With fast food available on every street corner, jobs that keep us stuck in a chair all day, every day, and microplastics flowing through our arteries, plenty of us are looking for ways to improve our health and well-being. We all want to find the elusive easy win, something that can help combat our calorific crises and compensate for too many hours of sedentary scrolling.
So, without further ado, here are three easy wins that can boost your health and well-being.
Start Your Day on the Right Foot
If your morning routine is less of a routine and more of a mad dash for the door, then some changes are probably long overdue. Before you click away, don’t worry – we aren’t going to tell you to set an alarm for 4.30 in the morning and order you to drag yourself to the gym for a high-octane early morning workout.
This morning routine should take around 30-40 minutes, so chances are, it’ll fit in with your daily life and won’t be a shock to your system.
Upon waking up, resist the urge to pick up your phone right away. You’re better than that. Instead, get out of bed, open the curtains, and stretch for five minutes. The natural light should help you wake up by lowering your melatonin levels (your sleep hormone) and increasing your cortisol levels (your alertness hormone). The stretches you choose to do will largely come down to personal preference, but we’d recommend a hamstring stretch while standing, as it should help decompress your spine and wake up your legs.
Before you prepare breakfast, make yourself a large glass of water – this will rehydrate your body after sleep, flush out toxins, kickstart digestion, and boost energy levels. For breakfast, it’s hard to beat a delicious, balanced meal, packed with protein, full of fibre, and stuffed with slow-releasing carbohydrates. That’s why porridge oats with a fruit of your choice is our recommendation for the most important meal of your day, but if you’d prefer something else, you could also try scrambled eggs or smashed avocado on toast.
Depending on whether you’re prioritising alertness or relaxing stiffened muscles, you can opt for either a cold or warm shower. After that, you’re good to go!
Read: Mindful Living in Style: How Loungewear Supports a Slower, Healthier Lifestyle
Improve Your Gut Health
At this very moment, trillions of tiny microbes are hard at work inside your body, soaking up essential nutrients and fighting pathogens, all while giving you serotonin boosts that’ll pick you up throughout the day. These microscopic troopers all work together in your microbiome. The microbiome’s successes often fly under the radar, but it’s a crucial part of your overall health and daily wellbeing.
There are all sorts of ways to help keep things moving as they should down there, chief among them is fibre. But here’s a hard truth: you probably aren’t getting enough. In fact, in the UK, only 4% of adults are getting their recommended 30 grams of fibre, so the overwhelming majority are putting themselves at risk of weight management issues, constipation, and even cardiovascular issues in the long term. To combat this, include more sources of fibre in your diet, like grains, fruit, vegetables, and legumes. Some standout examples are avocados, artichokes, and even a bowl of cereal.
Probiotics are also a great way to improve your gut health, and one of the most accessible sources is kefir. Kefir is rich with benevolent microbes that increase the diversity of your microbiome while also supporting your digestive system on its mission to break down your food, making it easier to digest and absorb the nutrients you need. On top of that, kefir’s anti-inflammatory properties can also help those who are having difficulties with IBS (irritable bowel syndrome). There are plenty of ways to get kefir in your diet – you can easily find it in the form of yoghurts and drinks.
Get a Proper Night’s Sleep
We should all aim for 7-9 hours of sleep every night, but shockingly, over two-thirds of us are falling short. Odds are, you fall into this category too. If that’s the case, here’s how you can give yourself the gift of a good night’s rest.
Start by setting yourself up for success. If you’re aiming to be in bed by 10 pm, avoid caffeine in the afternoon, eat dinner before 7 pm, dim the lights after 8 pm, and minimise screen time for the last hour before bed.
But the biggest difference maker when it comes to sleep is consistency. If you can go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day, you’ll regulate your circadian rhythm and drift off to sleep with increasing ease.
Closing Thoughts
Even when it comes to so-called ‘easy wins’ like these, making changes to your lifestyle can be a challenge. But whether you’re struggling to shake off the old morning routine, unable to find any kefir yoghurts in local shops, or still staying up past midnight, there’s no better reason to try than to feel healthier in your own skin.