8 Simple Habits for Daily Health
Health is a big topic that we often neglect because it can be so overwhelming. If you are a busy person, you don’t have time to tackle all the things at once. Here are 8 simple ways you can change your health daily.
1. Drink Water First
Water is the simplest and best thing you can do for your body. Keeping your body hydrated not only is good for your physical health, but your brain will function better too!
Make sure to drink a glass of room temperature or warm water before you have your morning coffee. As coffee is a diuretic, you want to rehydrate before you dehydrate.
2. Walk at least once a day.
Our bodies are actually made for this movement! It is the simplest, cheapest, and easiest form of exercise and most people don’t even utilize it.
To make this into a successful habit, set aside 20-30 minutes after a meal. You’ll help your food digest and avoid the post eating bloat. Win-win!
3. Eat single ingredient food.
Like, one package at a time? Nope. I mean one ingredient. Apple. Egg. Rice. Honey. The simplest way they come: Just as God made them, minimally processed from farm to table. This may seem like it’s too easy, but most people avoid whole foods because they take time and effort to prepare. On the other hand, eating foods in their whole forms, such as fruits, vegetables, meat, eggs, and nuts, are jam-packed with nutrients and generally speaking, low in additives or risks.
You may have heard that you should stick to the perimeter of the grocery store for the healthiest foods; this is somewhat true. As grocery stores evolve, it’s common for the fresh fridge and freezer to occupy the outer sides of the store. But often there are packaged foods sitting beside the whole foods full of salt, sugar, additives, and preservatives.
Take a step now and choose foods with 1-5 ingredients and avoid the aisles filled with packages and preservatives if you can.
4. Read your labels
This goes hand in hand with 1 ingredient foods. The more ingredients on a label, the more likely the food was created using preservatives and chemicals.
Bottom line: Don’t eat food you don’t recognize. Occasionally you might find some words like syrup; this is usually an over-processed form of sugar. Instead, choose foods without added sugar or complicated names. Make sure you know what all the ingredients are. If you can’t pronounce it, chances are you don’t want it in your body.
5. Go to bed on time
Yes, I’m aware that you’re a grown adult. However, sleep is something many people lack and is the simplest thing to rest tired, achy muscles, boost your immune system, improve focus and cognitive health, balance hormones, and overall help to balance your mental health. Yet we often self-sabotage by staying up late for “just one more” episode.
Make a commitment to yourself and choose a bedtime that gives you 7-9 hours of sleep every night. Better yet, set a bedtime alarm to remind you to turn off your electronics and get yourself ready. Then, you’ll be glad you did when you wake up feeling well-rested.
6. Read things that fuel you.
With the oversaturation of social media and the soul-sucking news, it’s no wonder we find ourselves dwelling on negative thoughts. However, you have the power to control how much information you take in, and you can also dictate the kind of information you absorb.
Choose a book or take up a hobby that helps you feel happy, empowered, more intelligent, or kinder than before. You can choose to shut off social media and the news or simply limit how much time you interact with these information centers.
7. Tune Out
We spend more time than ever connected to screens and information. Sometimes we overload our brains by reading within our field after work, or researching more tips and tricks in our off time “since we have the time”. Another point of information overload can be from the people we love most and with whom we spend the most time.
Make time to disconnect officially. Shut off social media, or better yet, shut off your phone. If you’re a parent or caregiver, arrange for your dependents to be with someone else so you can spend time without the demands. You are allowing yourself that disconnect which will give you a much-needed break for your brain.
8. Practice Gratitude
Though we may be grateful for so much in our lives, we don’t always pause to acknowledge what we have or its importance. This simple practice can help remind you of the good things in your current situation without pining for the next best thing. Reminding ourselves of our bounty is especially important when we are on the busy track and reaching for bigger and better things.
Be specific and take time to mentally acknowledge or write the statement, to acknowledge or write the message “I am grateful for ABC because of XYZ. For example, I am thankful for clean water because it keeps my body healthy and energized. I am grateful for the kindness of that stranger today because their words encouraged me.
Some things might seem more accessible than others. Maybe you’re already doing some things or have done them before. The trick is starting small and choosing one thing to focus on at a time. Making small changes over time is the secret to long-lasting habits.
Put it into action: What is the one thing from this list that you want to put into practice today? What is your strategy to make it happen?
