Healthier living is easier to do than you think. Consider these suggestions as your steps to healthier living. You may already be doing some of them but read over the list to see what modifications could improve your living.
- Sleep 8 hours per day
Unless you are one of less than 5% of population with modified ADRB1 or DEC2 gene, you need between 7 and 9 hours of sleep every day in order to power your mind and restore your body.
Make sure your bedroom is dark and quiet, don’t drink coffee after 2PM, put your smartphone away half an hour before going to bed and do not work or eat in your bedroom so your body knows that when you are in that room it is time to sleep.
- Hydrate yourself
Your body needs hydration in order to regulate your body temperature, deliver nutrients to cells, keep your gut functioning, keeps you from getting headaches and improves your sleep.
Carry a glass bottle water with yourself wherever possible and remember to drink some green tea instead of black (black one is dehydrating).
- Sweat daily
The daily sweat will help you with releasing the toxins, keeping your body in shape, making your immune system work better and last but not least the daily exercise will release happy hormones (endorphins in your body).
Try doing at least of 20 minutes daily of any kind of exercise that brings you joy and makes your blood pumping.
- Eat local and organic products
Organic products are free from pesticides (which are linked to cancer), artificial colours and preservatives.
Local farm foods do not go all the way from other continent to your fridge (most of veggies loose half of their nutritional values before they reach the store because of that!).
You do not need to follow latest superfood trends which arrived from the other end of the world i.e. you do not need to eat Quinoa from Peru if you have perfectly good Pearl Barley in your home country.
- Experiment with Intermitted Fasting
Intermitted Fasting is a very trendy word nowadays, however, it is nothing new in the world. Do you remember when your grandma was telling you not to eat dinner after 7PM? Fasting for 12 hours is also a variation of intermitted fasting. Moreover, you are already fasting every night when you sleep.
Try experimenting with different lengths of fasting to check in with your body. It will help you differentiate between real hunger and emotional hunger. Did you know that majority of people who are suffering from eating disorder cannot tell the difference between feelings of anger, fear and hunger?
- Learn something new
Read one chapter of a book daily or listen to 15-minute TEDx podcast.
It will help you to establish your own opinion on every aspect of life and enhance the quality of your own life. Don’t be afraid to change your mind about some subjects, this is part of evolution.
- Spread kindness
Start with yourself. You cannot share your energy until your own cup it full. Give yourself recognition for what you have achieved.
Practice gratitude. Write 3 positive things that happened to you everyday.
Advocate for yourself. If you stop being harsh on yourself then you will still get the shit done. When you stop being afraid of failing at something you will start doing more things that you always wanted to.
Then start practising kindness towards other people. All of them. Start with one act of kindness per week and you will soon see how addictive it is.
Source: Agnieszka Holda, Quora Digest
