Have you struggled to create healthy habits? Maybe you just can’t seem to get your health and fitness where you want no matter HOW HARD you’ve worked? Do you want a healthier life but don’t know where to start? You’re in the right place!
What you’re missing isn’t the latest detox diet or high intensity workout. All you need are 4 enjoyable, yet seriously crucial healthy habits that seem too simple to work. But trust me, they do.
That’s because together, they form the foundation you need to live a healthy life, feel amazing and thrive every day. Without them in place, no amount of dieting or exercising is going to get you where you want to go. Ready to find out what the crucial healthy habits are?
New Here? I’m here to help you make sense of all the health and fitness info out there and create a simple, healthy lifestyle you love, even if you don’t know what that looks like yet!
- 5 Day Movement Habit Challenge (FREE!)
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- Creating Crucial Habits 4 Week Program
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Healthy Habit #1: Sleep
Sleep is arguably the most important habit you could ever cultivate.
When you don’t get enough sleep, you feel tired and groggy. Your brain feels like it’s in a fog – maybe it even feels like you can’t see clearly. You might make really dumb mistakes (like dropping your keys in the freezer – yeah I’ve done that!). Your brain feels scrambled, completely disorganized and you can follow a clear train of thought. And you definitely can’t find your sandals, sunglasses, purse, or coffee anywhere!
To top it all off, you have no energy, so you do the bare minimum. But then you’re so overtired at the end of the day, you stay up to veg out on Netflix, then you don’t get enough sleep again. It’s a vicious cycle that you, along with so many others, are stuck in.
You’re literally spending every waking minute in fight or flight mode. Always surviving, never thriving. Because when you do sleep, your body is so geared up that it can’t activate your rest, digest, and restore mode enough to get you the rest you so desperately need.
When you’re stuck in this constant survival mode, there is absolutely NO way for your body to benefit from any diet or exercise plan you try. Your body won’t want to lose weight, build muscle, or even give you a little extra energy to have fun with your kids.
Break the Cycle & Create a Healthy Sleep Habit
But when you choose to break that cycle, you can get truly amazing results. Your brain will start working again. You’ll find that you can actually think clearly, organize your life and achieve any goals you never thought possible. And you’ll have plenty of energy to go after your goals, play with your kids, or really enjoy your next vacation.
I’ll teach you how to break that cycle in the Creating Crucial Habits Program. You’ll start prioritizing getting enough sleep plus learn to calm your fight or flight response by activating your rest, digest, and restore response.
Read More: Why Rest is More Important Than Your Workout
Read More: Best Practices to Improve Sleep Quality
Healthy Habit #2: Water
Your body is made of almost 60% water, making water pretty freaking important for your health.
Aside from air, water is the most critical nutrient you need to survive and THRIVE. Did you know that you can survive longer without food than water? That’s why we’re talking about water, not your diet.
Water is required for nearly every chemical reaction your body performs to keep you functioning day after day. Get this: billions upon billions of chemical reactions take place in your body EVERY SECOND. And you need water for most of them.
If you don’t drink enough water, your body is forced to choose which reactions take place. Is it going to choose to rid your body of toxic wastes or is it going to allow your brain to perform the higher level thinking you need to do your job? When survival is your body’s #1 priority, you can guess which one it will choose.
You Can Choose a Healthy Water Habit
Not drinking enough water is hugely stressful to your body. But it’s a stressor you have complete control over. When you’re already stressed from all the things in life you can’t control, why not choose to decrease the stress a bit and drink enough water?
Drinking enough water can fix:
- Dry Mouth
- Bad Breath
- Dry Skin
- Chapped Lips
- Chronic Fatigue
- Headaches
- Poor Concentration & Mental Function
- A Bad Mood
- Dizziness
- Generally Feeling Crummy
- A Nasty Case of the Munchies
I know this is a habit that can be so much harder to implement than it sounds for so many people. That’s why I have over 15 strategies to help you tailor this habit to your needs in the Creating Crucial Habits Program.
Read More: How Much Water Do You Need?
Healthy Habit #3: Managing Stress
Technically if you’re working on sleeping enough & drinking enough water, you’re already working on managing your stress. But we live CRAZY stressful lives these days, so if you really want to start getting AMAZING health & fitness results, you’ll need to do a little more stress management.
This is such a huge topic and it really needs to be personalized to your needs for you to get the most benefit. That’s why I break it down into 4 steps in the Creating Crucial Habits Program and help you tailor each step to your needs.
1. Identify Your Stressors
You can’t expect to manage your stress if you don’t even know what exactly is stressing you out. And you need to know where the root of your stress lies so you can address it head-on without wasting any time. When you complete this step, you might be surprised to discover that the root of your stress and how you need to deal with it are not what you thought they would be!
2. Learn to Pause & Breathe
Part of managing stress is changing unhealthy behavior patterns. This step is critical to being able to recognize an unhealthy pattern of behavior and separate from it before you can start creating your new healthy habit.
3. Change Your Story
Creating new healthy habits that decrease your stress is a super personalized process. I will walk you through any habits you choose, ranging from changing your self-talk, challenging your limiting beliefs, strategies to decrease overwhelm, setting boundaries, practicing gratitude and learning to change your perspective.
4. Support Your Body
Sleep and hydration and just two of the ways you can support your body to decrease and recover from stress to start building a healthy lifestyle. This section covers nearly 10 more strategies for managing your stress through supporting your body.
Healthy Habit #4: Daily Movement
Let me be clear: I’m not talking about an exercise habit that meets the recommended minimum physical activity guidelines. I’m talking about a movement habit which is actually even more important.
A movement habit is simply a habit of moving your body in ways that feel good frequently throughout the day. This is both therapeutic and preventative medicine for your mental and physical health.
How Daily Movement Helps You:
- Decreases Stress
- Boosts Immune System
- Boosts Mood
- Promotes Relaxation
- Improves Sleep
- Supports Healing from Stress
- Increases Mental & Physical Endurance
- Prevent Chronic Illness
- Manages Chronic Pain
- Heal Other Chronic Issues
- Improves Resilience to Stress
- Improves Bone Health
- Regulates Appetite
- Promotes Healthy Bodyweight
- Improves Memory & Brain Function
Can you tell how a Movement Habit is more important than exercise? (Not to knock on exercise or anything.)
Here’s what science says:
Spending long periods of time sitting, driving, watching tv, using a computer/phone/tablet, etc. is associated with an increased risk of:
- Coronary Heart Disease
- Depression
- Increased Waist Circumference
- High Blood Pressure
- High Blood Sugar
- Other Chronic Disease
EVEN in people who meet the minimum physical activity guidelines!
Spending less time sitting plus breaking up your sitting by moving more frequently at a low to moderate intensity throughout the day is MORE beneficial to your overall health than ANY amount of intense exercise!
This section of the Creating Crucial Habits Program covers over 10 different strategies for moving more, plus comes with 4 different guided movement practices to get you started.
Read More: Using a Movement Habit to Dramatically Improve Your Health
The 4 Crucial Healthy Habits
If you spend just a little of your valuable time working on these healthy habits: Sleep, Water, Managing Stress, and Daily Movement, you will quickly stop surviving on the hamster wheel and start THRIVING in the healthy life you’ve always wanted.
You don’t need to waste time on restrictive diets or intense workouts. And you definitely don’t need to experience the frustration and guilt you get when you know you aren’t living the healthy life you WANT to be living.
Start living a healthy, happy life where you can show up as the amazing person you know you are. You can be the parent you’ve always dreamed of. You can be full of energy and capable of pursuing all your dream goals.
Which habit speaks to you the most?
Ready to dive into the Creating Crucial Habits Program? I’ll walk you through each habit over the course of 4 weeks. What dramatic improvements will you experience in one month? Join the Creating Crucial Habits Program now!
This post was originally featured on StudyInFitness.com