5 steps to kickstart your journey to a healthier lifestyle
Kickstart healthy habits:
Many of us set new year resolutions based on our health every single year but how often do we stick to them.
Keeping up with healthy habits such as regular exercise and a consistent diet can be difficult. The truth is no one is 100% on track all of the time and that’s okay. We’re all human and life throws some curveballs that we can’t control. However, it’s important to create small, consistent habits that are achievable and sustainable to help keep you on track as much as possible.
We’ve put together 5 simple tips to help keep you on track with your health goals this year.
5 steps to kickstart your health journey:
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Sufficient Sleep
A lot of us underestimate the importance of sleep. Especially when we’re trying to squeeze in a healthy regime (exercising enough, going to the gym, cooking). Sleep may be compromised for exercise, however if your goal is weight loss, compromised sleep can compromise your weight loss.
Getting the recommended 7-9 hours sleep can be a struggle. Most working adults are getting less than six hours of sleep per night according to a recent study. But poor sleep can lead to numerous long-term negative effects including sabotaging your weight loss.
If the scales aren’t moving, it may be time to look at your sleep pattern and prioritise getting sufficient sleep.
2. Move More
Many of us are spending more time at home these days and therefore moving less. Something as simple as setting a daily step count target to get you moving more can be all it takes. If you’re getting less than 5,000 steps a day – make your target 5,000 per day so your goal is achievable and slowly increase your goal month-on-month.
If you’re looking to shift some weight, work your way up to 12,500-15,000 steps per day to see serious results.
Moving throughout the day can also help improve your mood, increase your focus and keep your metabolism up (to improve weight loss).
3. Make Meal Prepping a Priority
For long term weight loss success, prepping and planning your meals and food for the week can be hugely beneficial. As well as numerous other benefits, planning and prepping ahead eliminates the temptation to order fast food or take out as your food is already prepared and ready. Planning for the week will take out the stress and bad choices when you’re hungry.
Essentially, if you have healthy alternatives accessible, you’ll be less likely to reach for processed, sugary or foods high in fat when you’re hungry.
A juice cleanse once a month, can be a great way to plan ahead for the week and get you into healthy habits at the beginning of every month. With zero meal prepping, there’s no easier ‘meal plan’ than a juice cleanse or juice detox.
4. Keep It Simple
If you’re short of time or feeling cooking fatigue, it can be so easy to reach for the food delivery apps. So taking it back to basics in the kitchen can be a great way to limit stress and stay on track with your goals.
Choose simple, healthy meals that you can cook on rotation and that will make shopping, prepping and planning even easier and much less stressful.
5. Use a journal
Whether it’s a food journal or otherwise, documenting your daily journey and tracking your daily intake has been proven to really help people reach their goals. Making the time to journal shows that you’re committed to something, and you’ll want to stick to it even more.
There are many apps available now to help document your fitness journey to make this even easier. ‘My Fitness Pal’ allows you to document all your food daily whilst providing you with other helpful hints and tips to help you lose weight or hit your goals including suggesting your daily macros and calories.
When journaling, keep it simple so it’s something you can stick to.
Keep going:
Small changes to daily habits such as sleep and meal planning can have huge effects on your overall health. Try adding these simple steps into your 2023. When you start to see small sustainable progression, you won’t want to stray from your new healthy habits.
Remember not to dwell on the unhealthy choices, it’s okay to have a bad day. Focus on hitting your goals the next day and keep making positive progress.