In today’s world, being healthy comes at a price: organic food is more expensive, gym memberships aren’t free, and tracking calories / macros wastes hours in the day. How do we follow a healthy lifestyle when there’s so many steps involved?
Here are seven realistic, sustainable tips that you can adopt today to start leading a healthier lifestyle. Remember, health is a long-term maintenance goal, so be patient and consistent to reap the long-term benefits.
- Hydration without buying £10 Dash waters – Drinking 2L of water each day sounds intimidating but not when it takes the form of tea, sodas and smoothies. Buy a 2L water bottle and fill her up every morning. All your water needs will come from this bottle – make tea from it, make flavoured water from it, make smoothies with it, make protein shakes with it, make broth from it, or just drink it plain and simple. Just remember, making coffee doesn’t count because coffee is a strong diuretic (so all that water you drank will be peed out immediately).
- Sleep without ten alarms and sleep aids – It doesn’t matter whether you wake up early or late naturally, just ensure that you wake up the same time each day. This will allow your body to operate in its normal state without disrupting its natural circadian rhythm. To find your natural sleep and wake times, take note of your natural sleepiness / wake up times on the weekend without alarms (Note, don’t do this after a night out!). Once you’ve found your natural rhythm, you can set an alarm slightly later than your natural sleep and wake times to give you a back stop and watch yourself wake up earlier without it. Leave your phone out of the bed and just be alone with your thoughts. Use this time to review your day and plan tomorrow and slowly drift off into sleep.
- Fasting without starving and binge eating – Whilst intermittent fasting is all the craze right now, for many of us, this is unrealistic and potentially disruptive to hormonal health for women. A simpler routine would be to eat your food during daylight hours as your body would naturally crave energy at this time. Avoid snacking – not only is this a distraction from focus, it also causes mini spikes in blood sugar levels. Stick to 2-3 nutrient dense whole and complete meals and drink tea/coffee in between to avoid cravings. Eat your meals earlier (don’t skip breakfast): If you are used to eating dinner late, it may be time to start adopting earlier fasting at night and eat your dinner in the early evening. This will also help you sleep better at night.
- Gut health without spending £200 a month on ZOE – Chemicals, preservatives and sugar can be hard to avoid but wreak havoc on your gut causing brain fog, energy zapping, skin problems and IBS to name a few. Sticking to a whole food diet can help immensely – this means shopping fresh produce as much as possible and avoiding the use of too many sauces which are typically loaded with sugar or fat. If you crave something sweet, stick to whole fresh and dried fruits. Use dates to sweeten your meals as the sugar won’t spike your blood sugar given the high fibre content.
- Drinking less without ruining your social life – Log when you drink over the course of a week. Identify your drinking habits – are you a social drinker or a self-medicator? Start reducing or eliminating drinks from the self-medicating category. Set a realistic target to drink less over the next week. Track days of achievement through our tracker sheet. Consider substitutes like kombucha and citrus with soda water. Then reduce drinks from the social category. Let people know of your goal and those who are true friends will support you. Drop the others and make new non-drinking friends, who support your goal.
- Fitness with an expensive gym membership – Get 5 or 10k steps in: Take 15-minute walking breaks every 2 hours. This will tally up to a 1 hr walk over the course of 8 hours. Listen to a podcast to stack on productivity. Alternatively, double up on cardio and commuting – walk, run or cycle to work if you can. Get a running buddy to keep each other accountable. Get the natural energy boost from workouts: Follow along YouTube workouts. Morning workouts help wake you up and set you up for the day. Or take advantage of the afternoon slump and workout 30 minutes after you eat lunch to get back in the zone for the rest of the day. Make sure however to stick to a consistent workout schedule to eliminate decision fatigue. Do micro-exercises: Have 5 minutes before your next meeting? Consider doing a mini workout or breathing exercise – push ups, dips, sit ups, breathing for a mini wake up.