5 Steps to Get Healthier This Year

Getting healthier is one of the most common New Year’s resolutions, and for good reason – improving your overall health also improves your quality of life. You’ll look and feel better, and you’ll have more energy throughout the day. But how can you start getting healthier? By following these five steps:

1. Adopt Healthy Eating Habits

What you put into your body is the most important factor in your overall health. Eating healthy doesn’t need to be complex. Just stick to natural foods, which means either animal products or anything that comes from the ground. Healthy food choices include lean meats, fruits, vegetables, nuts and eggs. As a general rule, you find the healthier products on the outer edges of the grocery store, and the unhealthy processed foods in the middle aisles.

Don’t try to change everything overnight, as crash dieting doesn’t work over the long term. Instead, start substituting a couple healthy food choices into your daily routine. As time goes on, you’ll gradually add healthy foods and remove unhealthy foods.

2. Get Active

Get into the habit of performing some type of physical activity every day, as it can improve your physique, overall health and even your cognitive abilities. That doesn’t mean you need to do a full-fledged workout every day, as some days your physical activity could be as simple as a 30-minute walk. Weightlifting, running, organized sports and hiking are other excellent ways to get active. Find activities that are fun for you so you’ll want to do them often.

3. Relax

Stress does more damage to your body than you may think. Occasional stress is okay, as the body is designed to handle that, but constant stress is unhealthy. Take time every day to sit back, relax and forget about anything that’s bothering you. You could do this by reading a book, meditating or taking a yoga class. Try out a few different methods and see what makes you feel the best.

4. Cut Back on Unhealthy Habits

Are you smoking or drinking several days every week? While it’s alright to enjoy things in moderation, it’s important to avoid getting into any unhealthy habits, as they’ll take their toll on you over time. Gradually cut back on your bad habits until you’ve minimized them. If you drink often, try limiting it to weekends, and then reduce the amount you drink on those days.

Another way to go is looking for alternatives to your unhealthy habits. This is an especially effective method if you’re a smoker, as there are plenty of great alternatives on the market that are much better for you. Try picking up a cheap vape pen and using that instead of smoking cigarettes. You’ll get the same general feeling without the negative health effects.

5. Maintain a Positive Outlook

It may not seem like much, but you can significantly improve your life by simply keeping a more positive perspective. You probably know people who are consistently happy and others who seem miserable no matter what their circumstances are. Your outlook on life plays a huge part in your overall happiness.

One easy way to be more positive is by taking time to list the things that you’re thankful for every day. Give yourself a minimum number of items and don’t stop until you’ve hit that minimum. You should see your mood improving as you do this consistently.

Better overall health is a smart commitment to make for the New Year. With small, gradual changes, you can dramatically improve your physical and mental health in the coming weeks and months.