Every start of the year, we tell ourselves that it’s time for a change and it’s time to improve our lifestyles. Resolutions, especially in the field of fitness and health, could be as promising as losing weight, signing up for a gym membership, or even enrolling ourselves on a diet program.
Yes, it’s okay to have ambitious resolutions, but what matters as well are the simple choices you make every day that affect your lifestyle. The simple choices you make in your routine or on a daily basis are actually the ones that will benefit you most in the long run.
What are those simple choices you can do? Here are seven suggestions that could help benefit your lifestyle, health, and fitness:
1. Give black coffee a chance
Need your daily coffee fix? Try out having black coffee instead of your regular latte or frappe. Coffee is known to improve performance and increases adrenaline levels in your body that aids in physical exertion. It also kicks off your cognitive function and reduces diabetes risk. All these benefits of coffee can be found in just a plain black coffee except you won’t have to worry about calories and sugar. In fact, black coffee contains less than 5 calories a cup and no sugar at all!
See: But First, Coffee
2. Don’t go to the grocery when you’re hungry
When hungry, you’re more likely to put more on your trolley than when shopping on a full stomach. You are also more likely to select poor food choices you’ve probably been craving for a while already. So it’s best to always have a meal and keep your stomach full when entering the supermarket.
3. Prioritize Sleep
Instead of going out or staying up all night scrolling through your gadgets, get as much sleep as you can daily. Getting enough sleep is crucial for your health and wellbeing because it is the time when your body heals damaged cells and when your immune system is put to work. Think of it as a time when you’re recharging your body from the day’s activities and when you charge your heart and cardiovascular system for the next day. If you lack sleep, you lack all those benefits mentioned above which could gradually be detrimental to your health and impair your overall fitness.
See: Why Sleep is Crucial to Losing Weight
4. Take more steps
Taking more steps could serve as a way for the body to be more active. So next time you see an escalator or elevator, try taking the stairs instead. Or you can also opt to spend your 10-15 minute break in the office to walk around to get water or coffee instead of just sitting. It also helps to choose to do that 15-minute walk to the nearby street than driving.
5. Cut down on sugar-sweetened beverages or sugar in general
Cutting down on sugar as a whole is, no doubt, beneficial in a lot of ways. We’re not saying stop sugar completely but just minimize your sugar intake.
Here’s a tip: Instead of drinking juice or soft drinks along with your meal, how about you actually replace that with water? Or, instead of having one whole bar of chocolate, why not just have a piece or two to satisfy your craving? Simple choices like those could go a long way. Cutting down sugar will help you have fewer cravings, lessen your sugar addiction, and keep your brain sharp which will eventually make you crave for it less.
6. Make time for your health
Make this year the year that you start taking action. Don’t leave your thoughts of losing weight, going to the gym, jogging, as just thoughts and wishes. Start doing them. The saying goes that the start of your goals only begins when you take action and push yourself to do just that.
A tip here is to start slow by going to the thrice a week or by going for a jog every other day. Find that 30-minute free time to think about your health and fitness whether after work or when you wake up in the morning. The only time you lose is when you give in to the excuses your mind tells you to not work out.
7. Stay hydrated
A healthy person is required to have at least 30 to 50 ounces (8-10 glasses) of water per day. Drinking water is vital to staying healthy and maintaining the proper functions of every system in your body including your heart, brain, and muscle. Water is crucial in your daily fluid intake because not only does this keep you away from dehydration, but it also removes waste from your body efficiently aiding to your overall health. A tip here is bringing a water jug or bottle wherever you go, you’ll be surprised at how much water you actually will consume.
These are just some simple choices you can do to make more out of life. But as simple as it sounds, dedication and discipline are needed to make these a part of your everyday habit. The good thing about the fitness journey, though, is that you don’t have to change all at once, you can try improving and incorporating new habits one at a time.
You have one life to live, live it right, healthy, and fit.
