Living a healthy life in today’s society is one of the greatest challenges. Feeling vibrant and energetic is more challenging because we don’t live naturally. Gyms are geared toward people who are already muscular, fast food is everywhere, and people do not take the time to really focus on the basics of healthy living. Negativity is seen from every angle. People no longer strive to remain positive and focus on achieving inner peace. With inner peace coupled with self-determination, people can accomplish anything they want to do. Goals no longer seem so infeasible, negativity no longer takes a toll on behaviour or attitude, and before long things are being accomplished that never seemed possible.

The results are real.

Very rarely will people ever truly change for another person. Real change takes place when a person changes for themselves. This is why so many fad diets fail and why so many people remain so negative about their health and weight. Media tells people to change for others, to change so that they look good in swimsuits, or to eat newer foods at the local fast food restaurant because everyone else is, or because it is close, or because of weekly specials and deals which people “MUST TRY”. These all ask people to change for someone else and eventually fail.

Once you begin to understand this and you take control of your life, change because you want to, because you enjoy making yourself a bit better each day than you were the day before, and focusing on the power of positivity and self-determination, then you will be able to reach your goals and accomplish literally anything that you want.

Most people do not realize how much their mentality affects their personal development. In moments of fear, the body naturally produces large levels of adrenaline which can cause people to do physical acts which might otherwise have seemed impossible. The same is true for everyday basic development. As you continue to remain positive mentally, you will be prepared to take on more physical challenges. As you eat right your body will be healthier. As you exercise more, your body will also be healthier. These two things combined will release endorphins and other natural hormones and chemicals in your body which will increase your mental fitness, creating a never-ending circle. With mental fitness comes physical fitness and with physical fitness comes more mental fitness.

Your 5 ways to change unhealthy habits for good means much more than changing what you eat. This includes:

1. Quitting your addictions
2. Reducing your stress
3. Exercising
4. Eating healthier foods
5. Improving sleep

By doing each of these things a little at a time—for instance substituting one healthy meal per day and exercise every other day—you can start to see improvements for the long term. You will soon find that the little habits you build slowly will turn into a permanent lifestyle change.

1.  Quitting Your Addictions

Addictions are one of the many hindrances to living a healthy and happy life. They get in the way of achieving basic nutrition and exercises, making it seem impossible for many to live healthily. But by overcoming your addictions you can overcome them permanently and reap the benefits of healthier living. Many people throughout the world smoke. This is a vice which is encouraged and for many, seems impossible to overcome. However, smoking can quickly become addictive both physically and psychologically. When this happens, it not only poses a threat to your health but to the health of those around you.

Smoking can cause many problems. There are health risks associated not only with yourself as the smoker but with those around you. Smoking is an addiction because of the nicotine contained in the tobacco. Nicotine can make it seem impossible to quit smoking, but it isn’t. Millions of people throughout the world are able to quit smoking in spite of the difficulties.

Every year thousands of deaths occur around the world from smoking-related causes representing one out of every five deaths. Smoking increases the risk of chronic lung disease, strokes, lung cancer, heart attacks, and many more. By quitting smoking, you can prevent the future onset of serious respiratory diseases.

While smoking is a serious addiction, there are plenty of other addictions that you might have. An unhealthy habit could include a gambling addiction, a sugar addiction, a tobacco addiction, a caffeine addiction, or an addiction to watching television. Alleviating any of these addictions and breaking these unhealthy habits doesn’t have to be a complete cold-turkey endeavour overnight.

It could be:

• setting a timer when you play video games or watch television so that you don’t overindulge
• no longer restocking sugar-filled items in your home so that as you go through what you have, you naturally wean yourself from your sugar addiction
• slowly replacing an eighth of each cup of coffee with water so that over the course of a few weeks the actual level of caffeine consumption diminishes

2.  Reducing Your Stress

It is important that you find the optimum measures to fight against stress during your change. By cleaning up your diet for life and alleviating stress you will live a healthier and more satisfied existence. By starting small you can begin to alleviate stressors one at a time each day. Before you know it you will have achieved a stress-free lifestyle. As you become healthier, and get back to basics, no longer are you burdened with the same elements that accompany youth and as such, you should be able to enjoy your life in a stress-free environment. By minimizing your stress levels you avoid some of the major discomforts associated with the process of aging while increasing your natural levels of energy. You can integrate a few key steps into your daily routine to provide stress relief. Stress relief can lead to longer, happier lives. You can fight a myriad of diseases, major and minor, with everyday stress relief, ensuring that they live happier, healthier lives. Finding stress relief is a necessary step in maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Reducing your stress can be as simple as:

• adding meditation to your daily routine whenever you feel your stress rising or every morning or every evening
• using breathing techniques to calm your mind whenever you are upset
• focusing on better sleep

3.  Exercise

With exercise, you can start small—a 20-minute fast workout—each day and then begin to increase the frequency and duration of your workouts over the course of the first few days. You can use this time to find exercise programs that work for you and target the areas you want to work on the most. Before you know it—the first few days will be over and you will see results already. At this point, your simple workouts will become routine and you can enjoy your new lifestyle change.

Exercising smarter, not harder

Changing unhealthy habits for good means working smarter, not harder. You don’t have to change your lack of physical activity by working out 5 hours each day. High-intensity workouts can be short and sweet but equally effective. Finding time to do just 20 minutes each day is much more reasonable than finding time to do a long, hour-and-a-half cardio routine. Time is a factor for everyone and most people can’t afford to spend hours working out, and even if they can, it’s much harder to break an unhealthy sedentary habit by diving into excessive exercise and much easier to change that unhealthy habit by simply adding small workouts.

This can include:

• walking around your neighbourhood whenever you take a phone call
• doing jumping jacks, jump rope, or ab workouts whenever commercials are playing, or in between 20 minutes segment of Netflix that you watch

Like all things you will be surprised how quickly Pavlovian theory takes over; soon every time you get a phone call you will automatically step outside and start walking around.

Find exercises you like

When you do start changing your unhealthy habits of a sedentary lifestyle it’s important that you find exercises you really like. There is no single answer, no one-size-fits-all and when you find it difficult to stay motivated because you’re tired, you had a bad day, or the weather isn’t cooperating, doing something you like is going to be a lot easier than something you hate.

More importantly, you aren’t limited to just one type of exercise. There is no reason why on certain days when you’re tired or you’ve had a lot of emotional ups and downs you can’t simply exercise with some relaxing yoga or Pilates and then days when you’ve had a great accomplishment at work and you’re feeling energetic you can go for a bike ride and lift weights.

4.  Eating Healthier Foods

Eating healthier foods is essential. So often we focus too much on calorie count but we don’t do is read the nutritional labels on our food and consider that the body needs specific nutrients in order to function properly in addition to the right number of calories. You can consume an entire pepperoni pizza and a soda and still feel hungry simply because your body, while it did receive the right number of calories, did not receive the right number of nutrients so it’s demanding more from you.

This often results in a lot of overeating and unnecessary snacking. By recognizing what certain cravings mean and being cognizant of substituting healthier foods even if it’s a little bit at a time, you can change your unhealthy dietary habits and help your body long-term.

For example: If you keep craving chocolate, it might not be the chocolate or the sugar that you need but rather the Magnesium that you need. Try eating a handful of broccoli and see if you still have that craving.

Eating less fat, having smaller portions, and making sure you consume the right mixture of vitamins and nutrients is essential. Setting nutritional goals is a good way to change your unhealthy dietary habits.

This can be as simple as:

• switching your lunches to salads, even if those salads have fat-heavy dressings, and a few croutons thrown on top for the first week or so
• only snacking on fruits, vegetables, or nuts
• make sure you eat a balance of fats, carbs and proteins
• increasing fibre in at least one of your meals
• reducing sugar and processed foods

5.  Improving Sleep

Reducing stress is one of the most important steps you can take to maintain your health, as mentioned, but improving sleep plays a big role in that. It also plays a big role in your healthy eating habits, because without proper sleep, your body cannot regulate the hormones responsible for things like your cravings, or when your brain tells you “I’m full”.

So, you need to get an adequate amount of sleep. Sleep is responsible for restoring your cognitive functions, emotions, and health overall. It is important to consume a diet which is rich in fresh vegetables and fruits. Consuming a good mixture of necessary anti-inflammatory agents can significantly reduce the risk of additional disease. Consumption of vitamin D will help to regulate the brain, provide you with energy, and offer stress relief. Promoting a healthy night of sleep and healthy eating is imperative to reducing stress during the rest of your day.

This can be as simple as:

• reducing the number of naps you take after work
• making it a rule going forward that you go to bed by a certain time
• changing your screens so no blue light interferes with your gaba production in the evening
• waking at the same time each morning

Overall, changing your unhealthy habits is hard especially when you look at gyms that are geared toward people who are already fit, with fast food on every corner, and negativity coming at you from every angle. When you create personalized goals and you change your attitude, you can accomplish real thanks. Quitting your addictions, reducing your stress so you can be mentally fit, improving your physical fitness, and making sure you sleep and eat correctly will go a long way.

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