When the New Year rolls around it's time for a fresh start. That could be taking time to improve your fitness, practicing good eating habits, not letting stress affect your health or just getting more sleep. Using the New Year to make a fresh start in all these areas will improve your overall wellbeing!
2022 Fitness Trends
Wearable Technology includes fitness trackers, smart watches, heart rate monitors and GPS tracking devices. Wearable technology has been estimated to be about a $100 billion industry. New innovations include blood pressure, oxygen saturation and electrocardiogram.
Home Gyms will continue to be a popular alternative to going to a gym because of the global COVID-19 pandemic. People will continue to isolate themselves by staying home and taking advantage of the abundant equipment now available, along with effective online classes. Home gyms can use minimal equipment, or expensive treadmills and bikes. This is the first year that Home Exercise Gyms has appeared as a fitness trend.
Outdoor Activities Perhaps because of the COVID-19 pandemic, more outdoor activities such as small group walks, group rides, or organized hiking groups have become popular. They can be short events, daylong events or planned weeklong hiking excursions. Participants can meet in a local park, hiking area or on a bike trail typically with a designated leader.
Food for Thought: Nutrition Myths, Facts & Tips
Myth: To lose weight, you must give up all your favorite foods.
Fact: You don't have to give up all your favorite foods when you're trying to lose weight. Small amounts of your favorite high-calorie foods may be part of your weight-loss plan. Just remember to keep track of the total calories you take in. To lose weight, you must burn more calories than you take in through food and beverages.
TIP: Try to replace refined or white bread with whole-wheat bread and refined pasta with whole-wheat pasta. Or add whole grains to mixed dishes, such as brown instead of white rice to stir fry.
Myth: “Going vegetarian" will help you lose weight and be healthier.
Fact: Some research shows that a healthy vegetarian eating plan, or one made up of foods that come mostly from plants NIH external may be linked to lower levels of obesity, lower blood pressure, and a reduced risk of heart disease. But going vegetarian will only lead to weight loss if you reduce the total number of calories you take in. Some vegetarians may make food choices that could lead to weight gain, such as eating a lot of food high in sugar, fats and calories.
TIP: If you choose to follow a vegetarian eating plan, be sure you get enough of the nutrients your body needs to be healthy.
Myth: To lose weight, you have to give up all your favorite foods.
Fact: You don't have to give up all your favorite foods when you're trying to lose weight. Small amounts of your favorite high-calorie foods may be part of your weight-loss plan. Just remember to keep track of the total calories you take in. To lose weight, you must burn more calories than you take in through food and beverages.
Stress Management
What is Stress? Stress is a physical and emotional reaction that people experience as they encounter changes in life. Stress is a normal feeling. However, long-term stress may contribute to or worsen a range of health problems including digestive disorders, headaches, sleep disorders and other symptoms. Stress may worsen asthma and has been linked to depression, anxiety and other mental illnesses.
How to Manage Your Stress
- Use relaxation techniques (also called relaxation response techniques) to release tension and to counteract the ill effects of stress. Relaxation techniques often combine breathing and focused attention on pleasing thoughts and images to calm the mind and the body. Some examples of relaxation response techniques are autogenic training, biofeedback, deep breathing, guided imagery, progressive relaxation and self-hypnosis.
- Scientific evidence suggests that mindfulness meditation—a practice that cultivates abilities to maintain focused and clear attention and develop increased awareness of the present—may help reduce symptoms of stress, including anxiety and depression.
- Some but not all studies of yoga for stress management have shown improvements in physical or psychological measures related to stress.
Get your ZZZs
Sleep plays a vital role in good health and well-being throughout your life. Getting enough quality sleep at the right times can help protect your mental health, physical health, quality of life and safety.
The way you feel while you're awake depends in part on what happens while you're sleeping. During sleep, your body is working to support healthy brain function and maintain your physical health. In children and teens, sleep also helps support growth and development.
The damage from sleep deficiency can occur in an instant (such as a car crash), or it can harm you over time. For example, ongoing sleep deficiency can raise your risk for some chronic health problems. It also can affect how well you think, react, work, learn and get along with others.
Sleep Better
- Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day. For children, have a set bedtime and a bedtime routine. Don't use the child's bedroom for timeouts or punishment.
- Try to keep the same sleep schedule on weeknights and weekends. Limit the difference to no more than about an hour. Staying up late and sleeping in late on weekends can disrupt your body clock's sleep–wake rhythm.
- Use the hour before bed for quiet time. Avoid strenuous exercise and bright artificial light, such as from a TV or computer screen. The light may signal the brain that it's time to be awake.
- Avoid heavy and/or large meals within a couple hours of bedtime. (Having a light snack is okay.) Also, avoid alcoholic drinks before bed.
- Avoid nicotine (for example, cigarettes) and caffeine (including caffeinated soda, coffee, tea and chocolate). Nicotine and caffeine are stimulants, and both substances can interfere with sleep. The effects of caffeine can last as long as 8 hours. So, a cup of coffee in the late afternoon can make it hard for you to fall asleep at night.
- Spend time outside every day (when possible) and be physically active.
- Keep your bedroom quiet, cool and dark (a dim night light is fine, if needed).
- Take a hot bath or use relaxation techniques before bed.
American College of Sports Medicine 2022 Fitness trends (2021) https://www.acsm.org/news-detail/2021/12/30/wearable-tech-named-top-fitness-trend-for-2022
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (2017) Nutrition myths and facts https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/weight-management/myths-nutrition-physical-activity
National Center for Complementary and Integrative (2020) Stress Management https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/stress
National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (2011) Your Guide to Healthy Sleep https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health-topics/all-publications-and-resources/yor-guide-healthy-sleep
Author: Ms. Shuntrice Holloman, MBA Voting Member NIH Health and Wellness Council
