There is a major concern these days on how business life and city-induced stress is affecting our overall life quality. From people under the age of 40 suffering from illnesses such as Diabetes, Blood Pressure issues or even cardiac arrests, the magnifying glass is held over teaching people the importance of valuing healthy habits to prevent these events from happening. And it not only goes by as a fashion trend, but governments are also dedicating the serious amount of money to promote healthier routines for their citizens.
So, we may ask ourselves: how do I approach a healthier lifestyle? For starters, no one is asking you to become a super athlete, nor you came here looking “how to become a personal trainer”, but the truth is that the longer you forgot about your personal health, the harder is going to be to adapt to a new lifestyle.
1.) Basic ground information
Start to assess simple but yet effective ways to measure your current health status:
• Check your body’s BMI
• Measure your waist circumference
• Determine the amount of physical activity you do per day
• Keep a food diary
• Check your mood and energy
By doing so, you can also compare yourself with your family and friends to get a quickly reference if things are going worse than you imagined, and then set a proper path to revert this issues.
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Also, add an especial call-to-action to check if you have one of the following chronic health problems: heart disease, diabetes, asthma or arthritis. These conditions will set specific parameters before facing any dieting or exercise routine, and should not be taken lightly. Schedule an appointment with your doctor to get a compelling insight on this behalf.
2.) Start moving
Most health concerns these days are related to sedentary lifestyle, and in extension, office work. Doctors tell us that just by adapting your agenda to include an hour of daily, low-impact exercise, the improvement in both health and mood is astonishing.
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Don’t engage into exercise as if you were ready to Spartan Race or something, start with baby steps such as walking. If you force yourself to engage in demanding workout solutions such as Crossfit you are either prone to failure, not to mention the potential health threat that will suppose for your body.
Invite your friends, that way you won’t feel discouraged to start moving. It takes 66 days to start building a new habit, so consistency is a must.
#3 – Diet is no punishment
People tend to believe they are going to lose weight by just eating lettuce all day long or follow strict calorie count programs. Truth is that such approaches are not only unsuccessful but also lead to discouragement, as after leaving these ever promising solutions rebound effect is set to happen – perhaps even leading to worse health status: now, besides having a health style that doesn’t please you, you’re also suffering from trust issues towards a healthy lifestyle.
Don’t overdo it too much. You don’t need fancy diets to reach your goals: learn the basics of nutrition to ensure your path to health; and if you’re lazy enough to do that, several mobile apps can do the trick for us. Note: a day-off diet a week is recommended to get used to making this a habit.
#4 – Manage stress
There’s a proven link between anxiety and health disorders, but not also food-related issues but also sleeping patterns, hypertension, depression and so on.
Give yourself time to do mind-detox techniques on a daily basis to the likes of meditation and visualization, but foremost remember that the world doesn’t end if you don’t meet a deadline. Most likely you will find a solution in your workplace to explain why you couldn’t provide the expected result in time, and if they don’t understand your point then perhaps it’s time to start looking for another job.
Undealt anxiety can cover up as heart attack, and people who suffer from severe anxiety tend to misread patterns, which can lead to much worse health concerns, especially for males.
#5 – Sleep better
The 8-hour sleep myth is no such myth, but a body need to keep functions properly along the following day. There’s no point in trying to asset excellent productivity skills if you don’t give your mind and body enough time to rest: sooner or later tiredness will overcome you, and you will end up with even more anxiety than what you currently have.
Avoid TV or computer at least two hours before bedtime, as well as intense workout routines – those will only keep you alert instead of inducing rest. Take a hot bath or drink a soothing tea if you find trouble to get quality sleep time; for more serious insomnia concerns, book a visit to a professional.
