Studies show that it takes 21 days to break an existing habit and 66 days to create a new habit. When it comes to living a healthy lifestyle, the daily habits that you have are directly related to your health and wellness.
Below is a list of 6 healthy habits that you can incorporate into your daily routine to encourage a healthy lifestyle:
Diet
Diet and nutrition are very important when it comes to creating healthy habits.
- Making sure that you are drinking at least 64 ounces of water a day not only helps you digest food, but it also helps oxygenate your blood, strengthen your immune system, reduces cramps, and helps your body function.
- Portion control is something that you need to be aware of. When eating a meal make sure that you are only eating until you are satisfied is key, when you overeat or feel the need to eat everything on your plate is when the unhealthy eating habits come into play.
- Be more aware if you are eating because you are stressed or bored. When we eat because of boredom or stress, we tend to run to the pantry or fridge and grab the junk food or unhealthy foods and in those moments we tend to indulge and could create health concerns down the road.
Physical Activity
Having physical activity in your daily life benefits not only our body but your
mind as well. It helps control your weight, helps fight chronic diseases, improves your mood, and helps reduce stress.
Oftentimes we think that physical activity only means physical exercise such as riding a bike, swimming, or going for a walk/run, however, there are many things that you can do to get your body moving throughout the day that is not exercise.
This activity could be playing with your grandchildren, gardening, working in the yard, playing tennis, or just doing a yoga or Zumba class, the goal is just to get your body moving at a minimum of 30 minutes a day.
If when you start, you can only go a shorter duration of 10-15 minutes, work yourself up to be able to do a minimum of 30 minutes a day. There is nothing better than setting a personal goal and seeing yourself accomplish it.
Hobbies
Having a hobby gives you specified times to do something that brings you joy. Spending time doing things that you love and are passionate about has a positive effect on your mental health. Giving yourself a space to learn new things and help relieve stress from the day.
Choosing a hobby can sometimes be difficult, especially if you do not already have one; it takes time to practice, you have to dedicate moments to learn the levels of skills, and it helps develop patience.
However, having a hobby helps build self-confidence, reduces boredom, and helps prevent bad habits of just sitting around and wasting time.
Limit alcohol consumption & number of cigarettes smoked.
Having an addictive behavior such as having to consume alcohol everyday or smoking can not only affect your health and wellness now, but also will only increase the risk of developing chronic illnesses in the future.
When looking at creating healthy habits, reducing the amount of alcohol you consume and amount of smoking you do.
Socialize
Community is something that we all need. Being surrounded by those that we love helps have people we can talk to, rely on, and can develop deep lasting relationships with.
Because of the busyness that surrounds our everyday lives, it takes effort to put forth maintaining the relationships that we have. Laughter is the best medicine and it often comes from making memories with those in our circle.
Simple things that you could do to help maintain community in your life:
- Host dinner nights
- Host bingo at your house
- Schedule a family night
- Plan a vacation with family
- Go on a bus tour with friends
Sleep
How you feel throughout the day, is directly related to the amount of sleep you received during the night as well as the quality of sleep you had. Making sure
that you get an adequate amount of sleep a night not only help improve your brain function, but also helps with physical and mental health, and improves your overall quality of life.
When you do not receive quality sleep during the night, you could experience:
- Your work performance decreasing during the day
- Delayed reactions when talking or driving
- Have a hard time thinking clearly
Here are a couple of helpful tips to help you get better sleep:
- Limit the amount of caffeine you have in a day and try to not have any caffeine in the afternoon
- Create a sleep routine that will help you slow down around bedtime
- Don’t look at electronics at least one hour before bedtime
- Make sure that it is completely dark in your room
- Avoid eating after 7:30pm, giving your body enough time to digest the food
