Being “healthy” isn’t like summiting a mountain or crossing a finish line. It’s a journey without a particular destination, one where your goal moves and grows alongside you.
In other words, your health (both physical and mental) is always flowing and taking shape. You can’t “set it and forget it” when it comes to taking care of your body and mind. Instead of one specific challenge that you grind out and permanently conquer, being healthy has a lot more to do with maintaining simple but consistent daily practices.
Fortunately, you don’t need to overhaul your entire life and your routines in order to tap into the benefits of healthy living. When you stick with them, very basic and incremental adjustments to your regular habits will make a world of difference. So with that in mind, check out these eight little hacks for keeping up a healthier lifestyle.
Diet hacks
You don’t necessarily have to “go on a diet” to make some positive changes to what you eat and drink. Here are a couple of chill ways to improve your general diet.
1. Cut down on cravings
Getting a treat or a pick-me-up is one of life’s great pleasures. But succumbing to your cravings too often can lead to consuming too much sugar, being over-caffeinated, and more. You don’t have to cut out the fun stuff entirely, just find some healthy replacements to use now and again.
For example, if you’re craving chocolate, one of the best ways to resist is by filling up on healthy fats, like olive oil, nuts, and avocados.
2. Be a thoughtful eater
It’s super healthy to think about what you eat before you eat it. But it’s easy to neglect thinking about what you’re eating while you’re eating it. Sometimes this leads to scarfing down more food than you actually wanted to eat in the first place.
Try practicing very simple and straightforward mindfulness while you eat it, using your awareness to savor the food and to gauge how full you are.
Sleeping hacks
Sleep is essential—we spend about a third of our lives doing it! There are lots of small measures you can take to prioritize healthy sleep, and experience the amazing benefits of all that vital rest and recovery.
3. Create a device-free space before bed
Your phone isn’t just a mental distraction before bed. Screen lights built into electronics like phones and laptops actually cause chemical changes in your brain. The sleep hormone, melatonin, can’t be produced as effectively when you’re soaking up all that short-wavelength blue light.
You should aim to spend at least 30 minutes before bed in a device-free environment. Try reading, doing a crossword puzzle, or another low-key analog activity. To avoid temptation, you can go into the settings on your phone and make it so that you don’t receive any notifications between, for example, 11:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m.
4. Try using a white noise machine
If you’re a light sleeper who’s susceptible to outside disturbances, or if you like the comfort of background noise, invest in a simple white noise machine. It’s much more conducive to healthy sleep than playing background noise off your phone, laptop, or TV.
Exercise hacks
These tips don’t make up a whole fitness program, but they’re easy to implement, and you can create a healthy foundation for future gains by getting started here.
5. Walk around during daily phone calls
If you’re not meeting in person or over Zoom, take your call while you add to your daily step count. It doesn’t have to be a whole thing, you can even just take a stroll around the block, or walk around your own home!
6. Make a small weight your new fidget spinner
When you need something to occupy your hands during short breaks throughout the day, try using a light dumbbell or kettlebell. Keep it near your desk, and whenever you feel the urge for a little burst of low-key activity, you can do some curls, lateral raises, triceps extensions, and other simple exercises. Remember not to overload yourself with weight: it’s better to err on the side of too light than too heavy.
Mental health hacks
The mind needs care, too, although the methods may seem more abstract than diet and exercise are for the body.
7. Commit to meditating
Meditation continues to grow as an accessible mental health practice, but it can still be daunting to newcomers. A lot of that hesitation comes from the idea that meditating requires a huge commitment. However, studies have shown that meditating for even just 60 seconds per day has lasting neurological benefits.
8. Get social at least once per week
Make it a goal to see other people in a non-work social setting just once within the next seven days. Even for someone who “doesn’t get out much,” this is a reasonable and achievable goal. Then, try to maintain that rate for a month and see how it feels. It won’t be long before you’re much more in tune with your social circle and your local community! Find health and wellness events happening near you, or you can start your own Meetup group and invite others to create a new community together.
Last modified on September 19, 2023
