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Start 2012 with Healthy Resolutions

Make 2012 the year to focus on your health! Eating healthy foods, becoming more physically active, and quitting smoking are great places to start. You don’t need to make drastic changes all at once. Set realistic goals and congratulate yourself for taking the first step toward a healthier you!

Increase Physical Activity

Keep moving each day. Set 30 to 60 minutes aside each day for some type of aerobic or strength training activity.

Find a friend to exercise with you. By enlisting the help of a friend, you make yourself accountable to someone, which can give you the support you need to stick to your work out routine.

Incorporate strength training into your work out routine, involving both the upper and lower body. Lift weights for at least 30 minutes, two to three times per week.

Eat Healthier

Eating a healthy diet is a very important part of reaching or maintaining a healthy weight. In addition, eating a healthy diet can lower your risk of certain health conditions. Here are some tips to get you started:

  • Eat breakfast. Try to incorporate healthy, convenient foods like high-fiber cereal, fat-free or low-fat yogurt, and fruit.
  • Switch from drinking regular soda or fruit-flavored beverages to drinking water, seltzer, and unsweetened tea.
  • Switch your bread from white to whole grain. Look for those breads containing three grams of fiber or more per slice.
  • Switch from regular pasta to whole grain pasta.
  • Switch from whole milk or 2% milk to 1% or skim milk.
  • Add an additional fruit or vegetable each day.
  • Aim to drink more water. Add one or two extra glasses of water per day.

Quit Smoking

Quitting smoking is a great thing you can do to improve your health. Smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, and stroke. Smoking kills more people than alcohol, AIDS, car crashes, illegal drugs, murders, and suicides combined. Every year in Rhode Island, there are $506 million in healthcare costs directly caused by smoking.

To learn more about smoking cessattion services in your area, call 1-800-QUIT-NOW (1-800-784-8669) or visit http://www.quitnowri.com. Counselors are available to help you find the resources that you need to quit smoking. Read more tips for quitting on our news feed.

Resolve to Be Ready

The Rhode Island Department of Health (HEALTH) encourages Rhode Islanders to make a resolution that is both important and easy to keep: prepare for emergencies by making a plan, building a kit, and staying informed. Visit www.ready.gov for more information.

  • Be informed about the different types of emergencies that can happen in your area and how to respond. Learn about the hazards that may strike your community, the risks you face from these hazards and your community’s plans for warning and evacuation.
  • Create a family emergency plan. Your family may not be together when an emergency happens, so it is important to plan in advance. Think about how you will contact one another, how you will get back together, and what you will do in different situations.
  • Put together an emergency supply kit. This means having your own food, water, and other supplies in sufficient quantity to last for at least three days. Basic services such as electricity, gas, water, sewage treatment, and telephones may be cut off for days, or even a week or longer.
  • Get involved in emergency preparedness. Contact RI Responds, the Rhode Island chapter of the American Red Cross, and Serve Rhode Island for local disaster preparedness and response service opportunities. Ask them what you can do to prepare yourself and your community for disasters and how to get involved locally. HEALTH encourages you to use these tools to make a New Year’s resolution that will bring you and your loved ones some peace of mind.