If you want to build a better body and improve your overall health, the best way to do so is by building the right habits. You don’t need to be at the gym around the clock or count every calorie. All you need to do is keep your health in mind as you go about your day, and look for ways you can make your typical activities better for you. Here are five tips to get you started.
Choose Active Recreation
The more often that you’re up and moving around, the healthier you’ll be. Meeting friends for drinks or spending hours on a video game may be fun, but you could enjoy yourself just as much and get a great workout in the process if you found an active alternative.
Maybe instead of going to a new bar with your friends, you all go on a hike. Or perhaps instead of spending your free time in front of the TV, you pick up a new sport, such as surfing or snowboarding. Try to keep sedentary activities to a minimum.
Walk and Bike More
Many people drive just about everywhere not because they need to, but because that’s the way they’ve always done it. Look for opportunities to walk or ride a bike. It’s great if you can get to work this way, as you’ll instantly improve your activity level every day.
Even if your daily commute isn’t one you can do on foot or by bike, there could be daily errands that you don’t need to handle in your car. Another option is getting up and going for a walk on your breaks and lunches at work instead of just sitting around your office.
Set Daily Activity Goals
It’s good to have both short and long-term fitness goals. These give you accomplishments to work towards and keep you on track. Daily activity goals are obviously short-term goals, and these work well for ensuring that you get enough physical activity every day.
One easy way to measure how active you are is a wearable fitness tracker. These have become very popular, and you can get one that you wear as a ring or wristband, to name just a couple options.
Prep Meals in Advance to Eat Healthier
What you eat every day is far more important than how active you are. You could work out for hours, but it still wouldn’t undo the damage done by poor eating habits.
The simplest way to ensure that you eat healthy meals is by prepping them. Just make large portions of your meals, package them in plastic containers and eat them for your breakfasts, lunches, and dinners throughout the week.
If you end up going out to any meals, look for the section of the menu with healthier meals, and see if you can substitute less healthy foods with a better alternative.
Monitor Your Progress
It’s difficult to know how much progress you’re making on your own. That’s why it’s a good idea to get periodic health assessments to see how you’re doing.
Depending on where you go, you can have just about any measure of your health assessed. You could see how you perform on a certain exercise, track your body fat percentage or go through other health tests. If you’re not making the progress you’d like, then at least you’ll know so that you can make changes going forward.
Over time, these small changes to your daily habits can deliver excellent results. What’s important is that you make changes where you can and stick with them.