You may have made a New Year’s resolution to lose weight or get in shape, only to give up because your goal becomes unattainable for one reason or another. That’s because goals require planning, effort, time, and trial and error to achieve. You know your health is important, but your time is finite. Fortunately, you don’t have to make drastic changes. In fact, here are ten small changes you can do to improve your health.
Go for a Short Walk
A short brisk walk is a small change to improve your health in as little as 15 minutes daily. Not only does it improve your overall fitness when done regularly, a brisk walk can boost your energy and improve your mood. If you start small, you can gradually increase your time up to the recommended 150 minutes of exercise a week.
2 Minutes of Vigorous Exercise
If you can’t spare 15 minutes for a walk, how about 2 minutes of vigorous exercise instead? A study shows that just 2 minutes of vigorous exercise daily is another small change you can make to improve your health by increasing your cardiovascular fitness and reducing your risk of early death.
If you can do this daily, you may find those two minutes becoming too easy. If so, try to increase your time by a minute or two each week. It won’t be long until you exercise for 15 or 30 minutes daily.
Prepare Your Own Meals
If you regularly eat takeout or fast foods, then you increase your risks of developing health conditions such as high blood pressure and obesity. Furthermore, these kinds of foods are usually very processed and tend to be high in calories.
Fortunately, you can prepare balanced meals at home to ensure you get a wide variety of foods with whole-food ingredients. As a result, these meals are usually more nutritious and healthy.
You do not have to change your diet to improve your health completely. In fact, you can still eat your favorite foods, but in moderation. If you plan your meals ahead of time, you may avoid giving in to cravings when it’s time to figure out what to eat.
Make Micro-progress
Typically, you likely have several goals you want to achieve. However, you may not know where to start. Put together a plan and then do a little bit daily to make micro-progress toward your goals.
Get Plenty of Sleep
Unfortunately, you cannot survive with less than 7 hours of sleep each night. Correcting your sleep schedule to get enough sleep each night will give your body the time it needs to rest and recover. Aim for a regular sleep-and-wake schedule, and keep your room between 62F and 70F (~17C to ~21C) while you sleep.
Manage Your Stress
Stress is unavoidable. However, unmanaged stress can lead to health issues such as anxiety, depression, heart disease, and obesity. Therefore, managing your stress could add years to your life.
You can reduce stress through exercise, reading, breathing, or meditation. Finding time to unwind can improve your health by reducing stress levels.
Take Mini-Breaks
Whether you’re working, watching TV, or doom-scrolling, sitting all day is not very good for you. If you have a desk job, get up and walk around every hour or do some leg exercises at your desk to get that blood circulating. These small changes can improve your health by burning more calories, building strength, and reducing the aches and pains from sitting too long or too much.
Track Your Progress
Several studies have shown that you are more likely to stay motivated and reach your goals when you track your progress. Furthermore, you can see how far you’ve come because you can visualize your efforts. For example, you are more likely to change your eating habits if you track your weight. However, sometimes, just tracking something is enough to make you aware and adjust your behavior.
Keeping track of your progress can show you how those small changes improve your health. In fact, FitTrend makes it easy!
Make Better Choices
Sometimes, a small change to improve your health is simply making better choices. Instead of having a candy bar, have some fresh fruit. Instead of using an elevator, take the stairs. Overall, if you ask yourself which choice is better for your well-being, then those small changes can improve your health and make a difference in time.
Exercise
There are many benefits of exercise that will improve your health. However, you may feel like exercise is a chore. That’s because you haven’t found the right exercise for you. When exercise is fun, you are more likely to do it. Even a small change, like getting an exercise buddy or trying different activities, can motivate you to exercise.
The Takeaway
You don’t have to make drastic changes to improve your health. In fact, you can do many small things to make a positive impact. If you can adopt just one small change, then you are already making progress. Working on one change at a time and tracking your progress can improve your chances of success.
Over time, you may adopt several new healthy habits. Make sure to celebrate all those small wins, and be kind to yourself if your progress feels slow. You can do it! Eventually, any small changes you make will add up and improve your overall health.
FitTrend’s mission is to help you along your self-improvement journey, promote an active lifestyle, and help you achieve your goals. Our journal can help you track your workouts, weight, mood, calories, and more. Also, FitTrend allows you to connect supported gadgets to your account to make it easier for you to update your journal automatically. Create your account today and start using FitTrend for free!
Disclaimer: No content on this site should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician.
