Changing your focus to a healthy lifestyle and building good habits isn't always as complex as it sounds. It's not always easy, but far too often, the concept of good health is drastically overcomplicated, making people feel like achieving it needs to be an all-or-nothing approach to completely commit to with no deviation.
Health and fitness, often portrayed as a complex cult online, is actually quite simple. Despite the differing views of influencers, the basics of health are straightforward and manageable, providing a reassuring sense of simplicity and confidence in your ability to achieve your health goals.
Commitment is the key to achieving your health goals, whether it's feeling better, getting fitter, stronger, or losing weight. Making small, sustainable changes and sticking to them long-term is more effective than making drastic changes that you'll abandon in a few weeks.
So, what do you need to get down to help you live a healthier lifestyle?
Table of Contents
Sleep
Everyone needs to get at around 7 to 8 hours of quality sleep per night. You need to run through at least 4 sleep cycles, each lasting 80 to 120 minutes, to help your body refresh and prepare for the next day. Many vital functions are performed overnight while you sleep to support your body, and neglecting to get enough shut-eye can be one of the worst things you can do.
Committing to finding a sleep routine that works for you is vital. Adjusting your life and habits so that you can pinpoint the ideal bedtime, room temperature, mattress, white noise machine setup, and more can facilitate a deeper, more beneficial night's sleep. Similarly, removing electronics from the bedroom, avoiding drinking before bed, not working out immediately close to bedtime, or taking a long relaxing bath each night can also help. Find what works for you to get a decent night's sleep.
Mental Attitude
Changing your mental attitude may not be as easy as changing your sleep habits, but it's just as important. Moving forward with confidence and positivity can significantly improve your life and health, empowering you to take control of your mental well-being and feel more in charge of your life.
It might be that you need to look into changing negative thoughts for positive ones to push out intrusive thoughts. You might find that journaling or practicing gratitude works better for you when they pop into your head. Therapy could also be a good option as can indulging in self-care more often if you're regularly stressed or overwhelmed and on the point of burnout. Taking some time for yourself, downloading a self-care app, and refilling your cup, so to speak, can help you shift your mindset and mental attitude to help support the changes you want to make and give yourself a good shot at reaching your goals.
Diet
Not being on a diet unless you want to lose weight, in which case you need to look into weight loss methods, not diet trends that are unsustainable for the long term. However, simply addressing your diet is important in the foods you consume on a daily basis.
Are you eating well? Even if you do not need to lose weight, can your diet be improved so you're giving your body what it needs? Essentially, food is fuel. We all know this, and everyone is also aware that our bodies need essential vitamins and minerals to help them function. Focusing your diet on giving your body what it needs will not only support good health in the long term and weight loss if this is your goal but also help you to feel nourished and energized. You are what you eat, after all, and if your diet is mostly junk food with little or no beneficial ingredients, then you won't feel as good as you need or want to.
Instead, look at replacing the more unhealthy foods in your diet with whole foods. Eat more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean protein, and carbohydrates. Your body needs different food groups for fuel to perform various functions. Did you know your brain uses sugar as its primary energy source and that carbohydrates are your body's preferred energy source? Try not to cut out whole food groups; instead, look for healthier alternatives.
Movement
Movement over-exercise is a great place to start, especially for beginners. Instead of rushing out to buy that crazy expensive gym pass only to use it for four weeks and then never use it again, take the time to look into the different types of movement you can do to help you get the basics in place. You burn most of your energy each day simply through your mundane actions. This is your walking around, doing your chores, basically living your life.
A good place to start is by committing to walking a certain number of steps each day. Look at what you're doing now, then add a few thousand to it. Then, work your way up once you know it's sustainable and has become a habit. The more you move, the better it is for your body. 10,000 is a great goal to aspire to, not killing yourself for not hitting it every day if it's not realistic.
From here, you can add different types of exercises. There isn't just one way to work out or one type of exercise you should be doing. As long as you're enjoying yourself, that is the main thing because if you force yourself to do something you don't enjoy, you won't keep to it, providing a sense of liberation from exercise pressure.
Strength training is the best way to support your body and build strength, while cardio workouts are excellent for building stamina and endurance and boosting heart health. Low-impact workouts like yoga and pilates are excellent for supporting flexibility and mobility, and picking any or just one type can help you improve your health. Remember to start small and fit your workouts into your life; exercise should complement, not complicate, your life.
These four things are the basics you need to have in place to support a well-balanced, healthy lifestyle. Once you have all four ticked off, you can explore your health and fitness more to tweak it so you're in the best conditions possible, both physically and mentally.
