10 Steps to A Healthy New Year

Great article with alot of supporting information on nutrition. The text of the article is supplied here all the support articles can be found at: http://nutrition.about.com/od/nutrition101/ss/healthy_new_yea_10.htm

From Shereen Jegtvig,Your Guide to Nutrition.

The First Step - A Year in Review

The first step to designing a healthy new diet and fitness program is to take a look at what your diet and health have been like for the last 12 months. Think about questions like these and write down your answers in a notebook so that you can look back them again a year from now:
How does your weight compare with a year ago?
Do you feel healthy and have a lot of energy or are you tired all the time?
Do you take vitamins or other nutritional supplements?
Do you eat at home most of the time? If so, what types of foods? Whole fresh foods, boxed foods or TV dinners?
If you eat in a restaurant, what types of restaurants do you go to and what types of foods do you choose?
How physically active are you? Do you exercise regularly?
Do you eat healthy size portions, or do you stuff yourself with every meal?
Do you smoke?
How much alcohol do you drink each week?It is important to take an honest look at your health and dietary habits in order to set goals for your health and diet.

The Second Step - Setting Goals

The second step is to set goals. Do you want to lose weight? Do you want to be able to run up and down your stairway without becoming winded? Do you want to reduce cholesterol or lower your blood pressure? Decide what you really want to achieve for your health and diet over the next month and over the next year. One good goal for your first month could be to resolve to take your lunch to work 4 days per week for each week this month instead of eating lunch in restaurants every day. Another example of a monthly goal would be to resolve to walk for 30 minutes 4 days per week each week this month.
Write down your goals in a notebook or in the food diary you are going to create in step 7

The Third Step - Determining Your Dietary Needs

There are so many diets that range from low carb to low fat to low calorie. Here just some ideas you might want to consider for your dietary needs:
Do you have high blood pressure? If so you may wish to reduce sodium in your diet by avoiding canned and packaged foods.
Are you overweight? You need to decrease your calorie intake or increase your amount of physical exercise. You can choose low carb diets or low fat diets, just be sure to watch your calories and portion sizes.
Do you have diabetes? If so, then you need to reduce your sugar intake.
Do you have high cholesterol? Increase your intake of soluble fiber like the fiber found in oatmeal. Fiber will lower your cholesterol levels. You should reduce your intake of saturated fats and increase your intake of omega-3 essential fatty acids from fish, flax, walnuts and canola oil.Are you over 40? Various anti-oxidants are showing health properties to prevent diseases of aging like cataracts and heart disease. You may also need to take extra calcium and vitamin D to ward off osteoporosis.If you have specific health concerns, you should make an appointment to see your doctor or a nutritionist to help you know how different foods can affect how you feel.

The Fourth Step - Determining Your Dietary Supplement Needs

Unless you have a very healthy diet and no health problems, you may need to take vitamins, minerals or other dietary supplements. Here are some things to think about before taking dietary supplements:
Do you have a specific medical concern that can be helped by taking dietary supplements? For example, taking niacin can reduce cholesterol and calcium plus vitamin D can help to prevent osteoporosis.
Do you smoke? If so, you need more vitamin C and other anti-oxidants.
Do you drink more than one alcoholic drink per day? You may need thiamin (B1) and extra folic acid.
Is your diet not as healthy as you would like it to be? Take a multi-vitamin and essential fatty acids daily.If you have a specific medical disorder, you may wish to speak to your doctor or a nutritionist to find out which dietary supplements may improve your health.

The Fifth Step - Design Your Healthy New Diet

To design your new diet, here is what you need to know:
How many calories do you need to eat each day to reach your weight gain or weight loss goal?
How do your eating patterns fit your lifestyle?
Do you feel better with 3 large meals per day or 5-6 smaller meals per day?
Will you continue to eat in restaurants often?
What types of fruits and vegetables do you like?A healthy diet should give you 5 to 9 servings of fruits and vegetables per day, 25 grams of fiber per day, 5 to 6 ounces of protein per day and a small amount of omega 3 essential fatty acids each day. To stick with your new diet, you will want to include foods you enjoy. If you love hamburgers, that's OK. Make them at home with whole grain rolls and cut down the size of the hamburger patty. Add lots of lettuce, onion, and tomato.Add a salad instead of fries.
Learn which foods can substitute for the unhealthy foods you have been eating. Here are some ideas:
Choose crunchy raw green beans instead of chips and serve them with a little of your favorite dip.
Replace high fat hot dog franks with soy dogs.
Choose whole grain breads and pasta instead of white bread and white pasta.
Skip the sugary desserts and have a small dish of fresh berries with a dab of whipped cream or non-fat whipped topping...add a sprinkling of walnuts on top.
Use lemon juice instead of salad dressing.
Choose low fat ground turkey instead of high fat ground beef.

The Sixth Step - Shopping and Cooking

When you shop for healthy foods stay away from the snack food aisles and the prepackaged foods aisles as much as possible. Buy fresh meats, fresh vegetables and fresh fruits as your main food items.
Cooking methods are important for healthy nutrition. Sautéing is better than deep-frying your foods. Frying foods adds fats and calories and doesn't add any nutrition. Steam your vegetables instead of boiling them to mush. Steaming will preserve more of the vitamins found in the vegetables. When you cook your healthy meals at home, be sure to make a little bit extra to save as leftovers to take to work or school as a healthy lunch the next day.

The Seventh Step - Getting Started with a Food Diary

If you are really serious about changing your diet, losing (or gaining) weight and improving your health, you will find that keeping a food diary is key to your success. You can keep track of the foods you eat every day in a notebook. Note the portion sizes and write down the calories you eat every day. Add up the number of calories you eat each day and your total for the week. If you need to lose weight, decrease the number of calories you need to eat each week by 500. By eating 500 fewer calories each day, most people will lose about one pound per week.

The Eight Step - Exercise, Fitness and General Health Goals

Healthy nutrition is just part of a healthy lifestyle. Another component of health and fitness is exercise. If you lead a sedentary lifestyle, you need to get out and get moving. Walking, running, aerobic exercise and weight lifting are all great exercises. If you want to loser weight, it is important to increase aerobic activity like walking or running. If you need to increase your strength, then you need to start resistance training such as lifting weights. There are health clubs, gyms, personal trainers as well as at-home equipment to get you fit and healthy.
Do you smoke? If so, you will really do yourself a favor by quitting. Smoking has been connected to so many chronic diseases...plus you will save a lot of money over the next year if you quit smoking.
How much alcohol do you drink? One drink per day has been shown to be beneficial and there are anti-oxidants in red wine.More than one drink per day can be detrimental to your health, however. If you find yourself drinking more than 4 ounces of wine or 12 ounces of beer each day, then you may need to decrease your consumption of alcohol.

The Ninth Step - Reduce Stress

Stress is detrimental to your health. Stress includes daily events like constant deadlines at work, long drive-times with excess traffic, more activities that time to do them, as well as emotional trauma like death or divorce.
Find ways to reduce stress in your life.

The Tenth Step - Motivation and Maintenance

Sometimes getting started with a new healthy diet and fitness plan is the easy part. Many of us hit occasional road-blocks due to busy schedules, loss of motivation and sometimes we hit weight loss plateaus. Those weight loss plateaus are the times when we feel like we do everything right, but the scale doesn't seem to budge. When this happens, don't give up. Here are some articles and resources that will keep you motivated:
Are You Resolved?
Keep Your New Years Resolutions
Making Your Resolutions Work All Year Long
Reward Yourself!
Staying Motivated