6 Realistic Health Strategies You Can Start Doing Now

We’ve all done a Google search for how to get healthy, and it seems that all the health strategies that come up require too much work and commitment up front. Diet plans, for instance, mean a complete overhaul of your grocery list, while creating your own home gym isn’t realistic if you don’t have the space and equipment necessary. Of course, this is not to say that you aren’t committed enough to health to do these things, but getting healthy and sticking to it is a lot easier when the plan of attack includes small, gradual steps that are easy to implement. The following six tips are a good start to your healthy living goals.

Simplify Healthy Eating

Bags of chips and individually wrapped candies make it so easy to grab and go, but there are ways to make eating healthy a whole lot easier. Pressed for time and tend to go through the drive-thru line for dinner? Prepare make-ahead freezer meals that require nothing more than setting the timer on the oven. Enjoy smoothies but don’t have the time or patience to chop fruit and veggies and measure ingredients? The freezer can be your friend here too with smoothie bags

You should also look for kitchen devices that can make cooking dietary staples easier. For example, a quality rice cooker can make cooking rice a breeze, and some devices can cut down your cooking time. There are many healthy rice recipes you should consider adding to your diet, such as summer squash over rice and wild rice salad. 

You might even consider signing up for a meal delivery service. There are several to choose from, but keep in mind that prices vary depending on your preferences and family size (the average cost for a meal is about $10). You can make healthy eating easier as well by buying healthy staples in bulk such as protein, fruit, vegetables, and water with a Costco or Sam’s Club membership.

Last but not least, you can actually improve your eating habits by practicing intermittent fasting. By eating less frequently, your body burns stored fat, which can help with weight loss. Additionally, intermittent fasting can help with inflammation and mental focus, among many other benefits. 

 Work with a Personal Trainer

Just like eating right can be made simple, sticking with an exercise routine can be too. How many times have you saved workout plans on your phone, only to never get around to doing them? Have you ever gone to the gym and felt overwhelmed? Are you lacking motivation? Consider hiring a personal trainer to help you crush your goals. You’ll get one-on-one help in a setting that makes it easy to ask questions and truly learn about exercise. Not to mention, you’ll see results, get motivated, and learn to exercise on your own.

Get Out of the Gym

There’s nothing wrong with a gym workout, but you need to switch things up to keep you dedicated and having fun. You can try anything such as paddleboard yoga, fitness drumming, free running, and rocking climbing in the dark, to name but a few. Hiking is another great way to stay in shape while taking in the fresh air.

Take a Vacation

Don’t believe what your coworkers believe — vacations are actually really great for your health! For some folks, that means packing a bag and heading for lands unknown. For others, it means staying at home, watching movies, and just unplugging from the world for a few days. Of course, there is a way to meet in the middle. Staycations, for example, allow you to take in the sights and sounds of your immediate surroundings, but you can also venture out within a smaller radius. That could mean taking a short road trip and camping at your favorite campground or lake or staying local in a vacation rental.

De-Stress Your Living Space

We’ve all dealt with clutter, and whatever your reason is for having it, it can make your life more stressful than it should be. How? Clutter equals chaos and is connected with negative vibes, overloading your senses and making you feel anxious, stressed, overwhelmed, and drained. Plus, clutter makes it hard for you to concentrate on important tasks and becomes a physical reminder of all the work you have left to do. You can tackle the task yourself through a deep cleaning and organizational purge, in addition to taking steps to clearing out any bad energy in your home.

Make Your Goals Realistic

Your goal might be to get healthy, but setting achievable goals is the way to go. Let getting healthy be your grand vision, and then set smaller goals using the SMARTY acronym: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound, and why. The last letter, Y, could be several things: Why is it important to you? Why is this your goal? What is your why or deeper motivation? For example, perhaps you’d like to cut down on your soda drinking to five per week or lose 10 pounds over the course of two months. Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t accomplish your goal in the time you specified. Instead, change up the goal and keep trekking forward.

Living a healthy lifestyle doesn’t have to be hard. It definitely takes commitment, but there are plenty of easy health strategies you can implement that will pack a punch. The suggestions above are a great place to start, and once you get going, you’ll find yourself looking for even more ways to get healthy from head to toe.

A special thanks to our guest writer – Jennifer McGregor