Steps For a Healthier Life

The months are flying by and Christmas will be here before we know it. Then we have other festivities and celebrations like the New Year. It gets me thinking about all the the new year entails; one of those things is new year’s resolutions. While there is no certain time to start making changes to your life, the start of the new year seem like a nice round time to start. So what are some steps to take for a healthier life?

We all know the standard answers like lose weight and exercise more. But I think it’s time to be a little more specific. Knowing why we should do things, helps us to adhere to it so much more, right? Here are a few of my suggestions:

Get a Pedometer

Once upon a time, when I worked in the health and fitness industry, my manager was always keen for us to get involved in a 10,000 steps a day challenge. We all got given pedometers and had to do as many steps a day as we could. It all got quite competitive as you might imagine, and we had lots of fun with it. It was surprising just how much difficult it was to get all of those steps in, though. I know I would find it hard to do nowadays to get that many steps in. When you’ve got a desk job it is hard to fit it all in. So getting one of those is a good place to start. Even if you go to the gym, you might not get over 10,000 steps a day in. So getting a pedometer (they’re dead cheap), will make a difference. You can get a little bit addicted to checking it too!

Cut Out Certain Vices

I think it can be a little hard to completely cut things out. With my PCOS, cutting out sugar and dairy is quite important to deal with the symptoms. It is hard to completely cut something out, though. So cutting a few of your vices out, that will lead to better health, will make such a difference. If you are someone that always eats crisps, for example, then cut them out. You could still allow yourself to eat other ‘treats’ though. If your thing is cigarettes or alcohol, then there are options for you too. Cutting down the number of cigarettes or drinks you have each week could be a good place to start. For something like smoking, though, it might be time to look into alternatives to help you quite smoking altogether. It will be much better for your health in the long term. One alternative could be e-cigarettes. It doesn’t have all of the tar that cigarettes have so it is much better for you, and those around you too. Investing in an e-cig starter kit might be the place to start.

Cook From Scratch

I have found that when you cut out processed foods, as much as you can, it makes such a difference to your health. You know what is going into your food and it means that it isn’t full of preservatives and all sorts of artificial chemicals. It does mean planning your time a bit better. Having a shopping list is a must and meal planning is key. I have to be organised for it to work, but it works to make my family all feel healthier, was well as  saves us money. We waste a lot less food for sure! Our health is one of the most important things in life, so it is worth a bit of investment into it.

Have you got any ideas that you would add?

*collaborative post