6 Simple Guidelines for a Healthy Lifestyle
Move Every Day!
Schedule at least 20 minutes or more of physical activity a day. Vary to use all your muscles – walk, stretch, lift weights, take a class, shoot baskets, jump rope, take the stairs. Get up from your chair often and move even for just a minute or two.
Eat Real Food!
Aim for whole foods, minimally processed with a focus on veggies and fruits. Ask yourself did it grow this way. Eat an apple not applesauce, an orange, not the juice.
Practice Mindfulness and Gratitude!
In the simple, find the joy. Take time to notice and appreciate a smile, a sunset, a child’s laugh, a warm embrace, a kindness. Finding something to be grateful for can lighten the heart and soothe the soul.
Destress with Recess!
Find time to infuse play into the everyday. This includes art, music, dance, games, sports and hobbies. Look for novelty and variety – learn something new to improve brain function and reduce stress.
Rest and Repair!
Sleep at least 7 to 8 hours per night. Our bodies and minds are not machines and need time to restore and rejuvenate. Building good sleep patterns help us to have better memory and perform better during the day.
Share Quality Time with Others!
Friendships cultivated are some of the greatest riches of life which are free to enjoy. Love nurtures and can heal us. Do a twofer and include your friends in walks and play time.
6 Key Steps to Creating Change
Write down a vision of your future, healthier self.
Like any journey, you need to know where you want to go. Make it fun and exciting. Think about the very best version of yourself and what would a healthier “you” be doing. Want to feel more energized by eating better? Enjoy more quality sleep? Learn to de-stress more this year and carve out quality time with your family? You get to decide.
Plan ahead and be kind.
Time is one of the key external reasons that people don’t exercise. Setting intentions, planning ahead and scheduling activities is a must. You may not always meet your intentions for the day, so instead of self-judgement and criticism, practice self-compassion. Being kind to ourselves is more constructive and helps us get back on track more quickly. If you find you’re failing on your intentions over time, you may need to look at another goal you feel more passionate about.
Discover and enlist your strengths.
Consider what you’re proud of in your life, whether it be around a healthy habit or in some other area of your life. Consider the strengths and talents you bring to your work. Identify all the skills that helped you achieve your work goals, notice how it feels to have achieved your success and envision how these same skills can be helpful to you in achieving your goals.
Identify your motivators.
Clarify why you want to get healthier and what the value is for you. Oftentimes people make a goal based on external drivers. Instead, think about what is motivating to you about becoming healthier. You are in charge, and consider why you want to make some changes.
Become more mindful.
Mindfulness is being aware in the present moment without judgement. There are a number of ways to learn and practice mindfulness, such as live classes, group practice, apps around meditation and breath work, and keeping a writing journal. This skill is important when we are trying to change our behaviors for several reasons. It allows us to pause and become more choiceful, and it takes us out of auto-pilot. It can also help us notice the impact of the changes we are making. Notice how good you feel when you do something good for yourself. This can become a self-perpetuating internal driver to embrace more change.
Create a SMART goal and start small.
Many people are familiar with creating SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, reasonable and time-based) goals. Robert Maurer, Ph.D., in “One Small Step Can Change Your Life”, suggests that we start by asking ourselves small questions. “What is one small (even tiny) step I could do to achieve my goal. According to Maurer, the small step method actually creates new neural pathways of change so that our brains can more easily embrace change without the normal reaction of fear and stress related to “bigger” change.