When you have a demanding job and otherwise busy life, you can’t exactly set aside hours every day to look after your health. Fortunately, you don’t need to – a few simple tweaks to your daily routine can go a long way toward keeping you healthy. While these tweaks won’t replace a dedicated fitness routine, they can give you energy, make you feel better, and generally help you get through a hard-working week in good shape. Here, Beach Medical shares more about how you can make your daily routine to be healthier and happier.
Begin Your Day with Gentle Stretching Exercises
When you go to bed, your muscles tighten up – sometimes locking in place – and your blood pressure goes down. Performing basic stretching exercises is a powerful way to loosen your muscles up and get the blood flowing again. It makes you feel good, gives you an energy boost, and also provides relief from muscle-related problems – like plantar fasciitis or cricks in your neck.
Meditate or Set Intentions for the Day
Having a clear head early in the morning can help you to focus better throughout the day, get more done, and keep stress at bay. Meditating is a great way to quieten your mind, relax, and gain focus. You’ll feel more settled and happier at work and elsewhere. For extra effect, you can set intentions about any goals you’d like to achieve that day or tasks you need to get done – having an intention to do something makes it more likely you’ll achieve it.
Drink a Glass of Lemon Water Before Breakfast
Drinking lemon water after you wake up and before you eat something can have multiple benefits. Not only is it a low-calorie alternative to coffee or tea, but it comes with natural health-boosting effects: it improves your digestion, helps you lose weight, boosts your immunity, lowers your blood pressure, and makes your skin healthier and more lustrous.
Eat an Energizing Breakfast
Your breakfast, as you may have already heard, is the most important meal of the day. Having a hearty breakfast will give you plenty of energy to function afterward. According to Health, you should have a breakfast that combines proteins, carbohydrates, and fibers. Some good-to-eat foods are oatmeal, Greek yogurt, eggs, bananas, orange juice, cereal, and whole wheat bread.
Dress Well
Dressing well can have surprising health benefits. When you look good, you feel good about yourself and become more confident in your skin. Not only does it improve your mood, but it can also boost your mental well-being. Also, the positive attention you’ll receive from people will only feed into your self-esteem.
Watch your posture, too. Standing tall exudes confidence and power. Just look at the way famous people tend to carry themselves. Click here to see how tall your favorite celebrities are and how they position their bodies to look and feel powerful.
Listen to Music or Read on Your Way to Work
Whether you drive to work or commute there by train, you likely have several minutes of free time on your hands. You can put this time to good use by listening to music or reading, depending on your preferences. Both activities can help your thoughts settle down and put you in a more optimistic frame of mind. You will be able to get to work much more focused and relaxed.
Find Opportunities to Walk
Walking can help you lose weight, improve your heart health, strengthen your bones and muscles, and boost your energy levels. Find a walkable neighborhood and take a daily stroll. If you work a sedentary job, you can find ways to walk more by scheduling walk breaks, taking the stairs more often instead of the elevator, picking up your food personally instead of having it delivered, and walking over to your co-workers’ offices to interact with them personally.
Take Mini-Breaks or Micro-Breaks at Work
Human bodies and brains aren’t designed to sit still and focus extensively on one task for hours on end. Excessive focus can stress you out and make you lose productivity as time goes by. Taking breaks between tasks gives your body and mind time to reset and let go of the stress. If your schedule permits, you should aim to take 5-minute-long breaks every thirty minutes of focused activity. You can take micro-breaks, lasting 30 seconds or more, when your schedule is tight.
Stock Up on Healthy Snacks
You will likely crave snacks or soda when you work. Needless to say, giving in to these cravings won’t do any favors to your health. Excessive fats and sugar can do a number on your mood and energy levels. As a way to satiate your hunger without hurting your health, you can find nutritious alternative snacks such as nuts, dark chocolate, fresh fruit, hard-boiled eggs, hummus, and more. You should avoid sugar and processed food.
If you’re looking to eat healthier and lose weight, consider adding some additional treatments through Beach Medical. They start with a customized nutritional plan and pair it with appetite suppressants to help you reach your goals.
Learn to Say No
You will likely have many demands upon your time and energy. You must prioritize the things that matter and eliminate the rest. Mastering learning how to say “no” can help in this regard. Be tactful, but assertive when you say “no.” Offer a brief explanation, be kind, maintain your boundaries, and don’t fall prey to manipulation.
Use a Standing Desk
When you sit for hours at your desk, it hurts your posture, may make you cramp up, lead to back or neck pain, impact your blood circulation, and is generally bad for your well-being. That’s why switching to a standing desk can be a smart decision. Standing desks help your body loosen up, ease your blood circulation, increase your energy levels, reduce your back and neck pain, and even boost your lifespan.
Take Time to Breathe Properly
Yes, it’s possible to breathe wrong! In fact, bad breathing habits are the norm, and they can make it hard for your body to function optimally. The lack of oxygen-carbon-dioxide balance may lead to problems like anxiety, fatigue, panic attacks, and other physical and emotional problems. By learning how to breathe properly again through exercises like belly breathing, box breathing, resonance breathing, and shallow breathing you can give your body the air it needs to function at its best. Some positive effects will be more energy, a better mood, and reduced anxiety.
Take Time to Relax When You Get Home
When you get home, you should take some time to unwind before you do anything else. Some suggestions are taking a moment to talk to yourself, going for a brief walk, and picking up a restful hobby (like reading). You may want to change into something more comfortable that signals to your brain and body that you have switched out of work mode and into home time. Check this out: you can invest in a comfortable bamboo blouse or joggers that allow you to move while still feeling relaxed.
Making your home more comfortable and healing can help you to unwind. Some suggestions are letting in more natural light, getting indoor plants, playing soothing music, and burning some incense.
Get Some Exercise In
If you have the time to spare, you should consider some exercises. You can do a high-intensity workout in as little as 20 minutes. It will help take away from the stress of your day and get you out of work mode. Some example exercises include prisoner squats, lateral lunges, twists, jumping jacks, bicep curls, push-ups, and overhead presses.
Find Better Health Insurance
With the right health insurance policy, you’ll have peace of mind knowing that in the event of an emergency or accident, all of your costs are covered. The ideal plan should fit your budget and provide access to physicians and specialists that prioritize high quality care for their patients. If your employer doesn’t offer coverage, you can enroll in your spouse’s plan or find plans through the Freelancers Union or ACA.
Spend Time in Nature
Spending time in nature – whether that be a few minutes in your garden, a park, or a nearby forest – can do wonders for your well-being. Looking at the green and just taking in the beauty of nature has a soothing, healing effect. It can energize you, reduce your anxiety, and make it easier for you to unwind.
Jot Your Achievements Down in Your Journal
Keeping an achievements journal and writing in it at the end of the day is a great way to bring your day to a close. Writing your achievements down allows you to get some perspective on what happened – and feel good about every victory, big and small. It can bolster your mental well-being and take away stress.
Put Away Screens Before Bedtime
It’s a good idea to put your phones, tablets, and laptops away one hour before bedtime. The blue light from screens is damaging in various ways – it hurts your eyes, makes you more alert (when you should be calm), reduces the amount of REM sleep you can get, and even hurts your energy levels the next morning.
Have a Bedtime Ritual
A bedtime ritual is a series of activities that make it easier for your body to unwind and get prepared for bed. Practicing the same ritual every day will make falling asleep effortless, which can be a struggle if you’re constantly stressed or have insomnia. Activities that you can include in your ritual are reading a story, having a warm shower, putting on comfortable clothes, drinking a cup of tea, breathing deeply, and practicing meditation.
Make Time to Find Your Balance
Making these additions a part of your lifestyle is a convenient way to be healthier. For maximum benefit, pair them up with regular exercise. The CDC recommends at least 150 minutes of exercise every week. Walking more often can help fill in this quota, as it’s medium-intensity exercise and doesn’t take up much of your time. It may take some time, but find your balance of activities that improve your mental and physical wellbeing. You’ll find yourself feeling strong, focused, and emotionally balanced and wonder why you didn’t embrace these practices sooner.
