Your life is busy. Most days, you probably wonder how you managed to get through the day at all. With everyday responsibilities, there’s no room to even think about being healthier. Sound familiar?
A healthy social life, exercise, and meeting your dietary requirements become more of a burden. Limited time and energy either ruin your workout, force you to cook something quickly, or ultimately cancel your active time altogether. Next thing you know, you're in the drive-through at the fast food joint. But hey, you’ll do better tomorrow, right?
Today's hustle and bustle have us cutting corners and saving time where time can be saved. Cooking has been replaced with quick-to-cook processed foods. Exercise is limited by time and energy after a long day of sitting and working. Self-care is hard, which is why it is often neglected. It is easy to fall down the rabbit hole of negative behaviors.
It takes roughly three weeks to create a habit and less than one to break them, making healthy lifestyle choices harder to maintain. While it can be hard, it’s not impossible. So next time you tell yourself, “I’ll do better tomorrow,” you actually can by following our advice below.
Exercise/Mobility
Exercising
Exercise can mean many things to different people. It isn’t necessarily hours clanking iron and putting on muscle in the gym or miles and miles on the bike or treadmill. Exercise can be a lunchtime walk or 15 minutes of calisthenics in the morning. Stretching can be done both at your desk or during your lunch. It can be hard to squeeze these moments into your life, but you can incorporate small and easy changes to sneak them in.
For example, park further from the store on a nice day to get the extra steps in. Or, try doing some standing lunges at your desk. Your body will love you for doing a little movement during a long day of sitting.
Exercise is vital for the body and our health overall. It’s important when you get the time to exercise to also provide your body with the proper vitamins and nutrients. A daily multivitamin can help give your body the boost it needs to make that hour at the gym or walk with your furry friend more effective. Click here to continue reading about our multivitamins. Freeda supplements are friendly to many lifestyles, including gluten-free and vegan-friendly.
Stretching
Many of us live in pain every day due to our lifestyle. Perhaps years at a desk or hammering structures together, the wear and tear our bodies face is unique to our situation. The pain we feel is often caused by injuries or lengthened tightness from overuse and underappreciation.
Stretching may not remove the pain, and in fact, when you start, it might not feel the best by itself. However, the benefits of stretching could be long-term pain relief, regaining mobility, and joint health longevity. Small, simple stretches can be done throughout your work day to help with many of the issues you face.
Joint and bone health are important but stretching alone can help by providing your joints with the proper ingredients to stay healthy. According to a 5-year study, increased knee and hip pain coincided with low vitamin D[1]. Vitamin D is vital to our bones, joints, and overall health. Follow here to see our Vitamin D options.
Sleep
The importance of sleep and recovery is no secret. Health experts continuously preach the importance of getting 8 hours of quality sleep. It’s easy to say get more sleep but even harder to do.
“There aren’t enough hours in the day” is all too true. Even worse, at times, we seem to have the time, but our minds are too stressed to allow us to relax and adequately sleep, or other health problems prevent us from sleeping through the night. Sometimes, it's just hard to shut down.
Melatonin is a hormone your brain creates in response to darkness [2]. Melatonin supplementation is often used to help decrease the time one spends trying to fall asleep and may increase the quality of actual sleep. Interested in melatonin? Click here for more information.
Healthy Eating Habits
Meal prep
Meal prep is becoming a hot topic and a more common habit amongst individuals of all fitness capabilities and goals. Meal prep is simply preparing your meals for the week before the week starts. How often do you start your week with the intention of an improved diet, then suddenly you find yourself with two extra projects on your plate and little to no time to cook a healthy dinner option between practice, the laundry, and help with homework? Suddenly eating something not so healthy on the way home becomes a quicker, easier, and more appealing option.
Meal prep simply takes the stress of cooking during the busy days off your plate. Planned pre-made meals allow for better quality foods, a better ability to track intake and progress. It’s one of the best habits to begin on your health journey. Not only is it important for your fitness goals to be intaking the proper foods, but it is just as important for your body to function, ensuring you are fueling up on health-promoting food that contains plenty of good bacteria.
Probiotics are a great supplement to pair with a balanced diet. They provide the body with additional good bacteria and may balance the digestive system, maximizing the use and digestion of foods. Probiotics may be beneficial for those with digestive issues such as IBS and may help in the fight against obesity. [3] Here is a Probiotic we love.
Responsible Shopping and The “Cheat Day”
Having a healthy diet is challenging. It takes lifestyle changes that our taste buds and cravings often don’t enjoy. It requires discipline and conscious effort. While it can be tough, it is achievable. Meal prep helps us ensure our planned meals are more beneficial, but what about the time in between? It takes discipline to say no to the cookies and yes to the apple. But does it have to? Not always.
One of the easiest ways to avoid problem snacking is by not stocking your food space with those items. If the break room is stocked with special snacks you just can’t say no to, plan another route that doesn’t bring you past there. Keep your lunch at your desk in a lunchbox, etc.
There are many small things you can do to make the road to a healthier lifestyle easier. Planning a cheat day or meal gives you something to look forward to and something to appease the craving. It also helps jump-start your body's health mechanisms to wake up. Another healthy shopping habit is to replace processed foods with natural options. Fresh fruits, veggies, and meats should replace the frozen, bagged, processed versions. A good rule of thumb is to have “color in your cart.” Natural foods and vegetables will create a more colorful grocery cart. Ensuring you have at least five different natural colors in your cart is a good starting point for your health change.
Now take these tips and run with them so you CAN do better tomorrow and get in a solid routine of healthy habits to ensure a happy and healthy lifestyle! Be sure to subscribe to our emails for more healthy advice.
[1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23595144/
[2] https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/melatonin-what-you-need-to-know
[3] https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Probiotics-HealthProfessional/