Does your busy schedule make it hard to get to the gym regularly, cook nutritious meals every weeknight, or even get enough sleep?
Many people face the same challenges – but a packed schedule does not have to hold you back from living a healthy lifestyle.
Instead, you can focus on making simple changes that won’t require much time or effort.
You can find the inspiration and gentle motivation you need from Coffee Chats & Yoga Mats!
Furthermore, these 7 easy strategies can show you how to change your lifestyle for the better, from enjoying daily walks to eating a healthier diet.
Maybe the thought of making lots of lifestyle changes at once seems too overwhelming.
You don’t have to completely transform your daily routine overnight – instead, try adding one beneficial new habit per week or month.
For example, you can start small by scheduling daily walk breaks if you work a job that involves sitting at a desk for long hours.
You could make a commitment to taking the stairs instead of the elevator whenever the option is available, walking to pick up take-out food rather than ordering delivery, and even strolling down to your coworkers’ offices to say hi more often.
If you don’t get enough sleep, you’ll feel sluggish all day long – but if you’re used to sleeping less than eight hours per night, you might not even realize how tired you really are on a daily basis.
Maybe you try to get a full eight hours of shut-eye, yet you end up tossing and turning, or you tend to wake up several times on any given night.
How do you fix your sleep schedule for good?
It’s all about creating a cozy sleeping environment and sticking to a soothing evening routine.
Henry Ford recommends ensuring that your room is cool, dark, and quiet, avoiding electronic devices that emit blue light before bedtime, and exercising early in the day so that you’re not overstimulated when you should be winding down.
Maybe you’ve never considered yourself a very good cook, or perhaps you do like to cook, but you feel like you don’t have enough hours in the day for this habit. Instead, you turn to frozen food, takeout, and snacks.
While there’s no doubt that these choices can be more convenient, eating a healthier diet can drastically improve your overall well-being.
Don’t make the mistake of assuming that every healthy, home-cooked meal will require lots of ingredients or take a long time to make.
You might be surprised by how many tasty dishes you can whip up in thirty minutes or less!
If you’re ready to focus on nutrition, Saber Health recommends choosing whole grains over foods made with white flour, limiting your portion sizes, incorporating non-starchy vegetables and lean protein into your meals, eating more fruit, and cutting out sugary drinks.
Do you ever feel like you have to fill every hour of your day with a productive activity?
Rather than trying to juggle lots of hobbies, it’s important to open up space in your life for relaxation.
You do not have to optimize every moment you spend awake! Instead, give yourself permission to unwind for a little while each day.
You might want to block off an hour to read a book you love, soak in the bath, watch an episode or two of your favorite sitcom, or write in a journal while listening to a playlist you made.
Perhaps your busy schedule isn’t necessarily self-imposed. Maybe you just find it tough to say “No” when someone asks you for help.
If you’re struggling to find any time in your schedule to relax, yet you still can’t help but agree to help out whenever someone requests it, it’s time to get comfortable with telling people “No.”
This does not mean you have to ignore your friends and relatives when they genuinely need your support. However, you should think carefully before you take on another commitment for someone else’s sake.
Consider how much time you really have to spare and how much time you need to take care of your own well-being. You do not have to feel guilty for saying “No” – remember, taking time for yourself is non-negotiable.
Exercise is an essential aspect of self-care. If you want to feel your best, making time for even gentle exercise is crucial.
If you’re looking for a form of exercise that you can enjoy at home or in a studio class, why not take up yoga? This practice is appropriate for all ages, and by doing yoga regularly, you’ll be able to improve your strength, flexibility, and posture.
What if you’d prefer a more fast-paced workout? You might enjoy Pilates! By practicing Pilates, you can increase your core strength and enjoy a mix of cardio and strength training all in one workout.
Do you want to let go of your stress, cultivate a more positive mindset, and live in the present rather than fixating on the past or future?
You could benefit from picking up meditation. When you meditate daily, you might notice profound changes in your life.
While the idea of meditating might seem intimidating or complicated at first, you only have to start by meditating for a few minutes per day. It doesn’t take much time to experience your stress levels dropping!
What if you’ve tried all of these strategies before… but felt like you’ve failed miserably at using them regularly?
No matter how often you try to get more regular sleep, nourish yourself well, or get your yoga moves on… it just doesn’t stick?
So many of us try to implement these strategies, but miss out on leveraging a key piece of the puzzle – personality!
You see, while we all need sleep, healthy movement, nourishing foods, and all of the other strategies in this post, each of us has a different “why” for pursuing them.
Grab the FREE Embrace Your Potential Playbook to learn more about your God-gifted personality and get some practical tips to start living intentionally TODAY with passion and purpose as God’s beloved.
Let’s consider how daily walks might look different for two personality types.
If you lead with intuition and feeling, you have an enthusiasm for personal growth, dreaming of the future, and being authentic. You might be more motivated to go on daily walks if you listen to a podcast or audiobook, chat with a friend about your big ideas, or simply daydream.
If you lead with sensing and perceiving, you have excitement for adventure, being present in the moment, and being adaptable. You might be more motivated to go on daily walks if you change your route regularly to keep it fresh; pay attention to the sights, sounds, smells, and textures around you; and incorporate a challenge to the experience (such as inclines, obstacles, etc.).
Isn’t it exciting how much embracing your personality can actually help you have more fun taking care of yourself?!
As we’ve discussed, here are some simple strategies to live healthier:
Trying to overhaul your entire life within a week or two could cause you to burn out and give up on your new habits early.
But by picking up some basic habits that make a positive impact over time, you can support your health from head to toe!
With these tips, you’ll be ready to start going for regular walks, experimenting with different workouts, and cutting down on unnecessary obligations.
If you’re ready to be healthier, pick one of these strategies to focus on for a couple weeks. As your confidence grows, you’ll be ready to start focusing on an additional strategy. You can do this!
P.S. Want some crazy simple steps to start living intentionally? Grab the Embrace Your Potential Playbook. It’ll help you zoom in on your God-gifted personality and give you practical tips to be more intentional, passionate, and purposeful as God’s beloved so you can become the best version of yourself.
Jennifer McGregor is a pre-med student, who loves providing reliable health and medical resources for PublicHealthLibrary.org users. To make it easier for people to search for high quality information, she co-created Public Health Library – a way to push reputable information on health topics to the forefront, making them more convenient to find.”
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