Quick wellness habits you can stick to even when you’re busy

Choosing a healthy diet doesn’t have to be difficult. Stick to these simple habits to stay healthy even during the most stressful times. When life gets stressful, it can be hard to put your health first. In between deadlines and daily tasks, taking care of yourself is often at the very bottom of the to-do list.

6 Simple healthy habits for a hectic lifestyle

1. Sneak in a 5-minute kitchen workout

Staying active is one of the best things you can do for your health. Physical activity can help: Reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke.
Boost your mood and improve sleep.

Adults are recommended to engage in moderate-intensity physical activity for at least 150 minutes per week. This is data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That’s about 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week. However, if you’re busy, you may not have time for physical exercise.

One quick way to exercise in the morning is to take a short jog around the kitchen while you wait for the coffee to brew. You can walk around on the spot to warm up. Then perform squats, lunges, and push-ups from the table. These movements will make your heart beat faster and give you strength.

2. Go to bed 15 minutes earlier

Do you stay up too late? The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends that most healthy adults sleep at least 7 hours a night. Sleep plays an important role in maintaining the health of your entire body. It helps keep your brain functioning and reduces the risk of health problems such as diabetes and heart disease.

So, how do you achieve a healthier night’s sleep? If you tend to go to bed too late, try going to bed a little earlier every night. Repeat this several times until you reach your goal of sleeping hours a day. This small change can lead to significant results.

Try to keep the sleeping room quiet, dark, and the temperature comfortable. Another useful tool is listening to music for meditation or mindfulness. Visit. A F R I N I K . C O M . For the full article. It can help you relax and switch your attention to sleep.

3. Set a sip reminder on your phone

Drinking enough water is a simple but often overlooked habit. Regular fluid intake helps keep your brain functioning, digestion, and energy levels at the right level.

“There are no strict rules about how much liquid you should drink, but if you’re thirsty, it means you’re already dehydrated. Even minor dehydration can affect your mood, memory, and thinking. If you are not sure how much water you should consume per day, you can consult your doctor.

A good way to determine if you are dehydrated is to check the color of your urine. You want your urine to be light or clear, not darker or more concentrated. Darker urine may mean that you need more water.

To make sure you drink enough, use the timer on your phone. You can set it up so that it reminds you to drink every hour. (You can also use the free app to remind you to drink water.) If you can’t drink regular water during the day, add a little flavor. Try putting a slice of cucumber, a slice of fresh fruit, or a mint leaf in it.

4. Grab a quick mid-afternoon snack

When you’re hungry, you want to eat here and now, so you tend to grab the first food you see. It usually turns out to be not the most useful: fast food, bars, chips, chocolates and buns. Yes, you will quickly satisfy your hunger, but you will not saturate your body with the necessary nutrients. In addition, such food is very high in calories, and its constant consumption threatens rapid weight gain.

To significantly reduce the amount of harmful foods in your diet, it is enough to train yourself always to keep a healthy snack on hand. Carry healthy food in a container with you: fruits, vegetables, nuts, yogurt, and protein bars. A healthy snack will help you satisfy hunger between meals, prevent overeating at lunch or dinner, as well as make up for the lack of nutrients in the body and improve your overall condition.

5. Read the compositions in the store.

Buying or ordering groceries is a routine task that you can do on autopilot. You throw familiar goods into the basket, focusing on cost and taste preferences, but not at all interested in the composition. But these products enter your body, and your health depends on how high-quality and useful they are. You can start small: choose products with a short and understandable composition, in which there are no names unknown to you or discrepancies with the name of the product.

Gradually, you will learn to recognize harmful additives and choose healthier alternatives. It won’t take much time, but it will have a huge impact on your health in the long run. Also, pay attention to the calorie content, the ratio of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates — your daily menu should be balanced. Take time for yourself.

6. Prepare food a few days in advance

You may not have enough time or energy to prepare healthy meals every day. But fast food or semi—finished products are not the solution to this problem. You can go the other way: set aside a few hours on your day off to cook meals for a few days in advance, or cook twice a week. Make a list of dishes that you want to cook, and buy the necessary products.

Divide the cooking process into stages: first, chop all the vegetables, butcher the meat, and prepare the cereals. Then start the heat treatment of the products, as you cook, assemble everything into full-fledged dishes. Use containers for storing ready meals in the refrigerator to divide everything into portions in advance.