Five Essential Habits for a Healthier You

We all love food, junk, fast, creamy, and tasty. We also all love to be comfortable and chill somewhere watching a Netflix documentary or series, right? However, sometimes staying in the comfort zone may cause you a long life demotivation and depression you may not recover from.

Rest is essential, new experiences in food are also important, and having yummy, satisfying food is a must. We must know that complete restraint is not the answer, and the FAD diets that cause a Yo-Yo effect are destroying our mental and physical health.

In this blog post, I hope to help guide you through the beginning of grasping the ways to start a healthier lifestyle. You can start with the below five habits to see changes in your body.

Walk more

Just make sure to hit 10,000 steps a day. Not so simple. Especially if you are someone who has an office job, here are some tips to achieve this goal:

• Do it one day at a time. If your average daily steps are 3,000, increase them slowly over two weeks. Have a plan each day to increase your steps by 300-500 more.

• Park further. Do you know how we all roam around to find the nearest parking spot to anywhere we want to go? Yeah, stop doing that. Seize the opportunity and park further to walk a few extra steps. Trust me, it will make a difference.

• Have walk breaks during working hours. We all have heard of smoke breaks, but why not have walk breaks? To motivate yourself, you can have a 5 minutes walk break whenever you tick a task off your to-do list. This way, you get encouraged to finish tasks and walk more as a reward. Yes, think of those steps as a reward because you are helping your body and your blood cycle.

• Take the stairs. Instead of always using the elevator, try to take the stairs more often, especially if you live/work on lower floors. If you don't, try to take the stairs for three floors at least and then continue using an elevator.

• Play with your pets. Owning a pet already makes your life 1000% better. Use your time at home with your pet and try to engage in playful activities that require you to move.

More proteins

Try to have protein in all your meals. Grabbing a croissant for breakfast is easy and yummy; you can do that if you love it. However, try to increase the protein in your meals slowly. Proteins take longer to be digested, making you feel fuller for longer. Moreover, this will help build a good muscle mass that, in general, can help in fat loss. Here are some suggestions on how to achieve that:

• Eat protein-rich foods. Include protein-rich foods in your meals, such as lean meat, fish, eggs, dairy products, legumes, nuts, and seeds.

• Choose protein-rich snacks. Incorporate protein-rich snacks like Greek yogurt, protein bars, or a handful of nuts and seeds into your diet.

• Use protein supplements. You can also use protein supplements such as protein powder, which can be added to smoothies or used to make high-protein snacks.

• Eat more vegetables. Some are surprisingly high in protein, such as broccoli, spinach, Brussels sprouts, and peas.

• Substitute high-protein foods. Try swapping higher-carb foods with protein-rich alternatives, such as quinoa instead of rice or lentil pasta instead of regular pasta.

Substitute your snacks

Many of us need help with snacking. I am someone who likes to snack a lot. To solve this issue, try substituting typical snacks with other healthier choices. Below are great snack ideas that can help you in making better choices.

• Dark chocolate. You can train yourself to like dark chocolate by starting with lower cocoa percentages and then moving up.

• Rice cakes. Depending on your preference, you can have plain rice cakes and add whatever you wish or get them already flavored.

• Greek yogurt. In all its forms, greek yogurt is a great way to enjoy something sweet and get nutritional value. You can also buy the Greek yogurt ice creams with way fewer calories and more protein; they taste as good, if not even better!

• Fruits. Try to have one fruit a day. It will keep you full, tastes great, and has excellent vitamins your body needs. Please choose your favorite fruit and always have it at home.

• Nuts. Nuts are a great way to have good fats. However, you must ensure a reasonable quantity of nuts as it can be a calorie-dense option.

Get a food scale

We tend to consume way more calories when we do not know much we are eating. Getting a food scale and weighing your portions is a good idea. It will help you determine how much you should eat and how many calories you consume.

Make your meal an event.

Start treating your meals as important events of your day. Refrain from eating in a hurry or while working on or watching something. Eating while focusing on food would be best because that will send faster signs to your brain. When that happens, you will notice that you will be more mindful of your food, thus making you feel full faster, which means consuming fewer portions. Take 10-15 minutes for every meal, sit without distractions, and enjoy the food!

Lastly, remember not to overwhelm yourself. You do not have to start doing everything at once. Start with small changes and small habits, then build on them. We fail most of the time because we are very hard on ourselves and think we need significant changes to happen all at once. Instead of doing that, take it easy on yourself and make more minor changes over more extended periods; this may take longer but will help you sustain those good habits, and they will be part of your life instead of the chore you have to do.