Learning Healthy Habits

Eating one slice of cake won’t affect most people’s health. Eating cake every meal or instead of healthy meals will. Doing one push-up or one exercise session won’t make you healthy. You have to do it regularly. Getting and staying healthy is all about developing good habits, ones that improve your health, and avoiding harmful habits.

Is your drink of choice a soft drink?

You may be an avid soft drink fan. It’s become a habit to drink several a day. If you do, that’s a lot of sugar and an extra 100 calories every can. Even if you choose a diet soft drink, it still contains additives and sugar substitutes that may have side effects like high blood pressure and dental issues. Studies show that people who drink diet soft drinks have bigger waistlines than those who don’t. Switch to water.

Burning the candle at both ends can affect your health.

Most people almost brag about lack of sleep or working late hours, but it can take a toll on your health. Lack of sleep or poor quality sleep causes health issues and can slow you down, so you don’t move or exercise as much. When you lack sleep or have poor-quality sleep, your body makes more ghrelin, the hunger hormone, and less leptin, the satiety hormone. You’ll be hungrier and eat more. Creating a sleep schedule also helps boost your circadian rhythm. Sleep in a dark, cool room without electronic devices like your phone or television. They can interfere with melatonin production.

Walk faster and move more frequently.

Don’t circle the parking lot looking for a space five feet closer to the door. Park in the back of the lot and walk. Take the stairs when you can. Even if you’re fit, if your destination is on the 31st floor, that’s a bit excessive. Instead, take up to a floor or two before your destination and take the stairs the rest of the way. If you ride a bus, get off a stop or two earlier and walk the rest of the way to your destination. Walk as briskly as possible. If you get winded, slow your walk to a recovery pace and then walk fast again. Walking then becomes a high intensity interval training exercise.

• Exercise regularly. Make a daily appointment with exercise. Put it in your schedule as you would any other appointment. Make it the same time every day to create a habit. Habits are hard to break.
• Use an egg timer as a health aid. If you have a sedentary job or are watching TV or videos, set the timer for 55 minutes. Get up and move about for five minutes. Sitting too long damages your health.
• Get plenty of fresh air. Walking outdoors where there’s greenery is healthy. It’s even healthier if you do it for 15 to 20 minutes and do safe sunning. Exposing your skin to a few minutes of sunshine helps boost vitamin D.
• Laugh more. Socialize. Develop an attitude of gratitude. Give a stranger a sincere compliment. All three things make you feel better and also make you healthier. Create a goal to do each one daily.

For more information, contact us today at Thrive Fitness!