It’s the beginning of a new year, and you’re probably thinking about starting the year off right! Let 2023 be the year where you embrace personal and environmental changes!

By taking care of ourselves it impacts our mental health; it helps maintain our stress levels better, improves our relationships and increases our self-esteem.  Not only is taking care of ourselves important, so too is the environment we live in, which we can all improve with a few little changes.

Here are 6 positive ideas to try in 2023:

Become more active

If you work at a desk or work from home, it is so easy to find yourself sitting for too long without moving your body. This can result in stiffness, poor blood circulation, back pain etc, none of which are great for your health.

If you work at a desk a lot, try to be more active throughout the day. There are a few ways you can do this and adapt some better habits:

– Get up a little earlier and walk around the block

– Take your dog for a walk before you start working

– Try to get out at lunchtime for 10 minutes for a walk and have a quick walk in the evenings

– Don’t drive if you need to go somewhere that’s within walking distance.

With more regular walks throughout your day it can provide structure to your day better, especially if you work from home.

Support local businesses

Over the last few years, COVID-19 has had an impact on a lot of local small businesses, resulting in many closing. Now more than ever we need to be supporting local shops and businesses, so instead of going to a supermarket or shopping online maybe choose to shop in your community.

The other way you can support your local businesses are:

– Take a night off from cooking and treat yourself to a takeaway

– Treat your family to vouchers for gifts to local restaurants

– Buy presents from local independent shops

– Give a shout-out on social media to your favourite local businesses

– Choose local tradesman

– Leave positive reviews online

Stop wasting energy

With the rise in gas and electricity costs, its made many of us become more aware of the energy we use and the various ways to cut down on wasted energy.

Did you know that £4.4 billion a year is wasted by leaving lights on at home?!

Here are some simple tips for helping you to reduce your own energy waste:

– Take shorter showers – Saves £95 a year

– Wash at 30 degrees – Saves £34 a year

– Draught-proof gaps – Saves £125

For more tips visit: https://bit.ly/3I1gzbH

Cut back on food waste

Did you know that ‘Every single day in the UK, 20 million slices of bread, 5.8 million potatoes, and 1.3 million apples are wasted, according to the non-profit organisation.’ https://bit.ly/3vbPNpq

With only a few changes you can reduce your food waste:

1. Fridge should be between 0-5c, any warmer and your food will go off quicker
2. Freeze your vegetables if they are going out of date
3. Measure your portions
4. Freeze dairy products
5. Freeze bread as you can always take out one or two slices as you need it
6. Store food correctly, read the manufacturers guidance
7. Use leftovers for lunch the next day
8. Make homemade stock from leftover scraps
9. Compost leftover foods
10. Pack your own lunch

Cut back on dairy

The dairy food group is one many of us consume as it’s full of nutrients like calcium, but for some people it can cause issues with acne, digestion, weight loss, and thyroid issues.

Making the transition to plant-based dairy products is one way to cut it out or reduce the amount of dairy your having. You can choose to swap your milk products with alternatives such as oat, coconut or soya, here are some alternatives to help swap the other dairy products other than milk:

– Ghee can be used instead of butter

– Yeast extract or soya cream cheese can be instead of cheese

– Making your own salad dressing dairy-free

– Dairy free, soy and coconut alternatives

– Swap sandwich toppings for meat or avocado toppings

Dairy isn’t the only food group you can cut down for health reasons, so if there is another food group that you struggle with its worth reducing or cutting it out to help you stay healthy.

Learn a new skill

If you are looking to make a career change, or progress in your workplace or there is something you have been meaning to do but don’t know how, then learning a new skill will help.

You can learn a new skill in many different ways that can suit your lifestyle from online classes, to YouTube tutorials or local colleges. All skills can help you professionally or personally.  The 5 key benefits to learning a new skill are:

1. It can keep you healthy as it keeps your mind engaged and body active
2. Learning is exciting and rewarding especially if it can help you grow professionally
3. It can help create opportunities for your career
4. It can show your adaptability and a willingness to learn new skills
5. It can keep you relevant

 If you are thinking of making a career change or looking for a new role, we can help you start 2023 with a new job.