12 Best Health Goals for a Healthier Year

This year, I recommend you make a list of small healthy changes that can make a meaningful impact on your life. Then go about making one change at a time until you've checked them all off the list. You might want to try:
1. Eat Fermented Foods

The process of fermentation can transform ordinary vegetables into superfoods, a "secret" that has been embraced by many cultures for thousands of years. The culturing process increases the presence of beneficial microbes that are extremely important for human health as they help balance your intestinal flora, thereby boosting overall immunity.
Fermented foods are also some of the best chelators and detox agents available, meaning they can help rid your body of a wide variety of pernicious toxins, including heavy metals. Ideally, you'll want to include a variety of cultured foods and beverages in your diet, as each food will inoculate your gut with a variety of different microorganisms. Fermented foods you can easily make at home include the following

• Cultured vegetables (including pureed baby foods)
• Chutneys
• Condiments, such as salsa and mayonnaise
• Cultured dairy, such as yoghurt, kefir, and sour cream
• Fish, such as mackerel and Swedish gravlax

2. Include Sprouts in Your Diet

Sprouts are another superfood that can contain up to 30 times more vital nutrients than even raw organic vegetables. When seeds are sprouted, the protein and fiber content increases, as does the content of vitamins and essential fatty acids. Minerals such as calcium and magnesium also become more bioavailable. In general, sprouts have the following beneficial attributes:

• Support for cell regeneration
• Powerful sources of antioxidants, minerals, vitamins, and enzymes that protect against free radical damage
• Alkalinizing effect on your body, which is thought to protect against disease, including cancer (as many tumors are acidic)
• Abundantly rich in oxygen, which can also help protect against abnormal cell growth, viruses and bacteria that cannot survive in an oxygen-rich environment

Sprouts are incredibly easy and inexpensive to grow at home, making them a nutritional powerhouse that virtually everyone can enjoy.

3. Rethink Your Breakfast

If you're still eating a sugar-filled, grain-heavy breakfast (bagels, pancakes, toast, cereal) this is among the worst choices for the morning. One study found that eating a breakfast high in protein, such as eggs and meat, makes you less likely to binge on junk foods later that night^, but even this may not be the best breakfast choice. However, omitting breakfast entirely, as part of an intermittent fasting schedule (see tip #4 below), can actually have a number of phenomenal health benefits, from improving your insulin sensitivity to shifting your body into burning more fat instead of sugar for fuel.
This is because eating first thing in the morning coincides with your circadian cortisol peak, that is, the time of day when your cortisol (a stress hormone) levels rise and reach their peak. The circadian cortisol peak impacts your insulin secretion, such that when you eat during this time it leads to a rapid and large insulin release and a corresponding rapid drop in blood sugar levels, more so than when you eat at other times of the day.
If you're healthy, your blood sugar levels won't drop to a dangerously low level (such as can occur with hypoglycemia) but they can drop low enough to make you feel hungry. So, although skipping breakfast goes against the conventional idea that you should not skip meals, omitting breakfast could actually make it easier for you to control food cravings and hunger throughout the day.

4. Try Intermittent Fasting

If you are one of the majority that struggles with insulin resistance then seriously consider intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting does not necessarily mean abstaining from all food for extended periods of time. Rather it refers to limiting your eating to a narrow window of time each day. Simply eat all meals or snacks during a limited window of time. For instance, you can try limiting your eating to a window of about 6-8 hours each day (say from noon to 6 p.m.), which means you're fasting daily for 16-18 hours. This is enough to get your body to shift into fat-burning mode, and applies whether you're restricting the number of calories you consume during this time or not.
Typically, you start by not eating anything for three hours prior to going to sleep. This will give you a head start to the fasting process so if you sleep for 8 hours you've already fasted for 11 hours when you awake. The next step is to wait as long as you can before you start your first meal or "break" your fast. You can gradually extend the time that you have your first meal by 15 to 30 minutes a day. So after several weeks you will be having your first meal at lunch. Generally, the more your body uses carbs as its primary fuel rather than fat, the longer this will take. Once you shift to fat-burning mode, modern research has confirmed some of the benefits to be:

• Normalizing your insulin sensitivity, which is key for optimal health as insulin resistance is a primary contributing factor to nearly all chronic disease, from diabetes to heart disease and even cancer
• Normalizing ghrelin levels, also known as "the hunger hormone"
• Promoting human growth hormone (HGH) production, which plays an important part in health, fitness and slowing the aging process
• Lowering triglyceride levels
• Reducing inflammation and lessening free radical damage

5. Take Time to Chew Your Food

A good portion of your digestive enzymes is actually produced in your mouth, not in your stomach. Digestion actually begins in your mouth, and chewing your food longer allows the food to be broken down better. As you chew, enzymes from the salivary glands also begin chemically breaking down food molecules into a size your body can absorb. If you often find your stomach feels like a big knot after you've eaten, you're probably swallowing your food in pieces that are far too large.
Chewing your food properly has a number of additional beneficial side effects. For example, chewing your food twice as long as you normally would will instantly help you control your portion sizes, which naturally decreases calorie consumption. You're also likely to find that you actually enjoy the taste of the food more if you eat slower.

6. Eat Locally Grown and Organic Food as Much as Possible

There are a number of reasons why eating locally grown organic is better for you and the environment. Organic foods expose you to fewer pesticides -- about 30 percent on average while organic meats also reduce your risk of antibiotic-resistant bacteria by an average of 33 percent. Plus, research has shown that organic fruits and veggies can be more nutritious and better at fighting off diseases like cancer. For instance, one recent study showed that fruit flies had greater fertility and longevity when fed organic food. Another major benefit of organically grown foods is the reduction in your toxic load through reduced exposure to agricultural chemicals, such as synthetic fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides, which can cause a wide variety of health problems.
From an environmental standpoint, organic farming is far better for the health of the planet and the animals being raised for food. If you're on a tight budget but want to improve your diet by shopping organic, animal products like meat, raw dairy, poultry and eggs are the place to start. Since animal products tend to accumulate toxins from their pesticide-laced feed, concentrating them to far higher concentrations than are typically present in vegetables, I strongly recommend you buy only organically raised animal foods, ideally from a small farmer or food co-op in your community.

7. Wake up at the Same Time Every Morning and Go to Bed Early Enough to Get 8 Hours of Sleep

Getting up at the same time every day (preferably an early time) is deceptively simple. Doing so will help regulate your circadian rhythm so you'll have an easier time waking and likely feel more energized. Plus, the habit of rising early every day is one shared by many successful people, as it enhances your productivity and focus. You can use one of the new fitness trackers that are exploding on the market to help monitor this and keep you accountable. Jawbone makes some of the best, as their software is truly top notch.

8. Express Gratitude for What You Have

People who are thankful for what they have are better able to cope with stress, have more positive emotions, and are better able to reach their goals. The best way to harness the positive power of gratitude is to keep a gratitude journal or list, where you actively write down exactly what you're grateful for each day. Doing so has been linked to happier moods, greater optimism, and even better physical health.

9. Dream Big and Surround Yourself with Positive People

Go ahead and dream big, as you'll be more likely to accomplish your goals. Rather than limiting yourself, when you dream big you're opening your mind to a more optimistic, positive state where you have the power to achieve virtually anything you desire. And while you're at it, surround yourself with positive people. The saying "misery loves company" is entirely true. That's why you need to choose friends who are optimistic and happy themselves, as you will be surrounded with positive energy.

10. Take 7,000-10,000 Steps a Day

You may be surprised to realize just how little you move each day. Setting a goal of say 7,000-10,000 steps a day (which is just over three to five miles, or 6-9 kilometers) can go a long way toward getting more movement into your life. A fitness tracker can help you monitor your progress. Remember that this should be in addition to your regular exercise program, not in place of it.

11. Sit Less

There are now more than 10,000 well-documented peer-reviewed studies showing the damage of excessive sitting. Don't be like me and wait till you're 60 to wake up to this fact. It turns out that regular daily movement may be every bit as, if not even more, important as regular exercise. It's not that you need one or the other; you need the synergy of both. It wasn't until I reduced my sitting to less than one hour a day that my chronic back pain finally disappeared. This goal merges well with the one above, as it is far easier to move and step when you are not sitting.

12. Live in the Present

Allow yourself to be immersed in whatever it is you're doing right now, and take time to really be in the present moment. Avoid replaying past negative events in your head or worrying about the future… just savor what's going on in your life now.