Tips to Live a Healthier Lifestyle One Day At a Time
With as busy as our lives are these days, we all want to be healthier. We want to get a good night’s sleep. We want to be able to eat whatever we want. We want to find time to exercise and we want to live our best lives. Bottom line: we all want to be healthy. In fact, 55% of Americans worry greatly about their health.
But living healthy and being healthy doesn’t happen overnight. Healthy living is the result of creating a routine that you follow from the minute you wake up, to the minute you go to bed at night, and sticking to that routine.
There are many things you can do to lead a healthy lifestyle, but understand this: being healthy isn’t going to happen overnight. Living a healthy lifestyle is a one day at a time process where you make healthy decisions and commit to taking care of yourself.
With that in mind, here are some helpful tips to live a healthier lifestyle:
Start The Day Off Right
One of the best tips to live a healthier lifestyle is setting yourself up for success every morning. Believe it or not, the routine you have in the morning can have a ripple effect on how the rest of your day is going to go. If you wake up refreshed and full of energy, then chances are good you’re going to be productive. If you wake up tired and lethargic, you may not be as productive if you want to be.
So how can you be more productive in the morning? Here are some helpful ideas:
- It’s important that you try to set a schedule for your day. Without a schedule, it can be very easy for a day to pass where you get nothing done. The best thing you can do is make a schedule, or at least a list of tasks that you want to get done.
- It’s also a good idea to remove distractions before you get to work. With so many apps on our phones, it can be hard to ignore notifications from social media or email, but spending time on these things takes you away from being productive when you need to be. To increase your productivity, put your phone down, or maybe even turn it off. When it comes time for a break, allow yourself a few minutes to respond to a personal email or look at social media sites.
- You also want to make sure that you eat breakfast every morning. You’ve heard since you were a kid that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. That doesn’t change when you’re an adult. Having a nice balanced breakfast can give you the fuel you need to be productive and can stop you from overdoing it on lunch and dinner later in the day. If you find yourself in a hurry in the morning, grab a tasty vanilla meal replacement so you can have some nutrition to start your day.
Exercise, But Start Slow
There are many helpful tips to live a healthier lifestyle but you can use, but one of the most important might be to just start slow. Being healthier doesn’t mean you have to overhaul your entire lifestyle overnight.
That’s very true when it comes to exercise. If you’re looking to get into shape, understand that you’re not going to gain 20 pounds of muscle or lose 10 pounds in a week. Nothing says you immediately have to go out and join a gym, though if exercise becomes a bigger part of your everyday routine, that’s definitely a good option.
By taking baby steps, you can set yourself up for future success. Exercising might be as simple as doing a few laps around your neighborhood. It might mean running on your treadmill for five minutes. It might mean doing some stretches.
If you’re interested in making running a part of your daily routine, find a local running partner who can show you how to run properly. Running properly involves breathing exercises, stretching, proper arm movement, and an experienced runner can show you how to do it right and how to have fun with it.
As long as your active, you’re setting yourself up for success and giving yourself a foundation to build on.
Make Healthy Eating Choices
There are many tips to live a healthier lifestyle you can use. But when it comes to living healthier, everyone always looks at food. Again, you don’t have to overhaul your eating habits immediately. But you can make small changes that might eventually lead you to make healthier choices down the road.
Changing up your eating habits isn’t always as easy as it looks. After all, it’s easy to give into temptation at the grocery store and load up on foods that aren’t healthy. But you can set yourself up for future success by choosing one meal every day that you’re going to make a healthy meal. Instead of eating sugary cereal for breakfast, you can choose oatmeal or toast and fruit. Instead of getting fast food for lunch, you can make a salad.
Another helpful tip when it comes to food is to practice portion control. We all have our favorite foods that we love to pig out on. But if you’ve never read nutrition labels, chances are good that you’re putting a lot of empty calories into your body. You can still enjoy your favorite foods, just read the labels, and try to stick to the recommended serving size. The same goes for bigger meals when you’re eating lunch or dinner. Try to stick to a reasonable serving size, and cut out or reduce second helpings.
It’s true there are many tips to live a healthier lifestyle, but if you’re looking for one you can use starting tomorrow, use this one: drink more water. Drinking water is a surefire way to keep you hydrated and is a lot healthier for you than drinking sugary drinks or alcohol. If you want to start taking water with you to work, update the water softener system in your home, so that you have fresh, clean, good-tasting tap water to fill your water bottle up with.
Don’t Forget About Wellness Appointments
There are many tips to live a healthier lifestyle that can be useful in your life. While eating right, and setting a morning routine are important, so are wellness appointments.
Even if you don’t get sick very often, it’s important that you see your primary doctor on a regular basis. At the very least you can get a yearly physical just to make sure that your body is in ship shape. Seeing your doctor can help you cut off any potential health issues at the pass, and it gives you a chance to address any concerns you’ve got.
The same thing goes for trips to a local dental clinic. Go in a few times a year for a cleaning to keep a healthy mouth. A visit to a dentist can also help you if you’re in need of braces for adults. Getting braces, even as an adult, can help straighten your teeth, promote gum health and, help keep your mouth clean.
Wellness appointments are even more important for folks who are currently in drug addiction treatment. Whether they’ve just come out of rehab or are continuing to recover at a halfway house or at home, wellness appointments can help those in recovery monitor their progress and get input from medical professionals on what they need to do to stay healthy.
Get Some Sleep
Nothing can derail plans to live a healthier lifestyle faster than being tired. Think about it: how many times have you said yourself, “Today’s the day I’m going to start going to the gym.” But when the alarm clock rings, you turn it off and go back to sleep. How many days do you wake up feeling lethargic, wishing that you had more sleep?
Another of the most important tips to live a healthier lifestyle is to set a routine for sleeping. That means trying to get to bed at the same time every night. That means limiting distractions like your phone. That means turning the TV off, turning the phone off, and maybe doing some light reading before bed.
By establishing a good sleep routine, you’re going to wake up feeling refreshed and ready to get to work. It’s also going to improve your mood, your sexual health, and also your overall health. If you find your sleep being interrupted by allergies, buy some hypoallergenic pillow cases. They’ll help improve your breathing and help you get good, quality rest.
If you’re used to being a night owl, try this: try going to bed a half hour earlier. Then after you’ve done that for a week or so, go to bed a half hour earlier. Eventually, you’ll establish a routine where you’re going to bed at a reasonable hour instead of staying up all night and paying for it in the morning.
Clean Your Living Space
On your list of tips to live a healthier lifestyle, don’t forget to clean your house or your apartment. Not only can this keep your place clean, but it also can improve your overall motivation to be healthy.
A clean house can do wonders if you’re committing to a healthier lifestyle. It can keep pests away and just make your house look a lot cleaner. Even if cleaning isn’t your thing, simple steps taken every day can keep your place spic and span. Take out the trash. Do the dishes. Sweep the kitchen floor. Vacuum highly trafficked areas of your home. If you rely a lot on electronics in everyday life—and let’s be honest—who doesn’t–you can also afford yourself some lightning protection by plugging in surge protectors in your home, so that vital electronics, such as a smart watch, are available to use at all times.
Don’t Skimp On Repairs
An important part of living a healthy lifestyle also involves knowing when things need to be repaired. After all, if things are broken or malfunctioning in your home, it can affect your plans to live a clean and healthy lifestyle. If it’s getting toward summertime and your home’s HVAC system is malfunctioning, call a local contractor who specializes in AC repair, so you can have cool air to help you sleep better and to cool you off after a long run.
Have Some Fun
There are plenty of tips to live a healthier lifestyle that have plenty to do with routine and balance. But an important part of living a healthy lifestyle is having some fun too.
If you’re a big outdoors enthusiast, who loves to hunt, fish, camp, and ride ATVs, visit a local ATV dealer in your area and look into getting one. Having your own ATV can allow you to enjoy all your favorite outdoor activities and it gives you an escape when you’re looking to take a break from the hustle and bustle of life. Establishing a routine for a healthier lifestyle is a process, but that doesn’t mean you can’t schedule some time to enjoy life.
Establish A Routine
The best tips to live a healthier lifestyle undoubtedly involve establishing a routine of some kind. Whether you schedule hour-long blocks of time designated for specific tasks or you come up with a general task list, having a routine in some form or fashion can help you stay on top of things.
If you can establish a routine and stick to it, you’ll undoubtedly be surprised at how your life changes. You’ll be happier, healthier, and ready to meet whatever challenges life throws your way. The important thing is to keep things in perspective. Do what works for you.
By drinking more water every day, going to bed a little earlier, eating healthier, and taking some time to exercise, you can establish a routine that works and you can change your life for the better, one day at a time.