7 Healthy Habits That Will Change Your Life

by | Nov 11, 2021

If you’re tired of being unhealthy, you can change.  Small habits can create big results.  Living a healthy lifestyle is possible, one step at a time.  Here are 7 healthy habits that will change your life.  Start with one, master it and move on to the next one.  Begin with the habit that seems easiest to you.  When you’ve got it down, your confidence and momentum will empower you to make big changes.  You’ve got this.

1. Eat Real Food

Eat Real Food

Finding a healthy diet that works can be confusing and overwhelming.  Let’s make it simple.  Eat real food.  Our body wasn’t designed to digest processed foods and thrive.  Just two generations ago, we ate mostly real food.  Processed, canned, and boxed foods were rare.  Since the advent of these fake foods, we’ve seen Americans increasingly struggle with chronic illnesses like heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes.

Switching to real food will increase your energy, improve digestion and your overall well-being.  If you need help getting on a real food meal plan, try DishQuo meal planning app.  You’ll receive a real food meal plan with recipes and grocery delivery.  After 15-30 minutes in the kitchen, you’ll enjoy healthy foods that taste great.

2. Prioritize Sleep

Prioritize Sleep

Sleeping at least 7 hours a night has many benefits.  Skipping sleep to get more done may seem like a great plan.  It’s not.

Lack of sleep can wreak havoc on your hormones.  Hormones play an important part in metabolizing foods and stabilizing your hunger signals.  Getting just 6 hours of sleep triggers ghrelin, leading to overeating.

Prioritizing sleep helps you make better decisions, including your food choices.  A tired body and mind gravitate towards high sugar and fat foods for energy.  Over time, these choices make us sluggish and can cause weight gain.

3. Be Thankful

Be Thankful

An attitude of gratitude isn’t just to feel good.  It has profound effects on many areas of our health according to USC expert on gratitude Glenn Fox. (1)  Fox reports that choosing thankfulness improves sleep, lowers blood pressure and inflammation.

Cultivating a lifestyle of thanks doesn’t just come once a year with a turkey dinner.  A simple way to increase gratitude is keeping a daily journal.  Simply reflect and write down three things you are thankful for each day.  If it includes someone else, be sure to tell them.  

4. Drink Less Alcohol

While wine is reported to have heart-healthy antioxidants, too much comes with a long list of reasons to cut back.  Alcohol is a depressant.  After a drink, you may initially feel happier, more relaxed, and more fun.  However, it depresses the central nervous system and brain chemicals, making many scientists believe it can contribute to depression and anxiety over time.

Many people use alcohol to relax or even fall asleep.  While it may tuck you in a night, don’t be surprised if you end up tossing and turning.  Alcohol disrupts deep sleep, leaving you tired, groggy, and well, hungover the next day.

In addition to your mental health and sleep quality, alcohol use increases your chance of getting cancer.  According to the CDC, drinking puts you at higher risk for 6 types of cancer; mouth/ throat, voice box, esophagus, colum/recum, liver, and breast. (2)  Aim to drink no more than 1 glass a day for women and 2 glasses for men. 

5. Practice Stillness

Being busy is a badge of honor in the US.  We associate being busy with productivity and value.  But given the high levels of stress in our culture and the damaging effects, it has on our health, it’s ok to slow down.

Silence is golden.

Practicing stillness is hard at first.  We want to move, think, do.  Try sitting with your cup of coffee in the morning without scrolling or rushing to get out the door.  Just sit and sip.  (A great time to meditate on those thankful thoughts!)

A daily practice of stillness can lower blood pressure, improve your immune system, lower stress hormones, and stimulate creativity.  A few moments before bed can help put your mind and body into a deeper place of sleep.  

6. Drink Water

Drink Water

Our body is 50-70% water.  Staying hydrated is affordable, easy, and comes with big benefits.  Every cell, tissue, and organ needs water to function well.  According to the Mayo Clinic, women should drink 11.5 cups a day and men, 15.5 cups. (3)  About 20% of this will come from food.  As for the rest, drink up!

When you’re hydrated you’ll improve digestion, skin complexion, and energy.  Water is needed for joint health and temperature regulation as well.  If you struggle with joint pain, increase your water intake to see if that lowers your pain level.  

7. Walk Outside

Walking has many benefits including healthy weight management, a strong heart, and lower stress.  Walking outside in nature is even better.  Soaking up sunlight improves vitamin D absorption, improves our mood, and lowers the risk for cancer and heart disease.

A Harvard study showed that nature has the power to heal.  The study revealed that when people recovering from spinal surgery spent time in the sun, they reported less pain and took lower amounts of pain medication.

Changing our lifestyle doesn’t have to be hard, overwhelming, or confusing.  Small changes create big results.  Taking these steps slowly and consistently will help you create the healthy life you love.


https://news.usc.edu/163123/gratitude-health-research-thanksgiving-usc-experts/%

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