If your New Year’s Resolutions include things like “eat better”, “get fitter” or “lose weight”, you’re in good company. According to a 2021 YouGov poll, these are the top three goals of everyone who intends to make a change come January.

The trouble is, resolutions like these are either too vague to provide the focus we need to achieve them, or seem to require a huge lifestyle overhaul to see results. This can make our efforts hard to maintain, leading to frustration and failure by February.

Luckily, there are simple ways to succeed with all three of these resolutions by putting nutrition at the heart of what we do. A few easy changes can help with weight management, energy levels and nutrient intake with no drastic measures required, hooray!

Here are my top 5 tips for making 2025 your healthiest year yet:

1.     Get your pulse rate up

 I’m not talking about in the gym (although of course that’s a great idea), but rather those nutrition powerhouses, beans.

High in fibre (filling and essential for gut health), a fantastic source of protein, and super cheap, adding more beans to your diet is a must.

Tinned are the easiest option, and with so many different varieties, you can easily find your favourites.

Try having black beans with scrambled egg, adding cannelini beans to stews, stirring butter beans into salads or including chickpeas with curry.

2.      Drink enough (it doesn’t have to be water)

Being even 5% dehydrated can affect our concentration levels and cause fatigue. Water is ideal, but other drinks like tea, coffee, herbal teas, squash (keep it low sugar) and diet soft drinks all count too.

Watch out for caffeine as this can impact on sleep quality, and keep your hot drinks sugar-free when you can. If you find it hard to remember to drink more, try having a glass by the kettle so you can down some water while you make a brew, or build the habit of taking a water bottle out and about whenever you can.

3.      Keep things colourful

Different coloured fruit and veg contain different nutrients, with the stronger colours often having the highest concentration. Enjoying a daily banana is brilliant (don’t stop!), but simple additions of other produce can bring a real boost to your health. Fibre, anti-oxidants and loads of essential vitamins: fruit and veg are packed with the ingredients to support your immune system, take care of your gut and make you feel good.

How about a handful of blueberries with yoghurt as a speedy dessert?

Or microwaving a sweet potato to go with your salad?

Or roasting beetroot with butternut squash for dinner?

4.      Be green

There’s really no such thing as a “superfood”, but if there were, dark green leafy vegetables would be strong contenders.

Broccoli, cabbage, sprouts, watercress, spinach, kale… these are nutrient-dense and can easily be added to your usual meals.

Frozen chopped spinach all but disappears in pasta sauces and chilli but is a rich source of vitamins and minerals; sliced brussels sprouts are fantastic in stir-frys, coleslaw and curries; watercress takes any sandwich or salad to the next level.

Even adding one of these to your meals each week is a good start, just choose your favourite and go for it!

 5.      Look out for UPFs

There is increasing evidence that Ultra Processed Foods (UPFs) have a negative effect on our health.

Tending to be high in sugar, salt, fat or all three, these are foods that have been developed to be super tasty but usually have poor nutritional value and are calorie-dense. They are the kind of products that contain ingredients you wouldn’t find in a regular domestic kitchen: emulsifiers, chemical preservatives / flavourings / colourings and loads of different types of sugar (fructose, corn syrup, glucose, crystalline sucrose, dextrose, maltose, and more).

UPFs are a part of modern life, and there’s no need to avoid them completely. However, swapping some out of your diet can help you avoid energy crashes and give your body more of what it needs to function at its best.

• Try limiting the chocolate to once a week and always choose the best quality that you can

• Swap your basic moreish biscuit for a sexier version (eg dark chocolate with ginger), so it’s more satisfying and less “scoffable”

• Aim for the 80/20 split: 80% of your food intake comes from healthier, whole food sources, with 20% from the other kind

So, to finish, the key to getting healthier is to start small

Choose one of the areas above to begin with and pick one suggestion to try. Then over the next few weeks, see if you can add some extras in – before you know it, you’ll have overhauled your diet, have more energy and be well on the way to smashing those resolutions!

A big thanks to the lovely, Hampshire-based, Kate Houldsworth, for this blog. Kate is a food nutritionist, helping people to explode the myths of 'quick fix diets' and to educate us all to eat a little more healthily. Find out more about about all that Kate has to offer by clicking here