4 fitness hacks to improve your health in 2023

Looking to improve your health in 2023? Here are the hacks I learned throughout my own fitness journey in the past year

I’ll be honest: health and fitness was the last thing on my mind until the tail end of 2021. I was what would be considered “fit” for a brief period in my junior college days—doing sports like canoeing and dragonboat (shocker, I know)—and my army days, but I much preferred to enjoy myself throughout university and my early career. Regular exercise was not something that I was inclined to do, and I was lucky to enjoy some pretty amazing experiences in my job as a journalist. I mean, how could you say no to tastings at Singapore’s top restaurants and being sent delectable treats when the festive season comes around?

That is, until December 2021, when I went for a health check-up with my doctor and found out that I had the triple whammy at the ripe old age of 32: high blood pressure, high cholesterol and high glucose levels. “Please go and lose weight,” my doctor told me. “I don’t want to put you on medication for the rest of your life.” Man, what a wake up call that was. Walking out of the clinic, I made a resolution for 2022: to get fit and healthy by the end of the year.

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Fitness instructor assisting athletic woman in exercising with dumbbells at gym.

Above Photo: GettyImages

I definitely tried gymming on my own in the past before, but I felt that to truly make a change, I would need professional guidance. So I asked around and my friends recommended that I try Ultimate Performance (UP), a boutique personal training gym that guaranteed “results not promises”. I’d heard of their intense 12-week training program, and while it initially balked me, I bit the bullet and committed to it, keeping in mind my resolution for 2022.

I won’t say that it was easy—after a long period of leading an inactive lifestyle, getting back into resistance training with weights, getting my cardio level up and making more conscious food choices was a shock. The first two months were tough, but I saw the results in my training over time and it kept me motivated to keep going. All in all, I spent a total of 10 months training at UP, eventually hitting what I used to weigh in junior college (my initial benchmark), and losing a whopping 28kg in the process.

If you’re looking to make a change in your fitness habits and improve your health this new year, here are some tips that I learned from my experience with the experts at UP to kickstart your journey.

1. Get into a routine

Above Victor Freitas/Unsplash

Set time aside every week to really focus on your health. It could be something as easy as committing to training three times a week in the gym (say, Monday, Wednesday and Friday) for an hour each or waking up to walk for an hour, whether it’s on the treadmill or around your estate. But the most important thing? Consistency. Once you’ve determined a schedule that works best for you, stick with it.

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2. Drink enough water and get enough sleep

Above Mae Mu/Unsplash

Water and sleep are two things that the modern working person does not get enough of—and doesn’t realise it. We’ve heard it before, but it definitely bears repeating: aim to get six to eight hours of sleep a night, and to drink at least three litres of water throughout the day. I personally found it helpful to buy a one-litre water bottle to track how much I was drinking in a day.

3. Walk 8 to 10k steps a day

Above Emma Simpson/Unsplash

Walking has been found to be extremely effective in keeping off the pounds, staving off heart disease, and high blood pressure, among others, and it was the first thing that my trainer started me off doing. An average person should be getting between 8,000 to 10,000 steps a day to maintain a healthy lifestyle, but it was a bit daunting to start off at 10,000 steps a day right off the bat. What I found helpful was to opt to walk short distances throughout the day, or waking up early to get my steps in. Start off by setting a goal of 8,000 steps, then slowly work your way to 10,000 over time.

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4. Be mindful of what you eat

Above Ella Olsson/Unsplash

Of course, diet plays an important role in any fitness journey, and what I learned was that a good diet should be high in protein, moderate in carbohydrates and low in fat. Protein takes longer to digest and keeps you full for a longer period of time, while carbohydrates are essential for you to train efficiently. Carbs are not the enemy!

Of course, these are just my personal learnings that I can share from my experience and not professional fitness advice. For a more tailor-made fitness journey, I would still recommend heading to a personal training studio like UP to learn from qualified pros.

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Tatler Asia

New year, new you: fitness hacks to improve your health in 2023

1. Get into a routine

2. Drink enough water and get enough sleep

3. Walk 8 to 10k steps a day

4. Be mindful of what you eat