5 Tips For Starting a Healthy Lifestyle

5 Tips For Starting a Healthy Lifestyle

Taking small steps to adjust your daily habits will be much more influential in your long-term health than fast, dramatic changes in your diet or lifestyle.

By Ella Hatfield

What if I told you that you can be health conscious without sacrificing the foods and activities you love? Here are some tips on how to start growing your health awareness without converting yourself into a granola guru! Do you want to take control of your life—your career, your success, your happiness? Well, I’m here to tell you that you can! Your health greatly influences these things— and your discipline, your motivation, your sense of fulfillment, and your relationship with yourself and others. The great news is that we can live a healthy lifestyle that leads to success in other parts of our lives! Many people believe investing time and effort into health is an overwhelming and daunting task, but becoming healthier doesn’t have to mean completely revolutionizing your life in a day, a week, or even a month. The one thing that you need to develop on your health journey is health awareness—just being conscious of what you put into and do with your body. Health awareness starts with just that: awareness! Here are some simple tricks that will help propel you on your path:

5 HACKS TO GROW HEALTH AWARENESS

1. Find a health and nutrition blog or YouTube

channel you enjoy. The thing about science, particularly health science, is that new information is being discovered every day, meaning what we think is the “healthiest” is always changing. Don’t waste your time pulling your hair out trying to read the top medical journal papers on a regular basis. Reading scientific literature is a skill that you have to develop over time. That’s why people spend so many years in academia to become qualified to write it, and that’s why you should have other trusted messengers that you will find online. Of course, you should always consult a health professional if you have any serious questions or are considering trying out a new diet, and, if it all checks out, just keep following those channels and websites you like! You will learn so much more by watching/reading content you enjoy than dissecting a 40-page medical journal research article that’s basically written in another language. However, you might want to dip your toes in the water and try out reading medical journals so that you can build those academic reading muscles. ✔ YES, you should do your own research and investigate claims made my others. ❌ NO, you do not need to become a nutritional science expert in your precious free time to live a healthy lifestyle. Use your free time for YOU—for yourself, your family, for growing a business. You do not have to sacrifice these things to become a healthier person. Here are some YouTube channels I recommend checking out: FlavCity with Bobby Parrish: https://www.youtube. com/c/flavcity Dr. Eric Berg, D.C.: https://www.youtube.com/c/ DrEricBergDC (Note: I do not advocate for the Keto diet, and you should consult your doctor before making a major dietary change. Nonetheless, Dr. Berg provides a lot of useful general health and nutrition information.) Dr. Mona Vand, Pharm. D https://www.youtube. com/c/DrMonaVand/videos Physicians Committee https://www.youtube. com/user/PCRM Here are some other resources I find reliable for light health and nutrition: https://www.healthline.com/ https://www.webmd.com/ https://www.mayoclinic.org/ https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/ Here are some scholarly, peer-reviewed medical/ health science journals if you are ready to dive deep: https://nutrition.org/publications/ https://academic.oup.com/jn https://www.nutritionsociety.org/publications/ journal-nutritional-science https://journals.sagepub.com/home/nah 2. Make your bed every morning. I know, I know. You’re probably thinking, “Making my bed is not gonna make me healthy or fit.” Well, you need to care about making your bed. Making the decision to make your bed every morning is a HUGE step towards being health conscious. It’s one small action you can do that puts you in control of your life and your day. Instead of rolling out of bed, brushing your teeth and throwing on your clothes, you say, “Whats up bed? I’m going to take control of my day right now.” Fluff your little pillows, you tuck in all the little corners of the blanket and you put your cuteass stuffed animals right up top for everyone to see. BOOM! You just did something productive that took less than 2 minutes. You’re starting off the day already having an accomplishment under your belt, and you’re starting off your day being AWARE and consciously choosing to take actions that will bring good into your life.

3. Don’t eliminate the snacks you love; find al-

ternative versions of them. Eating a more health conscious diet does not mean throwing out your favorite food. There are many “junk” foods and unhealthy meals that you can make a healthy version of, and they’re often just as (if not more) delicious! I love sweet treats and desserts, especially chocolate and ice cream. Of course, we all know that sugar is bad for you. But it’s one of those tradeoffs where you’d rather take the hit from eating sugar than never eat a triple chocolate Pizookie again. Well, I have news for you: You can avoid sugar and have delicious sweets! That’s right, there are sugar-free sweets that are actually delicious and free of cancerous artificial sweeteners! Let me introduce you to my dear friends monk fruit and the botanical sweeteners gang. Botanical sweeteners are awesome! Here’s why: They have a glycemic index of 0. They don’t raise your blood sugar/glucose levels, meaning they don’t cause the health problems that sugar does! They are completely natural and derived from plants with no cancerous chemicals like you find in artificial sweeteners. They taste great. I’m not going to pretend they taste exactly like sugar, but a combination of monk fruit and erythritol tastes really darn close. It doesn’t have any artificial flavors or weird aftertaste! Stevia is pretty good too, but it tastes the most artificial to me out of the three. Living healthy does not mean you eat terrible-tasting food all the time, or that you’ll never enjoy a chocolate milkshake or a big, juicy double bacon cheese burger again. Living healthy does not mean being a perfectionist monk who only eats things that provide a positive health benefit. It’s about living and eating healthy most of the time, so when you want to have a burger and fries every once in a while, it’s okay, and you’ll actually enjoy them instead of feeling guilty about it! And you should eat them because burgers and fries are delicious and you should enjoy the things you like. Plus, you can have chocolate milkshakes all the time now that you know about monk fruit and erythritol! One way to start this transition into healthy eating is using a 50/50 ratio—50 percent of your diet is healthy, and 50 percent is the less healthy food you’re used to eating. Just being aware of what you’re putting into your body is the key to becoming healthy and fit. After a while of growing this awareness (maybe a month or two), then you can try a 60/40 ratio, where 60 percent of the food you eat is healthy and 40 percent is the old stuff. Try that for a month or two, then try a 70/30 ratio. The truth is, you really only need a 70/30 ratio to be pretty darn healthy! Of course, the 80/20 rule is even better, and a 90/10 is top dog, and you’ll see and feel more results the higher your ratio is. But, for the time being, 70/30 is an AWESOME

and realistic goal that will create a lot of health benefits for you. I know you can do it! 4. Drink more water. I’m serious! The healtiest people in the world forget to drink enough water. It is one of those tiny things that is so obvious and apparent that it seems unnecessary to prioritize. Trust me, if you are not constantly reminding yourself to drink water all day, you are dehydrated! And most people are, myself included sometimes. It seems like a no brainer, but staying hydrated is something you have to consciously be aware of throughout your day. As a matter of fact, I’m going to chug a glass or water right now—and you should too. Aim to drink at least a gallon of water a day, and even more if you exercise. Have you ever drank a gallon of water in a day? Intentionally drinking more water every day will help you feel energized, will prevent you from getting sick, will help your digestion and immune system, will prevent you from getting sore from exercise, and will help your skin and the rest of your organs.

5. Briefly plan out your eating schedule for the

day. Something as simple as taking the time in the morning to plan out meal times and food can be so helpful in being health conscious. I know when I’m super slammed with work and I don’t have my meals planned out, I tend to: • Snack on random not-so-healthy things all day that are quick, easy and accessible. • Either eat my lunch at my desk while I continue working, or I put off eating a full meal until I get home from work. • Eat a HUGE, not-so-healthy meal trying to put dinner together as quick as I can. • Oh yeah, and then I continue to snack all evening. It gets my whole eating system out of whack, and I’ve learned that this is easily avoidable if I just make a plan for when I’m going to eat at the start of my day. Setting reminders on your phone can really help you to stay on track, especially when you’re first starting to be health conscious. In the morning, just make a quick decision about what you are going to eat that day, even down to the snacks. Something as simple as this is a huge step in growing your health awareness: 7:30 a.m. have a light breakfast. 10:00 a.m. have a couple snacks. 12:00 p.m. have a nice big lunch.

Photo Credit: Unsplash Yilmaz Akin

3:00 p.m. have a snack. 6:00 p.m. have a big, yummy dinner. It’s pretty difficult to make health-conscious decisions when you’re incredibly hungry and fatigued after work. Set an alarm on your phone to remind you for snack and meal times. With this method, you’ll have plenty of chances to eat, so by the time you get off work you won’t be so hungry that you’re rushing home and then mindlessly throwing together dinner. You’ll have time to stop and think, “What do I want for dinner? What sounds delicious and fits into my 60/40 ratio?” BOOM, health awareness! Remember, it’s a marathon, not a race. Taking small steps to adjust your daily habits will be much more influential in your long-term health than fast, dramatic changes in your diet or lifestyle. Plus, I bet that once you start seeing and feeling results from your health awareness, you will want to up the ante, and you will be excited about taking greater actions to improve your health!

Ella Hatfield has been an athlete for over 17 years and was lucky enough to be raised by a mother with incredible health awareness. These experiences, as well as her own determination and research, have led Ella to developing the knowledge, discipline, and methodology required to continue living a fit and healthy lifestyle for life, and the determination to share that methodology with the world so others can take control of their health, their happiness, and their long-term success. Contact Ella by email at TheArticulateAthlete@gmail.com.