Winning at healthy living

The pursuit of health and happiness is a lifelong endeavor. While there is no one golden rule there is a golden thread. Below are 7 habits to incorporate into your daily life to thrive.

Social Connection

Get to know your “village” again. In an incredibly fast-paced world where everything is at our fingertips, loneliness can often reign as we hibernate in our online worlds. We are wired for relationships and not being connected to others leads to higher blood pressure, poor sleep, damaged immunity puts one at a higher risk of developing certain diseases. Finding value in our local communities is vital to good mental health and wellbeing.

Eat well

Make home cooking your habit. Fast food or ready-made meals although convenient can be packed full of calories, sodium, and chemicals to increase shelf life. By making home cooked meals you can buy fresh quality ingredients. You can also increase the nutritional value and flavour of your families’ meals as desired. Planning ahead is 90% of the work when it comes to making healthy choices. We eat with our eyes, so remember to keep your fruit bowl interesting with different seasonal fruits that you change up each week. Keeping an assortment of nuts and dried fruit in glass jars are also great energy boosters that will help keep you going until meal times roll around. If you want the crunch without the calories, try keeping cut and peeled carrots and snap peas handy in the fridge.

Hydrate

Drinking glasses of water throughout the day will increase your mental clarity and levels of alertness. It also jump starts your metabolism first thing in the morning. Remember to stay well hydrated throughout the day by drinking a glass of water before you have your cup of tea or coffee.

Have an attitude of gratitude

Focusing on the positive parts of life can be a powerful health habit. Making time to focus on what we are grateful for has a physical effect on one’s body, by bringing down blood pressure, heart rate, and breathing to help with overall relaxation. Practicing gratitude can also combat anxiety, as actively having a grateful mindset reduces negative thinking patterns.

Movement

Not everyone has a passion for exercise, but movement is critical to maintaining bone density, flexibility, and muscles. It also helps to reduce stress hormones which in turn boosts our immune system. Seemingly small changes to your daily routine can have a substantial effect on your health. Start by standing and stretching at your desk, going for a walk around the block in your lunchtime or after work with the kids or going for a bike ride. As Winter tightens its grip it can be more challenging to go outside. Make some space in your lounge and find a good YouTube Pilates video to do as a family, you’ll get moving and get a few good laughs in as well.

Nature lover

There is something incredible about nature that lets you breathe deeper. Mountains, forests, grasslands, rivers, lakes, and oceans melt anxiety and stress away. Giving our brains a chance for some downtime by lowering stress hormones and regaining perspective. Plan to spend a portion of your weekend in nature and allow yourself time to refresh and find head space.

Reflection

At the end of each day, while settling into bed, run through the moments in your day that brought you JOY. The truth is that the more we find joy in the simple, albeit the mundane things in life, the more joyful we become. Taking a walk at sunset, smelling the flowers in the garden, phoning up an old friend or sitting and chatting around the table as a family, these are all treasured moments that add to a day of joy.

Living a life of health and happiness is a myriad of daily decisions of weaving good choices into our daily lives and remembering the joy that they bring.