The start of a new year brings a fresh opportunity to target healthy habits. Not sure where to start? Emma Lugten, medical communications manager at Withings, recommends focusing on a few easy-to-implement strategies that sync well with your day-to-day life:

• Be realistic about your goals. Start with manageable, actionable targets you’re likely to maintain. Challenge yourself, for example, to add a fresh vegetable to every meal or walk at least 20 minutes three times a week. Setting sudden, lofty nutrition or workout goals — if you’re not already used to those habits — can quickly lead to burnout or discouragement. Instead, prioritize accessible daily actions that create building blocks to larger, positive routines.
• Identify targets through personal data. Through smartwatches, wearable fitness monitors, smart scales and even specialized sleep trackers, we can access customized information about many aspects of our daily health. In the coming year, draw on these insights to help shape healthier habits. For some, that might mean limiting phone scrolling before bed to improve sleep quality. For others, it might include trying a yoga or meditation app to lower blood pressure. Personalized data is a great tool for identifying patterns — both positive as well as those needing improvement — in your overall health routine.  
• Find what works for you. There will always be social media noise surrounding new nutrition fads, trending exercise plans and “must-have” fitness equipment. Remember that the coolest water bottle or latest workout routine might not be the one you’re likely to use the most. Look at your own needs and interests, rather than at social media, when setting your personal health goals for the year. Building healthy habits is about choosing steps that make sense and work for your life and schedule — not trying to force strategies that may work for someone else.
• Make meal planning a priority. It can be easy to default to fast food and other less-healthy meal options in the middle of a busy week. To break those patterns, use weekends to plan and pre-prep nutritious dinners that you can heat and enjoy in minutes. For extra busy nights, turn to simple sheet pan meals, like chicken or fish paired with chopped sweet potatoes.
• Let go of perfectionism. We all run into roadblocks to our nutrition and fitness goals from time to time. If you adopt an all-or-nothing approach to your health goals, it can feel tempting to throw in the towel if you make a single misstep. Instead, look for daily wins, no matter how small. If your schedule prevents an hour at the gym, maybe you can work in a 15-minute walk after dinner. Remember, small, healthy steps are better than no steps at all.

Taking more control of your health and fitness doesn’t require overhauling your entire life. By starting with simple, consistent steps, you can build healthy habits that you’ll actually want to stick with throughout the coming year — and well beyond.