Stop feeling sorry for yourself, take control of your life and make it better. Kicking some of your old habits might be hard, but you’ll reap the benefits. If you make the effort, your mental health and energy will improve, and you’ll lower the risk of becoming ill.
1. Eat More Fruit and Vegetables
Does meat make a regular appearance on your menu? Consider swapping out the meat for a few days every week and replace it with lots of fruits and vegetables. Leafy greens, in particular, are useful to include in your menu because they’re high in vitamins and antioxidants. These are the substances that provide a boost for your immune system and help prevent certain types of cancer. They also help fight degenerative eye disease, promote healthy skin and benefit your wellbeing in general. Include fruits and vegetables as part of your regular diet, and you’ll have a better chance of fighting off diseases and keeping your heart healthy.
2. Exercise More
Any activity is better than sitting around all day not doing a lot, but the recommended amount of activity is at least two-and-a-half hours of moderate-intensity activity every week. It’s up to you how you do it. You could spend an hour at the gym a couple of times a week or spread your activity out over the whole seven days. If you’d rather take this approach, experts recommend around 10,000 steps every day is ample activity.
If you want to get really serious about your exercise, there’s nothing wrong with that either. The hormones that are released when you exercise can be very exhilarating. Many people choose to devote their life to exercise and healthy living and become personal trainers. If you’d like to gain this kind of qualification, OriGym can provide an online accredited course.
3. Drink More Water
You’ve got many options when it comes to keeping yourself and your body hydrated. However, nothing beats water. As well as hydrating your body, it offers nourishment and improves well-being. For the best results, aim to drink eight glasses, or 64 ounces of water every day. It helps cleanse toxins from your body, energizes the mind and body, helps control weight gain, improves the activity of your brain and balances your body temperature.
4. Learn How to Relax and Destress
Do you feel stressed right now? If you don’t, were you stressed this morning, last night or yesterday? Our lives are so busy it can be challenging to find the time to unwind, relax and stop worrying about the world for just a few hours. Learning how to relax is vital if you want to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Find something you enjoy doing, switch off your cellphone and it can help you relax. Read a book, meditate, listen to music, watch a comedy show on the TV or take yourself off for a walk in the countryside. It doesn’t really matter what you choose to do as long as it makes you feel calm and relaxed.
5. Get a Good Night’s Sleep
Do you regularly get 7-9 hours of sleep? This is the recommended amount of sleep required by adults every night. If you don’t get that much sleep, you’re falling short of the recommended amount. It is, however, important to stress that everyone is different, and the figures are open to interpretation. If you have trouble falling asleep, there are relaxation techniques such as yoga or meditation that might help. Consider eating a small snack as this is known to help shift the mind and body into sleep mode. Try cherries, oatmeal, or wholegrain cereal with milk. Darkening your room with blackout curtains can also help, together with turning your mobile devices off and leaving them in another room.
6. Ditch the Bad Habits
Be honest with yourself when you’re thinking about your habits. Some of them, such as smoking, drug abuse, and excessive alcohol consumption are obviously going to be bad for your health. However, there are a number of other habits people consider to be not so bad. Caffeine, sugary snacks, junk food, social media, and eating meat are fine as long as they’re done in moderation.
7. Regular Checkups
Make sure you visit your doctor regularly for checkups. Several illnesses and diseases can be treated very successfully if the symptoms are noticed early enough. They’ll be able to prescribe medication that will help you stay healthy when used alongside the other steps mentioned above. They could be for controlling high blood pressure, lowering cholesterol, or treating osteoporosis.
8. Surround Yourself with Friends
Try to surround yourself with people who have healthy habits rather than toxic people. Involve your friends and family when you’re planning your meals or heading out for a walk. If you make healthy changes with a loved one, it’s going to bring you closer together.
There are a number of other things you can do to make you feel better about yourself. These include focusing on the positive, taking time for yourself, being more understanding, and living the best life possible. You know what makes you happy and you shouldn’t be afraid to walk your own path. If you’d like to increase your chances of living a long, fulfilling life take note of the eight steps above and try to incorporate them into your daily life. There aren’t any steps there that should be too challenging as long as you’re committed to becoming as healthy as you can.
