As January 2016 began, everyone was scrambling to join gyms, start diets, workout everyday, and do anything to get in shape and lose weight. A month and a half has passed and it starts to get harder for people to keep to their pledge of health; They find themselves eating unhealthy snacks, going to the gym less  and  falling off course of their original new year plans. If you find yourself in this position, here are some things to do to combat your new year resolution laziness, and keep healthy.

    1)Stay Hydrated

Drinking water and staying hydrated is incredibly important to overall health.  Thirst can commonly be mistaken for hunger, so if you are hungry and are tempted to splurge a little on junk food or eat a lot of any food in general, try drinking a glass of water first because there is a good chance you are just thirsty. After the glass of water, if you are still hungry, then you know that you are truly hungry.

     2) Don’t Fast or Starve Yourself

A lot of people think that fasting will lead to weight loss. It seems like it makes sense, rarely eat and you lose weight, right? Wrong. When you deprive your body of food, it will hold onto whatever you eat even more. If you don’t eat for 8 hours and then eat a hamburger, your body will cling to all the nutrients, or lack thereof, that the burger has. Of course, this doesn’t mean that eating full meals of junk food will help you become healthier or shed off some extra pounds; it is important that when you eat you fuel your body with healthy foods. Also, fasting could lead to the development of an eating disorder.

      3) Check the Serving Size

One of the biggest problems in America is over eating. America has become known for applying the phrase ‘the bigger, the better’ to everything, especially food. You can see this in the portion sizes that fast food restaurants offer, like supersizing a McDonald’s meal. Next time you eat a meal, check the serving size of what you are eating, measure it out and compare it to the portion size you normally eat, you may find you are eating more than is suggested, which can lead to an excess intake of calories, fat, sugar, and/or sodium.

      4) Any Exercise is Better Than No Exercise

A lot of people claim they have no time to exercise anymore, or they only have 5-10 minutes they could cut out of their day. However, this is plenty of time. If you only have this amount of time, but you don’t know what exercises to do, there are many free apps in the app store that are available at the tap of a screen. SWORKIT is a workout app in which you choose the amount of time you want to work out (anywhere from one minute to an hour), you choose if you want to do upper body, core, or lower body, and click begin and you will be taken step by step through a workout. SWORKIT has a string of exercise apps for targeting specific parts of the body i.e. butt, upper body, lower body, and abs and core.

      5) Not So Much Fruit

It’s incredibly important to eat fruits, they provide a lot of nutrients and some are high in water content to contribute to staying hydrated, but vegetables need to be a large part of your daily food intake. Eating too much fruit can make your daily sugar and carbohydrate intake skyrocket. Don’t stop eating fruit, but instead try to pair a little fruit with some sort of nut butter to add protein. You can snack on carrot sticks, celery, peppers, or any other vegetable to lower your fruit intake and raise your vegetable intake.