With everything around us nowadays keeping us from being healthy, it’s hard to break out of the routine. Fall asleep? Without watching a show? Eat fruits that aren’t followed by the words “spice latte”? That’s an exaggeration, but you get the point. It’s bloody hard, and we’re going to show you how to work around those difficulties. No gyms, no complex recipes, and no diets.
Get Physical
Don’t worry, you don’t have to relocate to your gym if you don’t want to. There are two basic ways to get fit and stay fit and guess what, none of them require you to go to the gym. Create a short-yet-inclusive workout routine for yourself at home. Thirty seconds of planking (abs), 5-10 push-ups (chest, shoulders, triceps, and abs), and 10-15 squats (glutes, quads, and abs), for example. Three sets of that a day every other day, and you’ll start noticing improvements within two weeks. More than that, it’s important to shift your lifestyle from sedentary to active. If you’re always seated, don’t keep a water bottle beside you, so you’d have to take frequent trips to the kitchen/water cooler. If you usually take the elevator, use the stairs instead, that’s 15 calories per flight going up. Not to mention, it’s cardio and a leg workout rolled into one. Walk to your destinations when you can and if you take the car, park a little further from the entrance than usual, so you’d get a good walk.
Eat your Veggies
Do you know that, statistically, you probably are not getting your daily intake of vitamins and minerals? The CDC sent out a press release in 2017, declaring that according to research, only 1 in 10 adults gets their required intake of vegetables and fruits. According to the release, you should be consuming 1.5 to 2 cups of fruits and 2 to 3 cups of vegetables, but who has the time, right? The good news is that it doesn’t need to be solid fruit. You can simply change your eating habits to include more home-juiced fruits and veggies. That way, you’d be cutting out on the watered-down, sugar-loaded commercial products and getting your daily intake of vitamins and minerals all at once. Increasing your metabolic rate, losing weight, and strengthening your immune system are all within your hands. No fad diets, no grueling restrictions. Just give your body what it needs.
Sleep
Myth: you need eight hours of sleep. Fact: you need 7 to 9. Before you say it, they’re not the same thing. 7 to 9 indicates range. Meaning, some can wake up refreshed with 7 hours of sleep, but feel like hell with only 8 hours. Others may require 9 hours a day. It all depends on the person. Falling asleep isn’t as easy as it sounds, though. There is also sleep quality to take into consideration because it defines how much rest you actually get. For the best sleep quality, disconnect from electronics about half an hour before bed in order to promote the release of the sleep hormone, melatonin. More importantly, stick to a sleep schedule. Humans are creatures of habit. If you get your body used to sleeping at a certain time, your brain will start to get the message: rest time at 10:00. Meaning, you’ll reach a restful state much faster.
Alone Time
While most of the article has been dedicated to physical health, it’s also important to talk about mental and relational health. Spending quality time with yourself is vital to a healthy psyche. Not only is this the time to better understand yourself by reflecting on your thoughts and behaviors, but it’s also the time to show yourself that it’s loved and valued. It’s a surefire way to combat low self-worth and low self-esteem, which are common causes of depression and anxiety. Another consequence of being able to provide yourself with the healthy love you need and deserve is, you won’t have to settle for toxic relationships or neglectful partners. All your relationships from that step forward will be healthier than you can ever imagine.
Now that you have a list of things to get started on, you’ll want to take it slow. A common mistake that people make when trying to change their lifestyle is to do it all at once. The rush feels great, no doubt, but then they crash one to two weeks in. Start slow, focus on one or two things, then once they’ve become a staple in your life, the rest will follow. Remember to be gentle with yourself along the way. You can’t beat yourself up into a better lifestyle.