
1. Making New Year’s Resolutions
Health and fitness expert Dai Manuel’s message for Canadians is simple: Step away from flashy fads diets and unsustainable meal plans, and get back to the basics of food.
Take New Year’s resolutions, for instance, which all too often fall apart before January’s end. Dai Manuel’s solution? Get rid of them altogether. “We’re all conditioned to set these big and lofty New Year’s resolutions, but a lot of the time we set ourselves up for failure,” says Manuel. “We either already know deep down that we can’t keep them, or we get discouraged early on and as a result, we don’t finish them.”
Manuel recommends setting realistic and long-term goals instead, like eating more whole and unprocessed foods. Use Manuel’s “SMART” principle, ensuring your goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timely. Goals that meet those criteria are more likely to be relevant to the person who’s setting them. And if you stumble along the way, don’t sweat it. “Draw that line in the sand and step over it,” he says.