4 IDEAS for Healthy Eating in THE NEW YEAR

POOJA KINI simplifies the art of eating healthy food to 4 simple principles that are easy to follow. She brings joy to eating well, and encourages us to start the New Year with an approach to food that is both realizable and sustainable.

- ARATI SHEDDE

January has truly earned its reputation as a fresh slate. Every year without fail, the departure of the festivities is followed by an outpour of resolutions. We are filled with excitement for the future, for possibility, and for opportunity. Naturally, this translates into th goals we set for ourselves.

While healthy eating and fitnes are among the most common N Year's resolutions, they are also some of the toughest to achieve Much of this has to do with setting unrealistic expectations and approaching wellness as a chore. Think restricting certain foods, crash dieting, and saying you'll go to the gym every singl day. While it may seem like quit the achievement to go from never working out to running a marathon overnight, jumping fr one extreme to the other is not sustainable. Your body and mino will exhaust themselves, and as result, your progress will be sho lived.

Thankfully, there is a way to incorporate healthy practices - from food to exercise to meditation into your routine s they become part of your lifesty It starts with eliminating the id that these practices are a means to an end. Detach from the neec for instant gratification and thir deeply about how things make you feel. Do you feel refreshed or drained after your workout? Does incorporating a variety of foods into your diet make your meals more exciting?

Think about this as you zone in on healthy eating as a practice, rather than another task on your to-do list. If you've never been a fan of fruits and vegetables, or you've never cooked for yourself before, approaching healthy eating can be daunting. Forget about the cooking! Just assembling the components of a "balanced" meal can seem intimidating when the public image of health is a boring salad.