Getting healthy is the most popular New Year's resolution, after promising to spend more time with family. But achieving this is not easy at all, because a healthy lifestyle is usually associated with big changes: starting to go to fitness, starting to eat healthy food, following a regimen… But these tasks are too far-reaching and difficult to accomplish. Gradual changes in your life are always easier and more effective.
In this article, I'll tell you what the first steps are to regular and, most importantly, comfortable health maintenance.
1. Get your vitamin and mineral levels tested.
Before making any lifestyle changes, it's worth understanding exactly what gaps need to be filled. Sometimes even problems that seem trivial to you may have non-obvious causes.
Tests can help you understand exactly what your body is missing. There are comprehensive tests for the 8 major vitamins – A, D, E, K, C, B1, B5, B6 – and tests for specific micronutrients such as active vitamin B12, beta-carotene, chromium or selenium.
Recommendations: Check your vitamin levels every six months to avoid seasonal deficiencies!
2. Replace saturated fats with healthy ones.
Meat tends to be more popular than fish in the American diet, but nuts and avocados are rarely part of the daily menu. As a result, healthy fats are lacking in the diet. Healthy fats are responsible for a prolonged feeling of satiety, so if you want to lose weight, your goal is not to cut back on fats in general, but to consume healthy fats. You don't need to drastically change your menu to do this.
Recommendations: One of the easiest solutions is to replace sunflower oil with olive oil. Olive oil contains polyunsaturated fatty acids, vitamins A and E. The main thing is not to heat it too much. This causes oil to oxidize, carcinogens to form in it, and it ceases to be useful.
In addition, nuts are especially rich in healthy fats. If you don't have allergies, it's easy to include them in your diet. You can add a handful of walnuts to your favorite porridge, as well as pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, flax seeds or sunflower seeds to salads.
3. Improve your sleep conditions.
Sound sleep is the key to productivity during the day, a healthy appetite and high immunity. But sleep hygiene is a set of healthy habits and rituals. It can't be adjusted by simply saying: "Starting tomorrow, I will go to bed no later than 12 a.m."
Recommendations: Before adjusting the time, it is worth checking other factors that affect sleep quality.
Here are a few items to check first:
- Turn on your smartphone's eye-safe mode in the evening (yellowish screen light instead of bluish) and don't drink coffee.
- Don't go to bed on a full stomach. Have a light meal without too much fat and sugar for dinner.
- Keep the bedroom out of the light of street lamps. Ventilate the room to keep it cool.
- Have comfortable clothes to sleep in and quality bedding.
Even these seemingly small things can make a difference in how you feel and help you get a good night's sleep. Also, drinking lemon balm tea and taking magnesium, as recommended by your doctor, are good for healthy sleep.
4. Take longer walks with your dog.
Dog owners, on average, move more than cat lovers. Scientists have found that they tend to have stronger cardiovascular systems and blood glucose levels are closer to normal. So if you have a dog, you're already on the right track.
Recommendation: Increase your evening walk time or make it more active. Play more with your dog or go for a short run with him. This way you'll increase the amount of activity without the tedium and expense of fitness, and you'll get positive feelings from spending time with your pet.
5. Set yourself up for positive thinking.
Chronic stress can lead to serious physical and psychological problems. To get rid of it, you need to eliminate the root cause. Short-term, acute stress related to certain events can be overcome with simple techniques: proper breathing, light exercise, music and color therapy.
Recommendations: To get rid of anxiety and accept yourself, you may have to work with a psychologist and psychotherapist, reconsider relationships, place of work and many other familiar things.
A healthy lifestyle will be incomplete without psychological and emotional stability.
If you start the New Year with these 5 small steps, you will soon notice how your well-being will change, your psychological state will improve, and you will become invigorated and cheerful.