I’m all about creating steady and healthier habits! I believe that what we do every day is what determines our lives, and small healthy habits can add up to a healthier and happier life. “Healthy” is not a destination. It’s a lifelong journey; a combination of daily choices and habits.
Taking charge of your health and well-being
Research shows that healthy food, fitness, sleep and social support impact your overall health (Source: Sycamore Institute). The healthy habits I’m talking about on my blog center around these 4 key themes: healthy food, fitness, sleep and relationships. Because I believe, and research also shows, that once you have built good habits to eat healthy, stay active, sleep well and have positive social support, your health, mood, and happiness will improve.
Let’s start with building better habits with healthy food, fitness and sleep, which all lead to better physical health.
1. Healthy Food Habits
It’s never easy to make a change, especially when it comes to our health and food. Check out the list of healthy food habits below – all relatively effortless & easy to incorporate in your daily life.
Top healthy food habits:
1. Make tasty and healthy snacks readily available
2. Find easy veggie recipes that are delicious (with 3 examples)
3. Learn to make healthy food swaps
4. Make a healthy grocery list and stick to it
5. Choose wisely when ordering takeout
Continue to read 5 Easy Healthy Food Habits You Can Start Adopting Immediately Without Fuss.
2. Healthy Fitness Habits
For about 200,000 years, humans have walked or ran a lot to hunt or find food. Even as recently as 200 years ago, we still did a lot of natural physical exercises by farming food, walking and doing manual labor. Physical fit was important just to survive. Yet today, most of us spend several hours a day sitting at a desk, in a car, or on our couch, and generally don’t have healthy fitness habits.
This is why is it important for most of us to develop healthy fitness habits and keep an active lifestyle. Here are 4 important ways to build better habits:
1. Start In A Small Way for Early Wins: The biggest mistake you could make at this stage is to go all-in and reform too much at once. We are creatures of habit, and we don’t fare well when we change too much.
2. Focus on Consistency, Not Perfection: Making small changes is beneficial because it allows you to focus on the fundamental factor that makes or breaks your long-term success: consistency.
3. Progress Slowly And Consistently: even small efforts will lead to growth and progress. Even if it doesn’t seem like much on a day-to-day or week-to-week basis, progress adds up. For example, if you add 20 yards to your total distance every week, that would compound to over half a mile in a year.
4. Having a Concrete Plan Leads to Results: Research shows that having a concrete plan leads to better habits. Having a concrete plan with “What, How Long, Where and When” helps get you results! It could be something like: Do a circuit routine (what) for twenty minutes (how long) in the living room (where) at 6 PM (when).
Click here to read the entire article on building healthy fitness habits.
3. Healthy Relationship Habits: Good Friends Are Key to a Happier Life
We all know intuitively that positive relationships with friends or family can make you happier and healthier. And yes, scientific research shows that it is true, and I wanted to share with you some information about it, because it really is an important topic. I have personally learned a lot from reading up on this. It has been life-changing in several ways, so I wanted to make sure I spend time to share a few interesting insights that will hopefully inspire you to become even better at building friendships!
Social support from friends and family can improve your health and even decrease your risk of death (Two sources: National Institute of Health and Johns Hopkins Medicine).
Good Friends Can Improve Your Health, And What You Can Do About It
Simple and Easy Ways to Improve Your Friendships
Read our other top posts on developing healthy habits
- Monitoring Your Progress Can Get You Shockingly Good Results… Here is How to Do ItMonitoring your progress is very simple to do, and it’s shocking how well it works. It’s such a simple idea that holds so much […]
- Top 3 Ways to Build Healthy Habits (The Healthy Habit Scorecard)When I wanted to build healthy habits in the past, I used to start with ambitious plans and goals: I would go to the […]
- 6 Tips to Build Healthy Habits for LifeI’ve struggled with adopting new healthy habits, and you’ve probably struggled, too. I used to start with big, ambitious plans and goals. Think big […]
- The 3 Best Ways to Start A New Healthy Habit & Make It Stick (Scientifically Proven)Let me ask you this: How many times have you tried to start a healthy habit in the past, only to give up a […]
- Why Sleep is Vital for Good Health and Fitness (And How to Sleep Better)Whether we like it or not, one thing is clear: We need sleep. In fact, we need it so much that many experts and […]
- 4 ways to keep in touch with friends and family when you’re in lockdownHaving been an expat myself for many years, I have a lot of international friends who are far away from their family and missing […]
- Discover the Amazing Benefits of Walking Habits (And How to Walk More)Walking is one of the simplest, least intimidating, and most effective ways to stay active and boost our health. It’s also one of the […]
- Simple and Easy Ways to Improve Your FriendshipsI remember moving to New York City in my early 20s. Living in a big, expensive city and short on budget, I used to […]
