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Basics to Set Healthy Habits for Your Body
There is so much information around about things you can do to maintain healthily or improve your health… this could be overwhelming.
Today I want to talk to you about some things that have worked for me in order to get in better shape and incorporate new and healthier habits into my daily routine.
First of all, there are two main things you need to keep in mind:
- Input: What are the things entering your body, how you feed.
- Output: Movement, exercise, how are you getting your body to burn all the energy you feed it with.
1. Input – Nutrition
Your body needs a balanced ingest of food to be nourish, it does not matter if you eat any kind of food, if you are vegetarian or vegan, you need to feed your body with all of the basics groups of food to receive the nutrients that will protect you against illness.
The basic groups are cereals and other grains, fruit and vegetables, dairy products and meat, fish, poultry, eggs, nuts, and legumes. All of them are sources of carbohydrates, fat, and protein. If you are vegan, you can get protein from legumes for instance.
My niece is a nutritionist (I know… Lucky me), but even if you find expert advice, changing your eating habits overnight is not an easy task, you can go through a diet and be disciplined for a while, but then go back to the old habits, and what you need is to change things in the long term, which is why I suggest you take two or three advice from the experts and start doing small changes.
How to Start Eating Better
I will now list some basic things, choose those you may need the most at this moment, if you are maybe seeking to recover from an illness, low your cholesterol, etc.
Please choose just one or two, and start with them, focus on those until they are part of your daily routine without much effort, then you can move to another group of them:
Eating more fruits and veggies
Eating at least five portions of fruits and vegetables a day must be part of your daily eating habits. Fruits and vegetables are a good source of carbohydrates. If you´re not a veggie fan start incorporating one or two different things and try different flavors.
Reducing sugar intake
I do not use artificial sweeteners, they are often recommended in diets for losing weight, although I prefer natural products. I recommend you switch to brown sugar and pay attention to the amounts of sugar you are consuming.
You can, for instance, enjoy your tea or your coffee without sugar or with less sugar, take into account that not only the things you add sugar contain sugar (fruits are a source of fructose a type of sugar) and sugar is also in the food that does not taste sweet, like sauces, etc.
If you love desserts like me, do not spend your daily quote on candies, sweet beverages, instead, drink water and give yourself a treat once or twice a week with a really yummy dessert. If you want it often, then eat a smaller size dessert.
Reducing refined products intake
Prefer products made with whole – wheat flour, brown sugar, etc. From cereals and grains, you will get fiber which is important for healthy bowel function and helps reduce constipation.
Check your Portions
If you hate counting calories, then don´t, just eat several small meals a day (Five to six), and eat until you feel satisfied but you still have space for eating a snack later, do not eat until you feel about to explode.
Fall in Love With Water
Drink plenty of water, reduce consumption of drinks with a high amount of added sugar, prefer natural tea, coffee, natural juices without added sugar, and overall prefer water.
2. Output – Movement
Your body needs to burn energy or it will storage calories as fat. There is no doubt that physical activity promotes good health. And that you should stay active regardless of your age, body type, or BMI (Body mass index). Staying active is the better way to maintain your body’s optimal condition, its flexibility, good cardiovascular health, etc.
When starting a new exercise routine or practicing a new sport, it probably won´t be easy for you to set it up in your daily routine. But you should try several times before quitting (at least three times). I also recommend you try different things and choose something according to your interests, think of something you will enjoy this will increase the possibility to keep doing it in the long term.
Understanding the benefits of physical fitness and knowing how active you should be, will help you maintain good health and improve your overall quality of life.
A good start will depend on how active you already are. If you have a completely sedentary life look for low-impact activities first. Practice makes perfect and you will learn to know your body and which activities make you feel better until you start trying.
Rest is also a very important part of this puzzle and it deserves in-depth discussion in future posts.
I hope this basic information will be helpful as a start your journey towards better health.
Love
Monica
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