Easy Steps to Make Positive Changes in Your Health
Almost everyone has something they would like to change about themselves. For some, it’s improving their time or money management skills. For others, it’s a healthy diet, or avoiding junk food. These are all great goals, but this root cause of self-improvement often goes ignored: positivity. Negative and self-defeating attitudes can derail even the best intentions at lightning-fast speeds. While positivity without action isn’t an improvement plan, starting with a conscious effort to default to positive thinking and reassurance will help you build your plan. These suggestions for small changes that will lead to big improvements are all rooted in positivity and manageability. Setting small, manageable goals only makes it easier to see progress, and feed your positive outlook on life, and your journey towards improvement!
Stretch Out
The top New Year’s Resolution is almost always “lose weight.” Year after year, people swear they’ll get healthy, get in shape, and drop a few pounds. This is a great goal, but many people set the bar too high and try to dive into a workout routine that’s impossible for a novice to maintain, or a drastic fad diet that only makes them feel worse about themselves. Start small. If you’re carrying extra weight, you need to get your body ready to move slowly. Getting in the habit of taking 10, 5, or even 2 minutes to stretch as soon as you get out of bed can help! As we age, the mileage on our bodies begin to show in joint and muscle stiffness and pain.
Vitamins, supplements, and thrive side effects can help get them working better but doing them in conjunction with simple body stretches held for 3-5 deep breaths in and out will increase the benefit. For those looking for exercise routines that are based in stretching and deep breathing, consider yoga or Pilates routines. You can jump right out of bed, stretch out your body, get your workout in, and be ready for the day! A bonus to this is that you will not only wake up your body in the process, but your mind as well, making the stress of your morning hustle seem more manageable.
Drink More Water
Speaking of physical health and alertness, one of the best things you can put into your body to encourage them is the Earth’s most abundant resource: water! You’ve probably heard that your body is over 60% water. That fact alone should be enough to encourage you to stay hydrated. The problem that the average person runs into is the number of dehydrating things they consume during the day. Salt, coffee, alcohol, and sodas all make your body dry up. Those things are all fine in moderation if you counter them with appropriate water intake. A good rule of thumb is to drink a half ounce of water for every pound you weigh daily. For example: a 180-pound person should drink 90 ounces of water over the course of the day.
Use a To-Do List to Stay Organized
Moving from positive physical health to positive mental health, time management is a crucial consideration for many people. While it may seem stressful at first, taking a few minutes at the end of each work day to write out a to-do list for the next day is one of the single best positive organizational moves you can make. No matter how long it is, or how much you must add as your day happens, you have a finite checklist in front of you. While there are plenty of apps that help with this, many people find satisfaction from having it on paper and being able to cross items off as they are accomplished.
Positivity is the foundation for physical and mental well-being. Fighting negative thoughts, and setting positive, manageable and achievable goals like the ones we discussed will help you see results over time. Stay compassionate and fair with yourself; if you step backwards, don’t beat yourself up. Just pick up where you left off and keep moving forward; always in a positive direction!
