Resolution: Lose weightStrategy: Follow a low-GI diet
Some research suggests eating a diet based on foods that are low on the glycaemic index is the best way of losing weight.
This will mean choosing carbohydrate foods that cause glucose to be released into your bloodstream slowly.
Low-GI foods can help you feel full for longer and won’t give you cravings, unlike high GI ones that send blood sugar levels skyrocketing and then plummeting again.
Low-GI foods include cereals based on oats, low-fat dairy products, wholegrain bread and non-starchy vegetables.
Resolution: Get fitStrategy: Employ a personal trainer
There’s nothing like forking out your money to persuade you to follow up on something. Soif you’re paying for a personal trainer then you are more likely to turn up for your sessions at the gym.
A large part of a trainer’s job is motivating you – as well as showing you the right sort of exercises to do to improve your fitness and tone your body.
If the cost seems prohibitive, look into hiring one for just a few weeks to help you kick-start your fitness regime and set you on the right track.
Resolution: Deal with stressStrategy: Learn to meditate
When you feel overwhelmed by life’s pressures, meditation is one way of helping you to calm down and stop stress hormones, such as cortisol and adrenaline, zinging around your body.
An overload of the hormones can lead to all sorts of health issues, from headaches to raised blood pressure. oeditation is any activity that helps to calm the mind. It often involves focusing on one thing – often a sound or phrase that is repeated over and over.
Different methods can be learned from experienced practitioners or you could try simply sitting comfortably in a quiet place, closing your eyes and focusing on your breathing until you’re relaxed.
Resolution: Give up smokingStrategy: Get help from Quitline
Trying to give up smoking on your own is really hard. Quitline is a trust, funded by the government, with a wide range of resources that can make it less of a struggle.
You can get advice, connect online with other people trying to kick the habit and also get access to cheap products, such as lozenges and patches.
Quitline will even send helpful tips straight to your mobile.
See Quit
Health watch
A pill that costs just 70c could double a woman’s chances of getting pregnant, according to a British study. Researchers gave a group of women who had been trying to conceive with IVF a multi-vitamin pill, which contains nutrients that may boost fertility, such as vitamins A, C and E, plus zinc, selenium and folic acid. Sixty percent of women taking the multi-vitamins went on to have babies, compared with 25% of women who didn’t take them.
Scientists are testing a drug that may be able to slow the onset of Alzheimer’s disease by five years. It’s not a cure, but researchers believe if monthly injections of the drug are given as soon as people start to show symptoms, such as memory lapses, it could keep this form of dementia at bay for quite some time.
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