6 Ways To Improve Your Health With Little Effort & No Cost
You’ve likely heard these things before…
1. Hydrate More
Food and water are like the foundation of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs pyramid, but somehow water gets the short end of the stick in most of our minds.
Water does so many things for us!
But we neglect it.
We prefer to consume our sodas and energy drinks that we think keep us functioning throughout our weeks.
Little do we know, fueling our bodies with straight caffeine and sugar and depriving it of water would be like trying to drive our car to work after filling it with diesel fuel.
Our bodies have to work harder when we don’t feed them with the proper fuel.
It is generally recommended that adults consume 4–6 cups of water a day (or 32–64 oz/day or appx. 1L/day).
One helpful way to improve your daily water intake is to carry a water bottle with you wherever you go. Here are a few of my favorites:
Hydro Flask Water Bottle — Stainless Steel & Vacuum Insulated — Wide Mouth 2.0 with Leak Proof Flex Cap — 32 oz, Watermelon
Looking for a free option? Start sticking with water with your meals. That will get you 3 cups in right there!
2. Eat Out Less
We all know this. We all tell ourselves we’ll try and cut back. But then, we forget to go to the grocery store, we don’t want to meal prep, and honestly, how bad can Chik-fil-A really be for you?
Here’s the low-down:
While the Chik-fil-A sandwich may not kill you, the sodium in it will.
The average amount of sodium of items found in many large American food chains (i.e. Olive Garden, Applebees, etc.) was found to be 1,256 milligrams in 2014.
The Chik-fil-A sandwich we love so much? 1400mg.
To put this in perspective, current guidelines recommend that Americans consume less than 2,300mg of sodium daily.
And they recommend even less than that for individuals with high blood pressure (hypertension), diabetes, or kidney disease.
Taking in too much sodium can cause us to retain fluid, have increased blood pressure, and keep us from losing weight.
So. Eat out less. Your budget will thank you, and so will your body.
3. Avoid Late Night Snacks & Alcohol
Eating late at night and drinking alcohol can disrupt our sleep which we already don’t get enough of.
Drinking alcohol also leads us to consume more calories that really aren’t doing a whole lot for us.
When we are getting ready to go to bed our bodies slow down. So does your metabolism.
If you have to eat something before going to bed, try something small that isn’t high in sugar (i.e. a nut butter on a rice cake).
Alcohol too can be consumed in moderation, but try to keep it to happy hour, and not right before you go to bed.
That glass of wine may get you to sleep, but it won’t keep you rested.
4. Leave Work At Work
Stress can be a helpful thing. But too much stress, poorly managed, can prevent us from living a health life.
When our bodies are stressed, they can produce elevated levels of cortisol.
Cortisol is great and all, but too much of anything isn’t a good thing.
Elevated levels of cortisol can lead to things like insulin resistance and weight gain.
If your job is stressful, you need to find a way to turn it off.
Don’t check your email at home. Limit your work hours to certain times of day.
And then find things that you can do while you are not working that give you life and reduce your stress.
Exercise is an excellent way to reduces our cortisol levels and helps our body produce natural painkillers and mood elevators. Think I’m kidding: check it out.
Our bodies were made to be resilient in this crazy chaotic world.
We just have to know how to utilize them.
5. Turn Off Your Screens
This brings me back to sleep…
It’s like really important. And it costs nothing. Except maybe some discipline.
This lovely blue light you are staring deeply into as you read this article, is actually ruining our sleep habits.
This isn’t new news. There is a reason Apple has added things like “night shift” and “dark mode” to their devices.
These things aren’t 100%, however.
Scrolling on our phones before bed even while they are in “dark mode” can still stimulate our minds before bed and keep us from having a restful night’s sleep.
Current guidelines recommend that we put way our screens anywhere from 30–90 minutes before bed (90 obviously being more ideal).
Here are some helpful things you can try before bed to rest your body and mind:
- Journaling: I personally love these simple ones
- Meditating: could use an app before putting your phone away such as Abide or Headspace
- Drawing or Coloring: because we’re never too old to color
6. Have Scheduled Quiet Time
Basically, we’re over stimulated, over-stressed, and we overeat.
And it’s costing us physically and financially.
Scheduling quiet times in our days helps us to slow our minds down from the constant input it is receiving and be still.
Some call this meditation, some call it mindfulness, for me personally, it’s a little bit of both and some time in prayer.
We were not designed to be “on” all the time. It’s actually rather unfortunate that our phones have now been designed that way — but they didn’t use to be!
Meditation has been shown to improve anxiety, creativity, self-awareness, and more.
Our culture used to value rest. We used to value time with family and days off. Now, we see every hour and every moment as a moment to be seized for maximum productivity.
And it’s killing us.
I hope you found these six tips helpful.
If you need help remembering them, check this out:
Hydrate more
Eat out less
Avoid late night snacks and alcohol
Leave work at work
Turn of your screens
Have schedule quiet time
See what I did there?
All for free :)
