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Every New Year’s Eve, my father would write down his new year’s resolutions on little pieces of paper. We never really knew what he wrote on these papers, as in keeping with Spanish tradition, he would burn them. This morning I’ve written out my new year’s resolutions for my patients. No matches required!

Here goes:

1. Get Inflammation Under Control: I use a combination of supplements, including curcumin and fish oil. This not only makes your pain and joints feel better, it also may help with overall health. See my blog on controlling inflammation.
2. A Veggie Clean Shake Fast: This is a great way to start out your new year! This is a shake-based meal supplement that is rich in vegetable proteins and nutrients for two meals a day and then one clean meal. The program I usually recommend is called CLEAN.
3. Ubiome: This kit tests your gut-microbiome composition. I’ve blogged extensively about how this can affect everything from sugar metabolism to your brain. I just sent my first sample off, and I’m excited to see the results. The goal is to see if you’re deficient in or have way too much of a bacteria that can cause issues.
4. Get ProActive: Start finding all the little things that are wrong with your body that may soon blow up and become big problems. Read our book ProActive to help you find these problem areas. It’s also got great advice on how to one day be that guy or gal who’s 80 and still kicking it!
5. A Fasting Mimicking Diet (FMD): ProLon is a medical fast that was created by the experts who did the research on the health effects of fasting. FMD may be one way to help make your stem cells healthier.
6. Splurge on a Personal Trainer: There’s no way to get a workout at the same high intensity you can get with a personal trainer all on your own. Try to find one that focuses heavily on CORE exercises. This means that your trainer shouldn’t focus on having you lift heavier weights until your ability to stabilize your spine catches up!
7. Virtual Training: Peloton—This is a spin bike with a video monitor that has live and prerecorded spin classes that allow you to compare your intensity to hundreds of others that are online. I got one for Christmas and it’s great! It’s like having a personal spin instructor at your disposal.
8. Egoscue: This is an exercise program tailored to balance out the asymmetry in your body and help relieve pain. I love it because there are multiple ways to interact with the program. You can simply read the book or you can get on Skype with an Egoscue trainer. Or you can simply go into a clinic.
9. Get Rolfed: While this sounds like the college frat version of throwing up, it’s actually a deep-massage program designed to free up tight fascia and muscles to restore normal balanced posture. Think of it as massage on steroids!
10. Get a Posture App: PostureZone is a cool app that allows you to measure your postural asymmetry and provides exercises. You can also do this in the Orthopedics 2.0 book, but we use a different testing system. You may want to test both. (Android PostureZone app link is here.)

The upshot? Enjoy New Year’s Eve, and have a happy new year!

Chris Centeno, MD is a specialist in regenerative medicine and the new field of Interventional Orthopedics. Centeno pioneered orthopedic stem cell procedures in 2005 and is responsible for a large amount of the published research on stem cell use for orthopedic applications. View Profile