11 Simple Health Habits Worth Adopting Into Your Life

11 Simple Health Habits Worth Adopting Into Your Life

 1. Use Stairs and Furniture as Makeshift Gym Equipment

Take them every chance you get if you have stairs at your home or office. However, don't stop there. Walk up and down the stairs repeatedly for a strong cardio workout. Start with a limited number of repetitions and then, as you feel stronger, increase them.

2. Drink 1 Extra Glass of Water a Day

It's nothing new that drinking more water has health advantages. It helps keep your temperature normal, lubricates and cushions joints, protects your spinal cord and other sensitive tissues and gets rid of wastes through urination, sweat and bowel movements. Since 50 to 75 percent of your weight is water, it is imperative to drink some plain old H2O to keep your body working the best it can and to remain hydrated. To help your intake, you can add flavour to your water if plain water is not your favourite.

3. Replace Diet Soda with Carbonated Water

The brain reacts to artificial sweeteners much like it does to sugar sweets, research suggests.

Use carbonated mineral water to help wean yourself off of it if you drink diet soda every day," says Jeffers." "Ingesting them often will increase your desire for high-calorie foods and put you at risk of gaining weight."

Try drinking unflavored tea, coffee or fruit-infused plain water if you're not a fan of carbonated water. It is not realistic to quit cold turkey, but if you begin to reduce the amount of diet soda and artificial sweeteners you ingest, you will do wonders for both your waistline and your health.

4. Take a 10-Minute Walk

Travers says, "Even a 10-minute walk can help increase your cardiovascular health." "During your lunch hour, take a walk or to a store a block away to buy a gallon of milk—all it's good for you."

5. Correct Your Posture

Have your parents ever yelled at you when you were a kid because of your bad posture? Well, the bad news is, they were correct. Good posture can prevent aches and can also reduce ligament stress. Not only that, but good posture prevents muscle pain, backache and fatigue. 

"To sit up straight until it becomes an unconscious habit, you can try to leave yourself a note," says Travers. "You can also feel good about yourself by walking with your shoulders back and head held high." 

While teaching yourself to have a better posture is not something that can be fixed immediately, it has a beneficial effect on your overall health to remind yourself to sit up straight.

6. Go to Bed ½ Hour Earlier

Are you going to sleep a solid seven or eight hours most nights? Many of us do not say this is a marker of good heart health, but experts do. Solid sleep not only gives you more energy, it can help with healthy goals for eating as well. If you're short on sleep, it reduces the production of hormones by your body that suppress appetite, which can lead to weight gain. If you suffer from untreated insomnia or sleep apnea, you may have a higher risk of heart disease, obesity and high blood pressure.

7. Incorporate Balance Exercises into Your Routine

For 10 seconds at a time, balance on one leg, then switch to the other leg. Travers suggests that this balance workout should be included in your routine, but it can also be done while brushing your teeth or standing in a line. It is a component of neuromotor training that helps you improve your balance, agility, and mobility, all things you need in daily movement and other forms of exercise.

8. Weigh Yourself Every Week

Set a weekly maintenance or loss goal for yourself, write it down and check yourself against that goal in order to keep your weight from creeping up on you. On the same day and at the same time each week, weigh yourself and wear the same amount of clothing for consistency. It's important to be mindful of fitting clothes and measuring the scale.

Team up to create meal plans with your doctor or dietitian so that you can achieve your goals for weight loss faster and in the healthiest way possible.

9. Start Off Your Day with a Healthy Breakfast

To keep you full and energised, eat something high in fibre that involves protein. You tend to eat better overall if you start the day right, and it helps reduce your risk of diabetes and improves the health of the heart. Not only that, but it helps to reduce brain fog by eating breakfast, so you'll be ready to go for those morning meetings.

Tired of that same oatmeal bowl? To make it more exciting, add various toppings. Also, omelettes don't have to be boring. For a quick and easy breakfast burrito, throw your favourite salsa, cheese and eggs into a whole grain wrap. The options are infinite.

10. Include Greens and Lettuce in your Meals

To add nutrients and water to your diet, incorporate lettuce into your meals. The lettuce fibre helps fill you up, and at just 20 calories per serving, it does so. The most nutritious and the most tasteful are lettuces that are dark green and reddish in colour. But water, fibre and folate are even provided by the common, pale iceberg lettuce.

11. Find Creative Substitutions for Unhealthy Foods

Work to eliminate regularly purchased foods and snacks that are high in calories but low in health benefits. Eat them as an occasional treat, less often. Instead of high fat or sugar alternatives, try using low-fat dairy, whole grains, healthy oils like avocado and olive oil, and natural sweeteners like fruit.

"Remember that it can take some time to build new healthy habits and it's OK to treat yourself to avoid feeling deprived," Jeffers says. "Stay focused on your objective, and just start again if you slip along the way."

11 Simple Health Habits Worth Adopting Into Your Life