Most people want to be healthier but finding ways to live a healthier lifestyle can be tricky. When you’re working full-time, studying for upcoming exams or caring for those around you, prioritising your own well-being is often overlooked.
However, living healthier doesn’t have to be a challenging transition. Instead of overhauling your life in major ways, making small but sustainable changes could be more effective. To help you find ways to enjoy an improved lifestyle right away, take a look at these simple tips and start living healthier today…
Exercise every day
Incorporating daily exercise into your schedule doesn’t mean finding time to hit the gym every morning or running for miles every night. However, a moderate amount of regular exercise can have a beneficial impact on all aspects of your life, so it’s well worth doing. A brisk walk or even dancing around your bedroom all counts as cardiovascular exercise, so find something that works for you and make it a part of your everyday life.
Quit smoking
If you’re a smoker, you’ve probably thought about quitting countless times. Despite widespread knowledge of the health risks associated with smoking tobacco, people still find it very difficult to resist temptation.
By replacing standard cigarettes with an alternative, however, you can quit tobacco for good and reduce the risk to your health. Many people choose to vape instead of smoking due to the reduced health risks associated with e-liquids. Similarly, some people use nicotine patches or gum to help them give up normal cigarettes. While changing a long-term habit is never easy, using nicotine replacement products can make the challenge far easier. With so many benefits to be gained from quitting smoking, switching to a safer alternative is one of the best things you can do for your health.
Eat more veggies
When people think about living a healthier lifestyle, they automatically assume they’re going to have to go on a diet. However, diets are rarely effective, regardless of what your goals are. Even relatively moderate diets can cause subsequent weight gain if you revert back to your usual eating patterns, so they’re unlikely to have long-term health benefits. Furthermore, diets which are too restrictive can actually cause a wide range of health problems, which is the opposite of what you want to achieve.
If you’re not ready to cut out junk foods or fizzy drinks just yet, commit to eating more healthy things instead. Adding an extra two portions of vegetables to your day is remarkably easy, so you’ll barely notice a change to your diet, but you will get the added health benefits.
As you’ll be focused on treating your body well, rather than depriving it of something you enjoy, you’ll find it easier to stick to your nutrition plan. Over time, you may even find that you enjoy eating more healthily, at which point you may want to explore reducing your intake of fatty or processed foods.
Get more rest
If you find that you’re constantly tired or lethargic, it’s highly likely you’re not getting enough rest. According to the NHS, the average adult needs 6-9 hours of sleep per night but very few of us actually sleep well. As a result, we’re living a fast-paced lifestyle but not giving our bodies enough time to repair themselves.
Excess stress or anxiety can be a major barrier to getting good sleep, so find ways to help your mind and body relax. Many people find a few minutes of meditation or mindfulness helps reduce anxiety and eliminate worries, so you may want to try this before you go to bed every night.
In addition to this, a good sleep hygiene routine can help you to reset your approach to sleep. If you regularly fall asleep in front of the television or you look at your phone when you wake up in the night, you’re not creating the best environment for your body to get more rest. Instead of waiting until you’re too exhausted to function to sleep, create a relaxing haven in your bedroom and commit to giving yourself the opportunity to fall asleep without disruptions.
Make Living Healthier Easy
If you’ve tried to adopt a healthier lifestyle before and it hasn’t worked out, there’s no need to worry. Learning to live healthily can take time and finding what works for you might involve some trial and error. By making small changes, however, you can maintain them over a long period of time and look forward to feeling better and brighter in no time at all.