It can feel as though maintaining a healthy lifestyle is a challenge that is impossible to live up to within the realities of daily life. It can be hard to keep up with the demands of work, eating healthily, training, spending time with your loved ones, and other wellness practices. Healthy living can incorporate all of these things if you want it to, but it doesn’t have to be defined by complicated plans for health and fitness. A lot of healthy living is actually made up of small things that we do every day. These things are small enough to not feel momentous, but when you do them consistently over time, they will add up to produce results. It’s less about fad and more about sustainable practices –whether with regards to your diet, exercise, sleep or work habits.
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Here are some simple tips to lead a healthier, happier life. All of these things are simple, easy things that be easily incorporated into your daily life.
- Drink a glass of water first thing in the morning. Coffee is great, but it’s better for your body to start the day by re-hydrating with a big glass of water. Hydrating first thing in the morning will help to aid your digestion, improve the health of your skin, and lift your energy levels.
- Take the stairs. Taking the stairs instead of using the elevator is a very simple way to get a bit more physical activity into your daily life. It also strengthens and tones your legs and your core at the same time.
- Make half of your plate vegetables. A simple change to make for healthy eating and better portion control is to make half of every plate your eat vegetables at every meal. Vegetables have essential vitamins, minerals, and nutrients that are important for your health and longevity. Because vegetables are rich in fiber, they will aid your digestion and help you feel fuller for longer. If you are worried about your digestion, Gut Microbiome Testing can help you to find any underlying issues.
- Track your steps. Using a fitness tracker, like a Fitbit, Apple Watch, or the step counter built into your phone to track your steps every day is an easy way to make sure that you’re being physically active enough every day. We aim for around 10,000 steps on a daily basis, which can have significant benefits for your mental and physical wellbeing. A fitness tracker can also remind you to get in 250 steps every hour.
- Switch to non-toxic household cleaning products. A lot of conventional household cleaning products are packed with harmful chemical ingredients that not good for our health and can be dangerous for children and pets. An easy way to reduce your exposure to these toxins in your home is to switch to healthier alternatives for your cleaning products.
- Use non-toxic skincare and personal care products. Like cleaning products, conventional skincare and personal care products are made with toxic ingredients that we should not let our body’s largest organ, the skin, regularly absorb. Switch to non-toxic personal care and beauty products instead.
- Take probiotics daily. Maintaining a healthy gut has a lot of good impacts on digestion, skin health, immunity, mental health, and more. Take a daily probiotic with your morning glass of water to improve your gut health, which will in turn improve your overall health at the same time.
- Eat real food. Try to eat food that is made of whole food ingredients that you would have in your own kitchen pantry, and that your grandparents would recognize. This will rule out a lot of prepackaged food. This does differ from only aiming to eat healthy foods, as many of these are increasingly processed. Real food would include unprocessed foods like cucumber, an apple, soybeans, or a steak, as well as some foods that have been loosely processed from one or only a few real-food ingredients, like butter, tofu, yogurt, or olive oil. To put it simply, aim to mostly eat foods that could be reasonably made in your own kitchen and avoid foods that can only be made in a food lab.
- Stand up every 30 minutes while working. Reduce the harmful effects of sitting for long periods by standing up and moving around for a minute or two every half hour.
- Get sunlight every day. Vitamin D is one of the most important nutrients for your health, and the sunlight is one of the best ways to get it. Try to get at least 30 minutes of sunlight each day, or supplement with Vitamin D if you can’t get much sun.
- Find a movement practice you love. If you love to run, go do it! However, if you LOATHE the idea of putting on your running shoes, then that will never be a sustainable healthy habit. Sustainable habits have to have their roots in something you already like, so find something that attracts you and do it, a little every single day! Not sure what you like? Check out the Thrive Yoga and Wellness Youtube Channel. You’ll find a variety of free workout videos from Yoga, Pilates, Strength Training, Circuits and more! And don’t forget to subscribe!