Healthy Lifestyle Swaps for the New Year

There’s something about starting fresh that can revitalize us. Things that were tedious before somehow become exciting again. The new year gives us such a great chance to start over and reset some of the goals that we are reaching for. It’s easy to go overboard and make too many changes too quickly. Those poor changes never stick. Instead, we have a few healthy lifestyle swaps for the new year that will help you make gradual and lasting changes. We are so excited Tropicana Essentials® Probiotics sponsored today’s post so we could share these with you. 

I’m realizing more and more that my kids imitate everything I do, whether they realize they are doing it or not. When I’m stressed, they yell at each other. When I stay up too late, they want to do the same. When I snack on junk instead of healthy food, they are the first ones in line behind me to raid the pantry.

I’ve tried to make lots of healthy changes at once, but those attempts usually fail.

Why?

It’s just too much to tackle at once.

What works better is, at least for me, is making healthy swaps. I take one habit and replace it with a healthier one. Doing it that way doesn’t make me feel like I’m doing without. I’m just replacing one behavior for another one.

These are a few of the healthy lifestyle swaps I’m working on this year:

Swap TV time for a walk around the neighborhood (at least 3 times a week). I know I’m not the only mom that just wants to shut my brain off by the end of the night, and TV usually does the trick for me. Unfortunately, it isn’t doing my waistline too many favors. I had twins a few years ago and my body is still trying to recover (twin pregnancies are ROUGH). Walking instead of watching T.V. a few times a week is a much better habit for me.

I’ve been paying more attention to the things that actually relax me too, and I’ve found that T.V. may shut my brain off but I’m not always less stressed afterwards. Exercise always chills me out a bit, even if I don’t always want to do it.

Swap your desk chair for an exercise ball. I had to do this out of necessity at the end of last year when I started having some back issues. My physical therapist told me the exercise ball would be the best desk “chair” option I could find. It took a bit of getting used to but now I love it. Not only have my back problems gotten better, but I’ve been developing my core muscles while I work. I’ll definitely be continuing this healthy swap this year.

Swap mindless snacking for whole apples. I tend to nibble throughout the day, and so do my kids. We grab whatever happens to be convenient, and usually that isn’t the healthiest option. We’ve started leaving a big basket of apples on the counter (we look for the smaller apples when we can find them). Whole apples make great snacks if you just need to do some mindless nibbling and it helps that my kids absolutely love them. Apples are great for your digestion and a great alternative to chips, processed foods, and other snacks.

Swap that late-night push to finish your to-do list for an earlier bedtime. I’m terrible about getting enough sleep so this is definitely a goal for me this year. I’ve started setting an alarm on my phone to remind me to go to bed at a reasonable hour. Getting enough sleep does so much for my stress level and I’ve found it even helps me lose weight (probably because I’m not snacking on junk to try and get my energy levels up).

Swap out your morning juice for Tropicana Essentials® Probiotics. I’m a huge fan of probiotics. I’m not great about taking most supplements but I always remember to take my probiotic. It isn’t good for just digestion, although that is certainly a perk, I just feel so much better overall when taking probiotics.

I was so excited to hear about the Tropicana Essentials® Probiotics (found at Walmart in the refrigerated section). Not only is this fantastic 100% juice with no added sugar (seriously, so good), but it gives you one billion live and active cultures with every eight-oz. serving.

Tropicana Essentials® Probiotics comes in three amazing flavors: Strawberry Banana, Pineapple Mango and Peach Passion Fruit.

This is the most delicious way to get more probiotics into your diet, and definitely not a swap I’ll be complaining about because the flavors are amazing.

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Tropicana Essentials® Probiotics.