The New Year is an opportunity to reset and realign ourselves with what holds the most meaning in our lives. It’s a moment to look inward and decide who we want to be in the 365 days ahead.
For many of us, our goals and resolutions are health related. With good intentions, we simply want to be the best version of ourselves. With endless fad diets and loads of nutrition routes to choose from, setting meaningful goals can be quite challenging.
Adopt a Holistic Approach
If you are considering adopting New Year’s resolutions, setting holistic goals can help you take a whole-body, whole-life approach within your health journey. Holistic goal setting takes numerous factors into account that impact your wellbeing – including nutrition, physical activity, mental health, emotional wellness, social wellness, and environmental factors.
When setting goals, we might not always consider all parts of our wellbeing. Here’s some advice on how to keep moving forward with holistic balance towards all your goals in 2022.
Take a Moment to Reflect 
The first step many of us take in our New Year’s plan is reflection on the previous year.
It’s healthy to recognize the highs and lows of the year so that your plan ahead can account for what you want more of in your life… and what you’d like to leave behind.
Ask yourself how satisfied you are with different areas of your health and overall lifestyle. Consider how you would like to improve these areas and what your benchmark of success would be. Don’t push your goals to be number-oriented. Instead, aim your focus on how you want to feel and live.
Have you been feeling more tired than normal or have been struggling with low energy? Maybe your goal it to increase energy through more consistent exercise and diet?
Have you been battling mental health challenges and have found that you need to take a new approach? Perhaps your goal will be to participate in daily deep breathing and meditation practices to help yourself stay grounded.
Finding a Holistic Nutrition Plan That’s Right for You
The internet is full of diet options and information about the right type of nutritional plan. All this information can be overwhelming and, truthfully, it can lead us into following a diet plan that is not catered to our own body.
It is easy to fall into committing to a diet that encourages us to obsessively track our calories or shame ousel eves for the occasional “cheat” day. These types of diet plans can be harmful to our mental health and can do little to actually balance out our nutrition.
Nutraphoria explains that Holistic Nutrition considers the individual as a whole to develop a food regiment. Holistic Nutrition believes that we need a certain balance of protein, vitamins, and other nutrients to help our body reach maximum energy levels and optimize physical and mental health.
An easy way to boost your nutrition and make diet changes is by sticking to food options that are less processed and feature less additives. In addition, you can start by adding a multivitamin into your daily routine to give your body the key nutrients that it needs.
Meeting with a member of our Functional Medicine and Registered Dietician team can help you craft a health plan specific to your physicality and health needs. It takes the guess work out of finding the right food balance.
Focus on Self Care
Many of us spend the holidays hectically entertaining or attending gatherings with loved ones. We focus on finding the perfect gifts and the right way to celebrate those in our lives.
In the New Year, it is time to make ourselves the priority. It’s a fresh opportunity to put ourselves first and give our bodies the focus they deserve.
Self-care can be as easy as taking a long, warm shower or drinking a cup of chamomile tea. Self-care is also the act of focusing on our own well-being by committing to personal goals and making a conscious effort to make healthy lifestyle changes.
You can incorporate self-care daily through the practice of meditation. Meditation provides the opportunity to have a quiet, peaceful moment to yourself. The Mayo Clinic notes that Meditation can cultivate inner peace, promote calmness, and reduce stress.
Self-care can also take the form of treating yourself to health-boosting services such as acupuncture and therapeutic massage. These treatments are not only relaxing, but can go a long way in helping your physical and mental health.
Acupuncture
Acupuncture is a tried-and-true way of relieving stress and boosting your health. Acupuncture can help to balance your bodies hormones and treat symptoms such as fatigue, headaches, soreness and nausea.
Adding acupuncture treatment as part of your self-care resolution can help you be the best version of you in the new year.
Massage Therapy
A Massage Therapy appointment is the perfect way to treat yourself and benefit your health. Massage is a proven way of easing tension in your body to relieve joints, help with stress and anxiety, improve digestion and give you better sleep quality. With all this in mind, Massage Therapy is much more than just a lavish luxury!
Ease into Activity
Promising to exercise more consistently is a popular New Year’s resolution. We may commit to joining intense exercise programs to kickstart our health or spend a fortune joining the fancy gym in our neighborhood.
Going from zero to one hundred in terms of fitness can be a difficult task to stick with. If our bodies are a bit out of shape, jumping into a program can lead to failure. We may find ourselves discouraged and the resolution becomes hard to stay on top of.
The Power of A 15-Minute Walk
We recommended easing into an active lifestyle by taking it one step at a time. Start by adding a 15-minute walk into every day to get your body moving. A Stanford study discovered that these short walks can increase creative thinking and promote brain activity. 
Phycology Today reported that walking can also boost our mood and help us work through challenging emotions. A quick 15-minute stroll can also loosen tight muscles and limbs, while getting our blood pumping. Walks have shown to lower back pain and lessen hip tightness.
With all these benefits, make the 15-minute walk your New Year’s resolution go-to.
Embrace the Little Things
New Year’s Resolutions don’t always have to be about big, dramatic commitments. We have the ability to make little changes in our daily routine that can have a lasting impact on our health.
We can commit to things like drinking an extra cup of water each day or adding a vegetable to every meal. These resolutions are often less stress-inducing than something like overhauling your diet. Simple changes can also be easier to stay with in the long run.
No matter what your resolutions may be, make sure they are true to you. Strive to reach your own health goals and milestones, rather than falling into a fad that society or social media deems popular.
Let Aligned Modern Health Be Part of Your New Year’s Journey
If you are looking to make holistic, health-oriented changes in the New Year, each Aligned Modern Health clinic offers a variety of services to add to your self-care regimen. If you are interested in learning more about our offerings or in booking an appointment, fill out the form below.
