Happy New Year to all my followers! I hope you've all had a productive year and have achieved the goals that you set for yourselves throughout 2015 and are enjoying the time off with family and friends.

It's the time of year where we start thinking about resolutions and new beginnings for a new year. I'd like to encourage you to think about your health goals for 2016 over the next few days and weeks. What would you like to achieve and where would you like to be a year from now?

My New Year fitness resolution for 2016 is to exercise 5 times per week. This will be broken up into 3 resistance training session per week and 2 cardiovascular sessions per week (this is what the Mayo Clinic recommends for healthy adults). I don’t intend cutting corners on this however I am planning on taking my daughter for long walks or treks using one of Snuggly Cuddles slings and counting this as a cardiovascular session – I'm not sure if the Mayo Clinic would see it that way!

I also have a nutrition resolution for 2016. I'm going to try and eliminate the main white carbohydrates from my diet and replace them with healthy alternatives. What are the main white carbs? White bread, rice and pasta as well as potatoes are the ‘Big 4’ white carbohydrates. I’ll replace the first three with their healthier wholegrain equivalent and I’ll use sweet potatoes instead of the high sugar standard potato. I already eat a lot of wholegrains so I do have a head start on this although it’s not without its challenges. Firstly I don’t believe I can completely replace these foodstuffs in my diet until I am back Ireland or at least fully in control of my diet (white carbs are quite dominant in Brazil). Secondly, removing the potato from an Irishman’s diet sounds like something only a comedian would say but I do love a challenge!

What health goals will you set for 2016? Are you planning on sharing them with anyone? Why not tell everyone about them on Office Worker Health and hold yourself accountable! Alternatively, I started a  LinkedIn group during 2015 to promote health and wellbeing for office workers. It's a community of likeminded individuals that share a common interest in becoming and staying as healthy as they can be while balancing work and family life. I’ll be sharing my health goals for 2016 on the forum and I encourage you all to do the same. If you don’t want to make your goals public that’s no problem, you can still join and follow all the discussions.

I’ll also be sharing and tracking my goals and providing lots more health tips on the Office Worker Health Facebook and Twitter pages throughout 2016 so be sure to follow me there. You can also join my mailing list where I’ll be announcing some exciting news early in the New Year so be sure to sign up!

The very best of luck with your New Year goal setting. Wishing you all a happy, healthy and peaceful New Year.

Brian