How To Make Your Health Look Amazing In 5 Days

As the winter winds down, it’s a great time to rely on your New Year’s resolution to become your healthiest, best fitting self. So what’s the best way to get started?

Andy Bellatti, a registered dietitian and nutritionist, reveals all the things you should — and should never do — to support you in the best way in less than a week and on the right track.

DO: Drink lots of water.

Water is essential — it regulates the structure of any cell in our bodies. In fact, if we don’t get enough, these cells start shriveling. The CDC advocates drinking soda instead of sugar-sweetened beverages to “help with weight management.”

Swapping a cold bottle of H2O with a hot 20-ounce drink will save you 240 calories. Yet hydrate, Bellatti told Business Insider, “Ideally with water.”

DON’T: Go on a juice cleanse.

You will want to reconsider whether you consider “detox” or “juice cleanse.” Drinking only tea, soda or some other liquefied concoction for longer than a few days can set you up with excessive eating habits, and may also lead to an rise in blood sugar levels that may induce cravings and mood changes.

“It is a prescription for ‘hinginess,'” Bellatti said, “and still wrongly describes all healthy food as troublesome.”

DO: Cut back on sodium.

Most of us—89 per cent of US men, according to the CDC — are consume too much sodium, and that doesn’t include any salt applied to the table. So much salt in your diet can induce puffiness and bloating, and cutting back will help you prevent that.

“Sodium holds vapor,” Bellatti said, “so that reducing sodium consumption often decreases puffiness.”

DON’T: Start banning foods.

There is a distinction between cutting down on food you eat in bulk and absolutely eliminating all types of food.

Diets that focus on the removal of additives (such as sugar or gluten) can contribute to the substitution of other additives can play the same role in the body (such as honey or corn-based foods). It may be dangerous if the alternatives are nutrient-deficient.

DO: Fill up with fiber.

Writer Michael Pollan said the best: “Eat food. Not so much. Mainly plants.” Organic, high-sugar vegetables like broccoli, bell peppers and brussel sprouts — which CDC calls “solid food”—are the ideal source of important vitamins and nutrients, such as nutrition, which helps keep you feeling satisfied and healthy until the next meal.

“All plant-based foods (fruit, carrots, whole grains , beans, nuts and seeds) are the best,” Bellatti said. “One fast way to add extra fiber to your day: sprinkle chia, hemp, or ground flax over something you eat for a raise.”

DON’T: Rely on powders and pills.

The problem with diet powders and pills, Bellatti said, is that they often take something that was once a whole meal, like a fruit or salad, and then refine it to include a single ingredient. It’s fine for stuff like chocolate butter, which has nutrients, so it’s not meant to make up the bulk of food intake.

“When there’s a paste, you ‘re just getting something, a drop or a teaspoon at most? And you have to worry about how much you’re trying to eat. A cup of broccoli or a quarter of a cup of cashew. That’s a big deal,” Bellatti said.

DO: Be mindful of portion sizes.

The small serving sizes of our meals and dinners have been bubbling for the past 40 years — even the plates and cups we serve them have been considerably bigger.

According to reports by the American Journal of Public Health, the Journal of Diet and the Journal of the American Medical Association, the average scale of all of our food — whether fast-food, sit-down or even grocery — has grown by as much as 138% since the 1970s.

Only be mindful of portion sizes, even if you’re eating out, consider getting some of your meal home later.

DON’T: Focus exclusively on calories.

Focusing too much on calories can also be dangerous, as measuring it wrongly makes it seem like one food’s calorie is exactly the same as another.

“It’s particularly true when you’re dining in restaurants,” Bellatti said. “Many low-calorie diets are packed with salt, which absorbs water and can make you feel sluggish.” However, keep in mind that with successful weight loss, you are only supposed to lose about 1-3 pounds a week.

“It seems to be much more manageable than having a whole lot at once,” Philip Stanforth, professor of performing physics at the University of Texas, told Business Insider.