8 Healthy Habits That Can Improve Your Health
The road to getting fit and healthy can be very long and very confusing for some people. Knowing where to get started is often the first of many problems they face . Some get intimidated by some of the behaviors and habits that they see others engage in to develop their fitness. These fears, however, are often misplaced. The truth is getting started is as easy as adopting new healthy habits and ceasing unhealthy habits. Here are eight healthy habits you can incorporate into your daily routine in order to improve your health and fitness.
1. Get 8 Hours of Sleep Every Night
This is by far the easiest of all the healthy habits you can adopt. One of the biggest problems people have in this day and age is lack of quality sleep. We often have such busy and hectic lives during the day because of things like work, school, and other responsibilities that we seldom ever have enough free time to ourselves after sunset. We often try to compensate for this lack of free time by staying up late in order to catch up on some other work or just engage in more leisurely activities.
The problem however is that this often comes at the expense of what little time we have left in order to get the sleep we need. Sleep is our primary means of rest and recovery. Without it we become lethargic and health becomes compromised. Our day-to-day tasks become more difficult and our lives become more miserable when we are deprived of sleep. It’s important that we get at least 6-8 hours of sleep every day or else our days will become much more difficult as a result. Do yourself this simple favor and get the sleep you need everyday.
2. Consume More Homemade Food
Another thing you can do is to eat homemade food over the food you eat at restaurants and convenience stores. Most people spend far too much time and money eating out than we do eating food at home. The reason why is because it’s more convenient and quicker to go to a drive-thru at a fast food restaurant or stop by a 711 and grab some cheap processed food than it is to cook food at home and prepare it in advance for lunch for the following day.
That’s not to say you can’t indulge yourself once in a while but it’s much better to make and eat the food at home than it is to go to McDonalds every other day to grab a bite to eat. Just cutting back on the low quality food you eat will do wonders for your health and will make losing excess weight much easier.
3. Exercise at Home for at Least 20 Minutes Everyday
Getting a good workout at home is something that anyone can do even from the comfort of there own home. While it certainly isn’t ideal compared to spending an hour or two at the the gym if you are just starting out you might want to consider just doing some bodyweight exercises at home everyday. You don’t even have to spend an hour working out (at least not at first). The good thing about this method of exercising is if you’re just starting out you can still get a good workout in a relatively short amount of time. You’ll still want to eventually join a gym or even build one at home but if you are just starting out getting a good 20 minutes of exercise everyday will still go a long way to helping to improve your physical health.
4. Go out for a Walk/Hike
Another thing you can do to get some more exercise is to just go out for a long walk. Walking is one of the simplest ways to get some exercise in your day and comes with several health benefits. A better way to get the most out of your walk is to go out hiking. Hiking can be a lot of fun especially if you find a good trail with plenty of good scenery. Also most hiking trails tend to be fairly uneven which can add an additional challenge to your hiking. While walking/hiking is certainly no HIIT cardio, it’s still a good way to get some extra exercise in your day.
5. Play a Contact Sport
Another good and fun option is to get with some friends, or even complete strangers, and play a sport specifically a contact sport. This can be anything from soccer, football, basketball, or any other ballgame you used to play back when you were young. The sport doesn’t have to be a ball game. Even something like martial arts can be a very good way to get a good workout. Regardless of what kind of sport you choose to partake in you will get some benefit out of the intense physical activities that they often demand of you.
6. Practice Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting is another great way to improve your health and is relatively simple to do. In case you don’t know, to fast is to simply go without eating for a certain period of time. In the case of intermittent fasting this time frame would be roughly 16-18 hours. During this fasting period your body will start to utilize the calories stored as fat. These calories are then used as energy in order to power your body.
The thing that makes intermittent fasting so simple is that the eight hours you spend sleeping at night is also a time when your body enters a fasted state. You can use this time spent sleeping to make the 16-18 hours of fasting much easier to do by either skipping supper or breakfast to make up the remaining 8-10 hours. The best part is if you decide to workout during your fasting period your body will burn even more calories which again are coming from the fat stores in your body.
7. Drink More Water and Less of Everything Else
Water is one of the most important things on the planet. Without it there would be no life on this earth. Humans, whose bodies consist of about 60% water, need plenty of it to rehydrate our bodies especially after a long and physically demanding day. You want water to be your main source of liquids. Most other beverages aren’t always a healthier alternative.
Fruit juice for example (especially those sold over the counter) often have just as much sugar as soda. Alcohol, if consumed too frequently and in excess, can lead to serious health problems (among many other problems beyond your physical health). That’s not to say you can’t enjoy these kinds of beverages from time to time, but if you are going to indulge in these beverages you should do so very sparingly.
You can’t however go wrong with drinking water most of the time. Just keep in mind not to drink too much of it. Believe it or not you can actually die of water intoxication if you drink too much water. This however is extremely rare as most people seldom ever drink that much water.
8. Get Out in the Sun
Getting plenty of sunlight is also something that often gets over looked. We often hear a lot about getting plenty of vitamin D from sunlight exposure but the benefits don’t end there. Exposure to sunlight causes the brain to release a hormone called serotonin. Serotonin is associated with boosting mood and helping a person feel calm and focused. Basically what serotonin does is it helps improve your mental health. This effect is so subtle and yet so important that without it you risk the likelihood that you will develop some form of depression.
Obviously you don’t want to get so much sun exposure that you risk developing other health problems. You do however want to get some daily sun exposure. You can get plenty of it by just getting out of the house and being outside for at least a half hour. Use that time to do other things whether it’s going for a walk, exercising, or just hanging out with some friends. You’ll get plenty of sunlight while getting to enjoy your day.
There are many other healthy habits you can adopt that will improve your overall health. Ultimately you’ll want to eventually move beyond doing these simple habits. You’ll still want to eventually join a gym at some point. These healthy habits are still worth doing even long after you’ve started doing the more challenging activities. Always remember if you discover anymore healthy habits you can incorporate into your daily routine to improve your health feel free to do so. The more the merrier.