When it comes to New Year’s resolutions everyone wants to ‘get healthy,’ but it’s pretty common that no one knows what that actually entails. People jump in head first and don’t actually know how to handle their body, or how to manage their new ‘diet.’ Some people will follow specific kinds of diets, and they may not follow them properly. For example, a vegan diet is a great choice, but most people don’t add the necessary food items to add calcium, and protein to their diet, making them eventually unsuccessful.

The hardest thing about knowing how to get healthy is knowing what your body does or does not need.

Your body doesn’t need chocolate, or cake, or cookies, or other such sweets and atrocities. It does need protein, but not in large quality. You’re not going to like this, but your body mostly needs fruit and vegetables. Eggs and fish on occasion, since the different things your body gets from them it can store for later use.You do NOT need Fat. When your body consumes fat, especially from meat, it doesn’t convert it to anything; it just stores the fat, there’s no point wasting energy on converting it when it can already use the material right? So here is a much less spastic breakdown of a healthy diet.

The essentials

Lean meat – The less fat, the better, if you have to cut the fat off, then that’s what you have to do.

Fruit – of all kinds, they aren’t going to be filling, but they are going to be best for you, eating several servings of fruit a day is important. With the variety of fruit available, you should be able to shake up your personal intake fruit.

Vegetables – Another awesome addition to a diet, lots of veggies, veggies have fiber and other things such as calcium (which contrary to popular belief you don’t get a lot of in milk).

The veggies that taste bitter, unfortunately, are the best ones for you. They have all the things your body wants, even though they taste like skunks.

Seafood – One thing you should eat maybe one or twice a week there are a variety of different things in the seafood that promotes your brain health, but the intake on them on more than a regular level can give you mercury poisoning and other issues, so it should be eaten only on rare occasions.

Grain – As little bread as possible, buns, bread, wraps, tortillas, try to avoid them. Pasta isn’t that bad, so if you have the option of pasta or bread go with pasta. Grains help you feel fuller longer and make you feel more satisfied. If you settle in after eating a lot of grains your body is going to translate them to fat pretty quickly.

What else should I know?

Portion control – Seriously though, don’t eat all of the things in the world. Portion control is essential when it comes to a diet. If you have meat for breakfast, you should focus on your fruit and veggie intake. If you want steak for dinner, have a fruit smoothie for breakfast instead of ham. It can sometimes be difficult to balance your intake but doesn’t have to be as long as you can figure out a healthy balance.

You can also pre-plan your meals a day beforehand, allowing you to get the proper additions to your diet while ensuring you don’t go over in calories.If you need to, there are resources online that can clock what you eat and will visually show you if you've had too much of one thing.

Hunger vs Boredom. Lots of people have this confused. They eat when they’re bored, and not when they’re hungry. If they’re eating when they’re bored, you’re going to translate all that extra food intake into fat immediately, and you’re going to gain a lot of weight. If you eat when you’re hungry, you’re eating only when your body is telling you, you need food. If you then feed yourself food that is efficient and essential, you won’t gain a lot of extra fat.

Losing fat – Free up at least an hour and a half dedicated just to working out. You should exercise lightly, such as walking up to a half an hour, exercise heavily for about a half hour, and exercise with a focus on flexibility for roughly a half hour. I walk for a half hour manage a quick paced work out regimen for a half hour and then do yoga for a half hour, every other day. This will burn your fat, and help you sculpt your body into a leaner, healthier body.

Eat right, work out regularly, stay hydrated and the most important thing most people who take on this resolution have issues with…don’t quit. Keep working on it, you will NOT see results in a week or a month. You may after that, but it is going to take time. Also, this is a lifestyle change. It’s not something you do when you’re feeling insecure, you change your lifestyle for good. Getting healthy is a permanent change.