Gain healthy habits: here is where to start

Getting into some healthy habits shouldn’t just be because of the new year, it should be because you want to. A healthy habit doesn’t have to be something huge like running miles every day. It can be something small.

Making your bed in the morning helps give a sense of accomplishment because you’ve finished your first task of the day and it’ll help you finish more tasks throughout your day. According to the author, Charles Duhigg, making your bed daily becomes a keystone habit that starts a chain of good decisions throughout the day. It will help you be more organized and, in a clutter-free environment. Plus, you’ll come home to an already made bed. The Spruce said that it may help your room look much tidier and nicer and may even encourage you to clean the rest of your room. A Make It article stated that by not being able to make your bed or any little things,you will not be able to accomplish the bigger things in life. 

Eating a healthy breakfast may just improve your health. In the morning your body is the most insulin-sensitive, so eating at most 25 grams of fiber-filled carbs will help lower a person’s cholesterol. Along with helping lower your cholesterol, it will also help lower your chance of getting diabetes.  An observational study found that people who skip breakfast either five or four days of the week have a 55% increased risk of Type 2 diabetes. Breakfast is a great way to get energized for the day and will help you focus better in the morning and throughout the day. This is especially important for kids because it’ll help them focus more at school. In addition to a healthy breakfast is drinking plenty of water to help you stay hydrated throughout the day. 

A gratitude practice is a way you show gratitude and a great example of that is by either writing down the things you are grateful for that week or day. Showing gratitude not only helps with being more grateful, but also helps increase your happiness. Studies were done in the past where people are split into two groups, one writing what they are grateful for that week and the other writing down what irritations they faced that day. The study’s outcomes were all the same: the group writing what they were grateful for had a positive effect on their mental health, it increased happiness, optimism, and they felt better just in general about life. 

Taking time off your phone is good for you because in this day and age everyone is always on his or her phone either for work, school, or just because. Getting off your phone once in a while to read a book or walk is good because you’ll be enjoying real-life that’s not attached to your phone and become more productive. While many have messed up sleep schedules, studies show putting your phone away an hour before sleeping helps the brain relax. SCL Health, a healthy website, says that blue light from our phones restrains the production of melatonin, a hormone that helps with our sleep schedule also known as circadian rhythm. They suggest that you put your phone away thirty minutes before bed or even put it in another room. Another alternative is blue light glasses. Blue light glasses do work. In a blog, Rise, they said blue light glasses help you meet your desired sleep time and the right amount of melatonin needed to fall asleep but they help you get the energy you need for the day.

Reading helps strengthen your mental muscles. While reading a book, your brain’s analytical and critical thinking abilities are started up. Each book you read will increase your brainpower. It also helps increase your creative thinking. Robert S. Wilson from Rush University Medical Center has found that reading and other mentally stimulating activities are good for brain health and may even help preserve your brain health and help fight off symptoms of Alzheimer’s as you get older. In the study, researchers had looked closely at 294 elderly women and men, mostly in their 80s, who were tested on memory and thinking every year in the last years of their lives. After they died, autopsies were performed on their brain to look for signs of dementia and Alzheimers. The people who had participated in the mentally challenging activities had shown signs of a slower rate of decline in memory compared to the people who didn’t do those activities. Still, if people had plaques, tangles, and other brain damage, mental stimulation had helped protect their memory and thinking skills. 

“Based on this, we shouldn’t underestimate the effects of everyday activities, such as reading and writing, on our children, ourselves and our parents or grandparents, ’said Dr. Wilson.” 

Just because they are small habits doesn’t mean they won’t impact you and your health. Something as small as making your bed or reading could improve your everyday life as well as your health.