Jodi Cornelio: Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Did you make any New Year’s resolutions? The New Year is a time to look back and reflect on what your 2016 year looked like and build on the good habits and leave the old bad habits behind. It’s a time to say 2017 is going to be a good year and commit to making it happen.

Most of us will have some type of health goals in our 2017 plans. Don’t we all want to be healthier? In an effort to try to help you build on your 2017 health goals, let’s make a list of the healthy things we did in 2016. Decide what worked and what didn’t and note how you felt. Focus on your successes and do more of those things in 2017. My list looks like this:

Number 1: I started eating almonds and grapes for breakfast instead of my typical bagel and peanut butter. My high-density lipoproteins went from 108 to 118. I know that sounds weird, but I am really proud of that. I’m not 100 percent sure if it was the breakfast routine that helped my cholesterol or the fact that I backed off the wine at dinner only three times a week instead of every night. In any event, both are good habits that I intend to keep.

Number 2: We had a healthy potluck lunch at work where everyone brought a healthy dish. It was fun, healthy and we shared recipes at the same time. I would like to see us do more of that, and I will suggest it to the office staff and make it happen in the new year.

Number 3: I took a vacation and hiked every day. That will be on my 2017 to-do list.

Number 4: I presently practice yoga and meditation 20 minutes a day in the mornings, because it is all I have time for. It’s not enough, but at least it’s something to keep me somewhat balanced. I am definitely keeping that good habit and perhaps growing it to at least 30 minutes in the morning.

Number 5: One of the healthiest habits that I adopted in 2016 was to read 15 minutes in the morning before starting my day and often before getting out of bed. Of course I read about health and nutrition and various wellness trends, but most mornings I read about love and peace as I refuse to start my day on a bad note.

So there it is — my list for 2017. I encourage you to jot down your list, and as always my wish for all of our readers is to focus on the good and do away with the bad.

Live long, Live well.