People often think they have to go hard to get the results they desire. Showing up to the gym 2 times a day, hardly eating any foods, over consuming caffeine…etc. But the truth is we overlook the most basic of habits that can easily help us reach optimal health.
Simple things like, drinking more water, improving sleep, and walking can be the little push someone needs to reach that last little stubborn bit. So let’s start there!
Water
Your body is more than 60 percent water. And we need that water for a host of things like blood, sweat, and tears…and maybe a few other important things like regulating body temperature, helping produce hormones, protecting joints, and a million other things. Increasing water intake can help control hunger, improve skin, and increase energy levels. Start small by adding a glass each week until you’ve reached your optimal water intake (which varies person to person).
Sleep
Did you know sleep, or lack thereof, can directly impact your hunger levels and appetite? Two hormones called leptin and ghrelin can be effected by poor sleep quality and quantity. Lack of sleep will increase levels of ghrelin and decrease leptin levels. Ghrelin is related to hunger and leptin is related to feeling full. If these two are off, you might notice increased hunger, appetite, and not feeling full/overeating. Sleep can be challenging to work on and improve. I typically recommend to clients to start at adding 15 minutes to their bedtime and sticking with that goal for a week. Then increasing the next week by 15 more minutes. It’s also helpful to improve your bed time routine by limiting blue light from screens, reducing carbohydrate intake before bed, and creating a more relaxing environment.
Walking
Something so simple as a 10 minute walk daily can improve your quality of life greatly! Starting with general mood improvement and energy boost! Typically just getting started with an easy 10 minutes will motivate you to go even further! Let’s not forget to mention the extra calorie burn that comes from movement in general. Getting those extra steps in per day will also help to improve cardiovascular fitness, heart health, immunity, and helps maintain a healthy body weight. Working on this goal can be extremely manageable by working to get in 10 minutes per day for a week, then adding a second 10 minute bout each day, and so on.
The whole idea of goals and working on changing these daily habits is to start small. Add a glass here, 10 minutes there; all while being consistent and you’ll notice improvement before you know it!