New Year New You, guidelines for a healthier lifestyle UK & USA
It’s the most wonderful time of the year
As I’m writing this it’s two days before Christmas and the soft sunkissed feeling of summer is now seemingly a distant memory, as tourists here in my hometown subside and the seafront is a wind swept expedition that calls for a giant bundle of hats, gloves and scarfs. If, like me, you live in colder climates, you may also face some of these urges to hunker down inside, with a giant cup of cocoa, with very little desire to venture outside, let alone for exercise.
But sitting inside with the TV on, adds its own set of problems. You are met continuously with adverts for overindulgence and temptation throughout the festive period. There’s a whole host of tasty things to try to moderate, with dining and drinking taking a front seat during the Christmas period, staying on track with a healthy eating routine, can prove extremely difficult, even for the most dedicated at this time of year.
New year's resolutions for 2025, setting your intentions early on
So as 2025 approaches, I know that many of you will begin to make healthier choices. Some changes may come with a New Year's resolution, a declaration of changes you wish to see in the coming year, to become a better, fitter version of yourself. So how can you begin to make effective changes to maintain a healthy lifestyle that is more sustainable for the long haul?
Get some sound health and fitness advice from the NHS and UK government
A great place to begin to look for help and guidance is the guidelines set out by the Government and the NHS, there are numerous tools available for free that can kick start you in 2025 to have a healthier year ahead and for the past couple of weeks I set out to find out what it is like to follow the guidelines, and to see how these compare to those set out in America. What kind of advice would I find? and how easy would it be to implement these guidelines and recipes into my daily life?
The National Health Service: better health and Government websites
https://www.nhs.uk/better-health/get-active/
Upon visiting the National Health Service’s website you will find a wealth of knowledge to help you stay on track with your nutrition and exercise goals.
The eat well guide is a plate by plate breakdown of healthy foods that should be in your diet- keeping you eating better for longer.
Couch to 5km running plan: start your running journey from the ground up, start slow and steady and build up to a 5km distance. Celebrate your new distance by joining a local race or confidently run at a local parkrun.
A step tracking app for your mobile phone: track how many steps you take everyday, just pop your phone in your pocket. Meet your step goals to improve your cardiovascular fitness.
Plenty of example healthy recipes: follow the healthy recipes everyday of the week to keep on track with your healthy eating.
At home workouts: follow along with no equipment workout suitable for doing in the comfort of your living room.
A guide to calorie counting, making sure you get the correct amount of calories for your body.
A BMI calculator find out if you are within a healthy range
U.S department of agriculture guidelines: learn how to eat healthy
Dinner plate guide: is a plate by plate breakdown of healthy foods that should be in your diet- keeping you eating better for longer.
Health tracking apps you can download on your phone: that can keep you on track with food shopping and exercising.
Printable fact sheets: that can help you make the best decisions when building a healthy diet.
Shopping list help: printable sheets that you can take with you to the grocery store.
Key tools and how to use them
Making a Shopping list Taking a shopping list to the store means having a plan, making sure during my shop I will pick up only items that are on my list, this stops me being swayed by any unhealthy choices. Secondly when I planned out my meals in advance, I found there was a lot less food waste as I only purchased what I needed for the week, which also helped me stay on a better budget too, which was fantastic.
Step tracking being able to keep track of how much you have moved or walked during the day is a valuable measure of daily activity. Having an app or a smartwatch to track your steps is a great place to begin if you are looking to be more active. Small changes such as parking further from your destination, getting off your bus one stop earlier or taking the stairs instead of the elevator can increase your steps each day and help burn off more calories. Sometimes I found that doing my housework gained me my step goal for the day, but I only knew this because of the step counter.
Eat well guide The eat well guide is a great place to start if you want to make sure you are eating a well balanced diet, it shows clearly what items should be in your diet along with a quick view of how to keep ingredients balanced.
Recipes
Following the recipes on both the UK and the US websites are such a valuable source, healthy recipes that are easy to cook and healthy. I very much enjoyed cooking all of the recipes for the two weeks I tried them. I enjoyed the American recipes because they used different vegetables to what is commonly found on the UK meal planning site.
Both the UK and USA healthy eating websites offer a selection of healthy recipes
Really enjoyed cooking recipes from both the UK and the USA, I liked that all the recipes were easy to cook and all of the ingredients are accessible, even if you are shopping at a budget store. There are no uncommon or difficult to get hold of ingredients or herbs, that you need to go to a specialist store for,. Which is great, as you most likely will have all the items you need in your fridge or cupboards without needing to go to the shop.
Recipes I tried out for the week from the USA …
White fish with tomatoes, spinach and olives
This recipe was really easy and extremely quick to prepare and cook, it would be a great option if you need a fast meal for a busy week day. I decided to swap cod for sea bass in this recipe. I didn't make any other adjustments but I did add some microwave quinoa on the side for some extra carbohydrates. I was surprised that this meal didn’t have more herbs but it had a delicate flavour with the olive being a noticeable flavour which didn't overpower the fish. I found the ingredients readily available for this recipe, I shopped in a UK budget supermarket and the cost worked out at around £2.65 per person, which I thought was an absolute bargain!
I also cooked for the week Chicken creole with pasta, Baked fish with frozen veg and Stuffed bell peppers and Grilled pineapple ginger glazed chicken with zucchini and peppers. They were all delicious.
Recipes I tried out for the week from the UK…
Stew with dumplings
This quick and easy recipe uses common vegetables you should be able to purchase easily all year long. I cooked this in a slow pot for ease, but it could be cooked in the oven too. I popped it in the oven to crisp off the dumplings right before serving. I also added a small amount of gravy granules to the sauce to thicken, but you could skip this if you wanted to keep extra low on your calorie count.
This recipe used a lot more herbs than I found in the American recipes. The parsley added a lot of flavour to the dumplings. I typically wouldn't add mushrooms to my usual stew but I did enjoy this addition here, bringing an earthly vibe and plenty of colour.
Salmon and broccoli pasta
Very easy to make and packed full of veggies, I found the sauce very herby and flavourful, this would make a great mid week meal if you are busy or it would also make a fantastic lunch option, it was delicious!
I also cooked the Cheesy ham and leek bake, Tuna cheddar and carrot pattie and Caribbean tofu and sweet potato curry with rice and peas.
You can find all the recipes I tried here https://www.myplate.gov/myplate-kitchen https://www.nhs.uk/healthier-families/recipes/
Overall I enjoyed making these recipes and there is a wealth of other reliable science backed health and fitness information available for free. If you are starting your health and journey, it’s definitely worth a visit to both the websites to gain new skills that you can use throughout 2025 to keep your health goals on track all year long.
