By now, your anxiety about looking good in a bathing suit has passed for another year and those New Year’s resolutions are long forgotten. But that does not mean you should ignore your health. Good health is literally a lifetime necessity.

Here is a brief list of things anyone can do to improve their health and feel the effects immediately.

When patients come in to the University of Washington Clinics, the first thing checked is what they eat, according to Dr. Peter McGough, chief medical officer for the UW Clinics. Why does it matter? According to McGough, as little as a 5-percent weight loss can help lower blood pressure, increase the quality of sleep and increase the patient’s energy.

In short, it not only does good things for their bodies, it makes them feel good.

“This is something that helps right away,” McGough said, as changing to a healthy diet will naturally cause weight loss in most people.

Eating less is one part of a healthy diet. According to McGough, adults need 2,000 to 2,400 calories a day. As people age, they need less caloric intake. Older people (senior citizens, if you will) require 1,500 calories or less. So a key is not ingesting too many calories and not eating too much saturated fat, the kind you find in red meat, for example. Besides including vegetables in your diet, eating more chicken and fish in place of fatty meats in a good idea.

“What surprises people is this is still absolutely bedrock for us,” McGough said. You have heard it all your life, and mother was right: Eat your vegetables, avoid fats and don’t eat too much.

A second problem is that so many people are inactive, according to McGough. You don’t need to actually exercise (though a one-hour workout four times a week is ideal), but move around. Sedentary lifestyles — sitting all day in front of a computer, parking as close as possible to your destination and vegging out evenings on the couch — tend to be self-perpetuating: People who are inactive become increasingly tired and weak.

If going to a gym is not an option, then walk a little farther than normal, suggests McGough. Walk across the parking lot. Recreational social walks with friends are a popular and effective way to keep up muscle strength, hips and core muscles.

Rainy days are perfect for enclosed

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