Written by: Esté Bell, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Working towards any goal starts with focusing on your health. After all, how do you expect to perform if you feel sick or tired all the time?
But what is health? The World Health Organization defines health as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not just the absence of illness and disease. Being healthy does not happen by accident. It’s a result of consistently making healthy choices and practicing them daily. Developing healthy habits is not as difficult as one would think, and it will ensure that one lives long and well.
Improving physical and emotional well-being comes down to taking what we have, changing it to a healthier version, and practicing it consistently. Before long, these new habits will become part of a daily routine (or your habit menu, if you like), and ultimately a healthier lifestyle.
As it turns out, having a set of good habits in place is very helpful in achieving our goals and keeping us focused and organized. Becoming healthier can be as simple as focusing on aspects like sleep, hydration, whole food-based nutrition, stress management, and movement:
1. Sleep more, sleep better habit
It is recommended that adults sleep between 7 to 9 hours each night. While 9 hours of sleep seems impossible in our busy lifestyles, sleeping just 7 hours a night makes a big difference. Sleep deprivation can negatively impact our health, immune systems, and body weight.
While we are sleeping, our bodies use the most calories to optimize metabolic processes such as hormone production, digestion, cell renewal, and recovery, to name a few.
Waking up after a night of too little sleep (or bad quality sleep) leaves us lacking the energy and motivation to take on the tasks of the day. Thus, we are less productive and unlikely to do that workout. Besides feeling tired, we tend to wake up hungry – often with a craving for foods with a higher fat and sugar content, as our bodies try to compensate for the lack of energy. Seeing an increase in body weight when constantly sleep-deprived is commonplace for exactly these reasons.
Feeling tired all the time, lacking motivation to exercise, and/or gaining some extra body fat, is not likely to improve anyone’s mood either. Sleep deprivation has been linked to depression in many recent studies. However, the opposite is also true, as pioneered by Dr. Allison Harvey of the University of California, Berkley. She has intervened with sleep as a tool in patients suffering from a range of psychiatric disorders to great effect.
Not only does the amount of time we spend sleeping matter, but the quality of that sleep matters too. A set bedtime routine of 30 – 60 minutes, practiced consistently, will do wonders for sleep latency, sleep quality, as well as sleep quantity.
“I believe it is time for us to reclaim our right to a full night of sleep, without embarrassment or the damaging stigma of laziness. In doing so, we can be reunited with that most powerful elixir of wellness and vitality, dispensed through every conceivable biological pathway. Then we may remember what it feels like to be truly awake during the day, infused with the very deepest plenitude of being” (Matthew Walker. 2017. Why we sleep)
2. Water intake
Drinking enough water is crucial to our survival. Water helps us regulate body temperature, optimize metabolic processes, deliver nutrients to cells, lubricate joints, and move foods through the intestinal tract. Staying hydrated will also improve mood, sleep quality, and cognition.
Our state of hydration affects several areas.
Even mild dehydration can have up to 15% detrimental effects on physical performance.
Dehydration brings about a drop in energy levels and brain function, which can also affect mood and emotional well-being.
Drinking enough water may prevent and treat headaches – this is the most common symptom of dehydration.
Staying hydrated may relieve constipation. Mineral water rich in Magnesium and Sodium can improve bowel frequency and consistency in people with recurring constipation.
Drinking water can help prevent a hangover. Alcohol is a diuretic, and consuming a large amount can contribute to dehydration. Although this is not the main cause of hangovers, dehydration does cause symptoms like thirst, fatigue, headaches, and a dry mouth.
Sufficient water consumption can aid in weight loss, as it contributes to an increase in satiety and energy levels and boosts physical performance as well as energy output.
Read more on optimizing your hydration here.
3. Focus on whole foods
In today’s “fast” life, we tend to head for the section with the boxes in the supermarket. Quick, easy, convenient right? Processed foods tend to have a long shelf life and taste good, thanks to all the added fats, sugars, and preservatives. As if this is not bad enough, most processed foods have out-processed most of the nutrients, leaving us with high-calorie products with little or no nutritional value.
Eating processed food robs us of the opportunity to nourish our bodies with nutrients they can use to function and perform better. Food is fuel. You won’t put low-grade oil in your high-performance vehicle, will you?
Skipping the boxes and choosing whole foods instead will bring about improvement in many aspects of our lives, such as:
Weight management
Boost in energy levels
Improved physical performance
Better sleep
Diminished cellulite appearance
Improved muscle tone
Better hormonal balance
Fewer cravings
Stabilized blood glucose levels
Regular bowel movements
Improved brain health
Fewer headaches or migraines
Better immune response
Aim at consuming whole foods 80% of the time and indulging in the convenience of processed foods 20% of the time. It's all about balance and consuming as many nutrients as possible.
How do you differentiate between whole foods and processed foods? Rice grows in fields, but bread doesn’t grow on trees.
4. Stress management
It’s difficult not to become overwhelmed at times. We need to juggle work, school, relationships, and children. It’s normal to become anxious and worried. We do however need to set time apart to relax and calm down. The following practices are known to assist in the management and relief of stress:
Conscious breathing. This might not sound like much, but 5 minutes of deep, conscious breathing can be very effective. Sit or lie in a comfortable position, close your eyes, imagine yourself in a peaceful setting, and slowly breathe in and out.
Slow down. Not everything needs to be done at once. Break down big jobs into smaller ones – answer the most important e-mails now and do the rest later.
Take a break. Set aside time for meditation, reading, prayer, listening to music, whatever is calming. These practices are the perfect addition to any bedtime routine.
Make time for hobbies/creativity. There’s no need to spend hours being creative. Twenty minutes a day will do. Relaxing hobbies include activities like painting, knitting, doing puzzles, art projects, etc.
Talk about your problems. Writing down the problems we face can be a useful tool. Diarize, journal, or do a “brain dump”. Reading our written words often brings clarity. Alternatively, playing back voice recordings can be very enlightening. Have you ever said something out loud only to know the answer before your sentence was completed?
Often, we need someone to listen. Never hesitate to seek the guidance of a therapist when you become overwhelmed by life.
We are the ones putting the most pressure on ourselves. We try to be perfect to prove our worth and oftentimes just compound the situation. Choose to set time apart for relaxation and reflection. You’ll be much calmer, relaxed, and focused in the aftermath.
Read more about the subject.
5. Move, move, move
It's a well-known fact that a sedentary lifestyle may increase your risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and premature death (not to mention the lower back pain most people complain about). However, sitting at a desk or in front of a computer is an unavoidable part of the day for many of us. Even for those without desk jobs, sitting in lectures or meetings, watching television, or playing video games, all keep us seated for long periods.
We know activity boosts wellness. We burn more calories when we move, which aids with weight management. Movement does not only come in the form of workouts but also daily physical movement that isn't planned exercise or sports. Walking through the shopping mall, gardening, house cleaning – all movement can have a substantial impact on our metabolic rates and calorie expenditure. Walking for two minutes after sitting for 20 minutes improves glucose control and the body's insulin response after a meal. It improves resting blood pressure. It improves blood flow in the legs. Just get up and move.
The easiest way to improve our metabolic rate and calorie expenditure through movement is by increasing the number of steps we walk in a day. How many steps per day are ideal?
Most people would say 10,000 steps. However, that number was born out of a decades-old marketing campaign that had no scientific evidence to back the impact on health. The optimal number would differ from individual to individual, bearing in mind factors such as age, fitness levels, body weight, and individual goals. Studies about longevity have reported the following:
For adults 60 years and older, the risk of premature death levels off at 6000 - 8000 steps per day. More steps than that provide no additional benefits for longevity.
Adults younger than 60 years saw the risk of premature death stabilize at 8000 - 10000 steps per day.
So how fast or vigorous should this walk be? It doesn't matter. Nor does it matter what activity accounts for those steps walked – your NEAT (Non-exercise Activity Thermogenesis), your workout, and your stroll in the park all add up to those steps walked. The fact that you walked them, is the link to an extended life. Not only will you live longer, but you'll also live better.
Conclusion
Change happens when we change something we do every day. Developing good habits will assist us in transforming our lives for the better. That said, there is no need to bite off more than you can chew. Start with the little things and only move on when you feel comfortable in your ability to consistently practice them. Consistency doesn’t mean never messing up, it means never giving up.
Small wins, when repeated daily, bring about big advantages. In his book “The Power of Habit,” Charles Duhigg writes: “Once a small win has been accomplished, forces are set in motion that favour another small win.” Small wins fuel transformative changes by leveraging tiny advantages into patterns that convince people that bigger achievements are within reach.”
Do you have a list of habits you would like to change/incorporate in 2024? A habit menu? Sign up for my monthly newsletter and read more about the simple habits we can add to our daily lives to bring about major change.
Esté Bell, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Esté Bell is a holistic health and nutrition coach with a specific interest in sleep, stress and recovery management. As a teenager she developed disordered eating habits, followed by a diagnosis with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome a couple of years later. The resulting health and weight management issues led to a passion for holistic nutrition and the desire to help others transform their health. It was during her marriage to an emotional-abusive alcoholic that she personally experienced the importance of sleep, and stress and recovery management. She is the CEO of LevelUp Nutrition, based in South Africa, and has dedicated her life to encourage, equip and empower her clients to make change happen.
