9 Healthy Habits to Adopt This Year ...

One of the healthy habits to adopt this year that I’m personally working on is to eat more meals at home. It seems so easy to eat out rather than make something at home but it’s really quite the opposite! When you eat out you pay more, the portions are huge and you don’t really know everything that goes into your meal! Eating at home ensures that you control the portions, ingredients and honestly, I think homemade food tastes so much better!

Another healthy habit that I’m more than happy to implement in my everyday life is to sleep more. I went through many years of sleeping for a few hours, then powering through work and school and I just ended up looking and feeling like crud. Start heading to bed a little earlier so you can get some extra sleep in without having to rush through your mornings. Don’t worry, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll miss anything just by going to bed a little earlier!

We seem to live in a non-stop world so I know it’s hard to take time out for yourself. But, it’s pretty darn important to give yourself some down time and just be still. Try meditatating or just sit quietly while breathing deeply without any distractions. Turn your phone off, close the door and clear your head. It might sound like a waste of time but your mind and body need time to be quiet and refreshed!

If you already floss your teeth daily, you know it’s one of the most important healthy habits you can implement! Flossing not only keeps your heart healthy but it removes plaque, which can help teeth appear brighter, help prevent bad breath and remove embarrassing particles stuck in between your teeth!

When you’re busy with work, school, kids, family or all of the above, exercising might be the last thing on your list of things to do. If you’ve had a hard time making time to exercise, try rethinking your plan. If you view a workout as an hour-plus commitment that requires special equipment, think again! You can easily work in a walk or run at the start or end of your day or lift some hand weights while you watch TV. Don’t forget, household chores burn some serious calories and get your heart pumping also!

I don’t know about you but as hard as I try to eat a balanced diet, I somehow still manage to miss out on some essential nutrients. If you’re like me or eat an unbalanced diet, taking a multi-vitamin could be a good way to get all the nutrients we need in order to look and feel our best. Others who can benefit from a multi-vitamin are those who are on a low-calorie diet, have a restricted diet, want to build more muscle or are smokers.

Decreasing your intake of sugar is one of the healthy habits that can greatly benefit your overall appearance and health. Sugar has been linked to tooth decay, heart disease, acne, accelerated aging and weight gain. If you have a serious sweet tooth, dermatologist Dr. Nicholas Perricone suggests watching your blood sugar and consuming more protein and less bad carbs for a few days while your blood sugar stabilizes, and cravings should eventually decrease!

I know drinking nothing but water all the time can be boring, but if you’re always reaching for sodas (regular or diet), sugary juices or fat and sugar-laden lattes, you might want to rethink your drink. Treating yourself to an occasional treat is fine, but regularly drinking sodas, juices and flavored coffees can lead to weight gain and disease because they have little to no nutrients. Try swapping these drinks with almond milk, fruit-infused water, unsweetened ice tea and of course, water!

The last healthy habit that I want to impress upon you is to monitor the time you spend online! I’m definitely guilty of spending way too much time on social media sites, playing games, reading about the latest celeb gossip and the list goes on and on! For some of us, being online is part of our daily routine for work or school so do your best to try and limit the free time you spend online. Too much time online has been linked to depression, impaired cognitive function and has negative effects on your eyes.

These healthy habits to adopt will benefit your mind, body and appearance. These little changes can help you live a longer, healthier and happier life overall, so why not give them a try?! Making small adjustments to your daily life can make a huge difference in your well-being in the long term! Did you adopt any healthy habits this year?