This page was created to give you ways to tweak your daily/weekly habits so that you are slowly working your way towards a healthier lifestyle, with less emphasis on the HELL! Below is a list of healthy habits, baby steps, if you will, on your way to health--if you need a bit of reference, check out (What About Bob?)!
What I found to be the easiest is to pick one—any one!—and work on that hellthy habit until you’ve conquered it! Does conquering mean that you need to be perfect all time, every day? No, it just means that you’ve gotten the concept and it has become a habit rather than something you force yourself to do. It may take one week or one month, but go at your own pace—as you don’t want to overwhelm yourself. Once you’re feeling comfortable, add another hellthy habit and do the same. You’ll find that once you’ve gotten several under your belt, they get easier. Why? Because (in my humble opinion) once you start feeling better and healthier, you’ll want to do better and habits will be easier to change.
Will you hit road bumps? ABSOLUTELY. Everyone does. The point is that road bumps aren’t meant to stop you from progressing. If you are hitting road bumps frequently, take a look at what’s causing the bump—perhaps there is a hellthy habit that you need to go back and revisit and on which you can refocus your efforts. You’ll find that it will be easier (or at least I do) to get back on The Road to Hellthy!
Every week, The Road to Hellthy will feature one of these habits (in no particular order) to focus on for the weekly posts. Oh, and just to make things interesting, you need to check back from time to time, as I will be adding to the list (you are welcome!!).
Ready? Here goes:
- Drink at least 64 oz of water daily. If you are not accustomed to drinking this much water, slowly work your way up daily so that by the end of the week you are consistently drinking 64 oz daily.
- Eat your veggies! The WHO, USDA, CDC, and a whole bunch of other healthy-savvy organizations stress the importance of eating at least 5 servings of fruits & vegetables a day. I say try for at least 5 servings of veggies a day and then your fruits are bonus!
- Don’t forget your fruits! Fruits make the perfect dessert and quick snack. You don’t want to have more than 3-4 servings a day, as they are high in sugar. But if you’re debating between the doubly-chocolate cake or your 5th serving of fruit for the fruit, pick the fruit—after all, it’s packed with vitamins, fiber, and antioxidants.
- Log your zzz’s. Preliminary studies are showing that people who get 7-9 hours of sleep a night weigh considerably less than those who get less than 5 hours a sleep. Why wait for further studies, start logging sleep now!
- Exercise every day. I know, I know…this is the one I struggle with the most. The great news is that as little as 30 minutes a day can be beneficial..and even better news suggests that it doesn’t have to be consecutive minutes either—the little bits add up. Get off the bus a stop early, take the stairs, park on the far side of the parking lot. Literally, every little bit counts.
- Cut out the sugar. Or at least cut down on the sugar—and read your labels, there’s a lot of hidden sugars everywhere in processed food. While you’re at it, you’ll find if you cut back on sweet tasting foods (like switching from milk to dark chocolate), you’ll actually crave sweets less (but more on that when we tackle it as our weekly habit!)
- Portion control. Relearn what actually constitutes a serving of something and get your body on-board with the smaller sizes. Still hungry after your portion of protein & carbs? Go back and get more...veggies (or fruits)!!
- Increase your fiber. DO SO SLOWLY or neither your belly nor your butt will be thanking you! Fiber keeps you full; they keep you cleaned out; and are essential in lowering your chances of getting cardiovascular diseases as well as certain types of cancer, particularly colon cancer.
- Have some ME time, every day. It's not selfish. Well, okay, it IS selfish. But if you don't put yourself first, who will?
- Reward your efforts! I find it more satisfying to reward good behaviors rather than the results of the behaviors--i.e. reward yourself for eating 9 servings of veggies a day for 2 weeks in a row rather than rewarding yourself for losing 5 lbs. You'll find that your weight will fluctuate, but the real skill is in how you perform!
Head spinning? It all seems overwhelming? No doubt..thus why you need to take baby steps and tackle one issue at a time. You find that soon (and okay, so that's a relative term) you'll be mastering more and more habits and the list will look far less daunting. But you have to give it time and you do have to put in the effort. I don't call it hellthy for nothing, you know!
~a lot of salt...so you'll probably need a lot more lime & tequila
