an ounce a day (Heart friendly).
• Will try to focus more on natural lifestyle and organic foods.
• Will try to take more of fruits and vegetables especially green, leafy vegetables.
• Will sleep at least 7 to 9 hours a day.
• Will try to avoid starch rich foods.
• Will avoid junk foods.
• Will try to avoid fat rich foods.
• Will exercise an hour a day or at least walk five kilometers a day - all these in the early morning before consuming any food.
• Will focus healthcare thoughts to weight reduction.
• Will try to sustain the BMI under 25 and if possible move to lean BMI (18-22). {BMI is calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in square meter. For eg., my height is 1.78 meters and weight 78 kg. Then my BMI is 78/(1.78 x 1.78) which works out to be around 24.618.} So my BMI is borderline normal! What is yours?  If you are weak in mathematics, make use of the BMI calculator (in both standard and metric units).
• Would try to minimize stress - will try all methods including music, deep breathing and yoga to achieve this.
• Will try to reduce salt intake or at least balance between sodium and potassium.
• Will try to avoid intake of sweets, savories and chocolates.
• Will limit oil intake to half a liter a month (Heart healthy).
• Will restrict tea/coffee to two a day.
• Will avoid other caffeinated drinks.
  Will try to avoid carbonated drinks.
• Will not hesitate to visit dentist before next New Year and would encourage other family members for a visit once in six months.
• Will drink at least three liters of fluid/water daily. (Check out your requirement - “How much fluids/water should you intake daily?“
• Would set up vaccination alerts for kids in the family.
• Would encourage mammograms once a year for perimenopausal and postmenopausal women at home.
• Would encourage elderly women to drink at least three glasses of milk to fight osteoporosis and ensure adequate calcium intake.
• Would encourage blood pressure and blood glucose monitoring once in six months or as apt for family members above 40.
• Would be punctual with food timings. Breakfast at 8 a.m., lunch at 1:30 p.m., dinner at 7 p.m., so that there is 5-1/2 hour gap between the three.
• Would stick to the deworming schedule.

Resolutions are made on New Year Eve to break on January 2nd! Are you of that kind? Though this may seem to be a long list, you might already be following many of them. Let’s ascertain our determination power by the end of the current year and evaluate how successful we were in following these resolutions.