It’s unfortunate that many individuals endure prolonged periods of low energy and suboptimal health, significantly impacting their overall enjoyment of life.
Despite attempting various remedies such as trendy diets, naturopathic treatments, massages, supplements, and superfoods, the desired results often remain elusive. The truth is, the key to vibrant health isn’t found in a supplement, superfood, or exercise fad, but rather in our daily habits.
Some people cultivate habits that promote well-being, while others inadvertently engage in behaviors that detract from their overall health.
Reflecting on your habits can provide insight into which category you fall into. If you’re seeking greater happiness and improved health, perhaps it’s time to shift your focus to the seemingly insignificant habits that shape your daily life. It’s these small changes that have the potential to yield profound benefits, transforming your overall level of happiness and well-being.
Are you feeling inspired to upgrade, refresh, or enhance your life?
Let’s look at a few of the most common habits and how we can work to improve ourselves, and thus our health.
Nutritional habits –
First your food shopping habits. Purchasing the right foods is mandatory towards good mental and physical health. Your food habits impact every single element of your life – your risk for disease, your energy levels, your weight and self-confidence all get a boost with the right foods but take a real hit when you choose the wrong ones.
YOU CAN BUILD HEALTHY HABITS THAT STICK – Developing conscious eating habits.
Simple things like slowing down to eat and doing your own shopping and cooking.
If you find you automatically start eating your food fast without much thought, put your fork down in between bites to slow down the process. Other important small habits that will help with conscious eating is to sit rather than stand when enjoying your meal and to avoid any distractions during meals (don’t be reading, watching TV, looking at your cell phone, talking to your pets, or working on a computer). This allows you to focus on your food.
When you do this, you will even notice the taste and texture of the food you eat,and you will be much more aware of the amount of food eaten as well. However, be aware, the minute you remove your attention from the food you are eating, is the moment you reduce the psychologically satiety that comes with eating. That automatically puts you in danger of over-eating, which results in excess calories and weight gain.
Returning to the Kitchen –
Obesity and diabetes have emerged as global health concerns, and one of the primary reasons for this is the decline of home cooking.
In today’s fast-paced and hectic lifestyles, dietary habits often suffer due to busy schedules. Consequently, our bodies are deprived of essential nutrients, leading to health issues.
According to a USDA report, spending on dining out in the Western world has surpassed expenditures on home-cooked meals for the first time. With a plethora of prepared foods and enticing packaging in grocery stores, eating has become more about convenience and visual appeal than maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Unfortunately, the shift from home cooking to convenience foods has resulted in alarming rates of obesity, diabetes, and other diet-related illnesses.
While convenient foods may save time, they have detrimental effects on our health, undermining our efforts towards healthy living.
We may believe we are helping ourselves by adding to our available time, but what’s the use of having more time on our hands if our health suffers and we are miserable? It’s time to take a stand against this onslaught of health damage.
The best and easiest way to avoid falling prey to nutritionally dead fast-foods and other conveniently prepared foods that your local supermarket tempts you with is to learn to create your own delicious snacks and meals right in the comfort and cleanliness of your own kitchen.
It’s time we take a pro-active role in our own future health and well-being by returning to the kitchen and taking charge of what nutrients our bodies receive and what additives go in our food before we eat it.
The reality is that vibrant health cannot be achieved through a quick fix such as a supplement, superfood, or trendy exercise regimen. Instead, it is rooted in our daily habits. Consistently practicing healthy behaviors, such as nutritious eating, regular exercise, adequate sleep, and stress management, forms the foundation of optimal well-being.
These habits contribute to our overall physical, mental, and emotional health, providing long-lasting benefits that cannot be obtained through temporary solutions. By prioritizing sustainable lifestyle habits, we empower ourselves to cultivate a healthier and happier life, one day at a time.
Increasing our intake of whole fresh ingredients not only helps us to become healthier and leaner, but our energy levels get a real lift as well. This is a family affair. If we want to experience a reborn culture of home cooking, its needs to be a lifestyle change, not an occasional occurrence and that requires everyone in the family (or household) to be knowledgeable and involved.
Beyond our actual nutritional and eating habits are our mind habits.
Mindset habits –
The mind is a powerful tool. The most powerful tool we own. The more good habits we build, the better our chances of leading a healthy, happy life.
A healthy mindset involves finding ways to grow from your thoughts instead of letting them control your life. Rather than dwelling on a negative thought until it becomes overwhelming, the healthy mindset tries to
a) move beyond that thought
or
b) simply accept it.
Rather than obsessing over a positive mindset, we should focus on cultivating a healthy mindset because you can have a healthy mindset even if you feel negative sometimes.
Is YOUR mindset getting in the way of making positive changes in your life?
If a fixed mindset is holding you back, cultivating a healthier “growth mindset” can help you improve wellness.
Here’s how:
A growth mindset is a belief that we can develop our talents even further. We can “grow” our abilities through hard work, a willingness to learn and an openness to feedback.
A growth mindset is one in which we see we have capacity to change. It drives achievement and behavior change and can help you reach personal wellness goals like improving your sleep habits, eating healthier, exercising consistently or increasing your energy.
Recognizing the distinction between growth and fixed mindsets is crucial, as a fixed mindset can hinder the ability to make necessary changes to achieve personal goals. However, it’s essential to acknowledge that individuals typically possess a blend of both mindsets, with the predominant mindset shaping their cognitive patterns.
Getting Started –
Want to start exercising? Awesome. For that first week, aim for just five minutes per day. Just five minutes!
Want to start cooking your own meals? Don’t try to cook ALL of your own meals yet. Just aim for one meal (or even a snack) per day.
Keep your goals SMALL and simple. The smaller and simpler they are, the more impossible it is to say no and the more likely you are to keep them.
To succeed a tiny habit has to be: A behavior you do at least once a day, takes you less than 30 seconds to do, requires little effort and is relevant to the full behavior.
So, instead of thinking of your life goals, as big, audacious things that you can only achieve when the time is right or when you have better resources… but instead as tiny, daily behaviors that are repeated until success is achieved.
Just DOING IT (the habit) is much more important than how much you do.
For powerful tools and resources from Carolyn Hansen that assist you in attaining your health and fitness goals please visit:
