Buddy Edge

However we’re planning on getting fitter, whether it’s taking up a new sport, hitting the gym or making our diet healthier, try to enlist a friend to do it with us. We’ll push each other to stay on track and have someone who’ll sympathise when the going gets tough. If no-one springs to mind, then join a local club or online community and we’ll make a whole bunch of new friends that share our interest.

There is tendency for people who sleep very little to brag about it, as if it’s an indication of their commitment to life. However, getting the full seven to eight hours is vital to a healthy lifestyle, as it provides the energy for our exercise and even influences dietary choices – We found that in the day following a night of limited sleep, people ate an extra 385 calories on average. We don't snooze, to lose us.

Eating at least five portions of fruit and veg a day should be at the cornerstone of our healthy diet plan. What’s not wise is getting in a rut and eating the same five every day, because different types of fruit and veg contain different vitamins and minerals. A good way to vary our five-a-day is to eat different colours, as the hue is a decent indication of the nutrients they contain.

Nothing derails a health kick as quickly as injury, and many serious knocks will start out as mild niggles we think it’s OK to push through. Easing back for a few days is better than being laid up for a few months. If we have an urgent desire to hit the gym, target a different part of the body from the one that’s bothering us.

Up The Intensity If You’re Short On Time, Official NHS guidelines still promote the 150 minutes of moderate activity a week minimum, but now offer an alternative option of 75 minutes of vigorous activity a week. That’s running or singles tennis, for example, rather than cycling or walking, which count as moderate. We can also mix the two, so 60 minutes of vigorous cardio plus 30 of moderate will see our home. Bear in mind the guidelines also demand strength exercises on two or more days a week alongside your aerobic activity.

We can be skinny on the outside (at least our arms and legs), but fat on the inside. Visceral fat is the type that builds up around our organs and often results in a pot belly. It’s linked with heart disease, several cancers and type 2 diabetes. Grab a piece of string and use it to measure our height, then halve it. If it doesn’t fit around our waist, get exercising – visceral fat is the first type to go when we start working out.

When we start on a fitness kick, it’s tempting to exercise every day while motivation is high. This is a bad move, and one that will see our enthusiasm burn out within weeks, because we’re always knackered and won’t see the massive improvements that we expect for our Herculean efforts. We’re not giving our muscles the time they need to recover and grow.

It’s the oldest quick fitness fix in the book, take the stairs not the escalator, or get off the bus a stop early and walk. Any activity is good activity, and will only encourage us to do more. And if we really want to up the ante, try sprinting up the stairs (safely now) each time we take them – a recent study found that short bursts of high-intensity stair-climbing can make a significant difference to our cardiorespiratory fitness.

If we invest in a fitness tracker, don’t just sit back and assume that following the preset targets will lead us to glory. Adjust the steps, active minutes and calorie targets regularly to build on our progress, or make them more realistic if we never get close and have started to ignore them. If we don’t engage with our fitness tech, we’ll quickly discard it.

The fast track to a better diet is found by using our weekends wisely. Use the extra time that we have on Saturday and Sunday to meal prep, making large batches of healthy meals that we can portion up to cover at least a couple of midweek lunches and dinners, avoiding the dietary perils of takeaways and meal deals.

Variety is – cliché alert! – the spice of life, and many sports and activities support each other in ways we won’t realize until we try it. For example, strength training for our legs and core will make us a better runner, while those addicted to dumbbells will find Pilates works muscles they’d never even considered.