Everyone wants to be healthy and age well. Unfortunately, not everyone has hours to spend in the gym or money for an all-organic pantry. This leaves consumers feeling like they have to choose between a healthy lifestyle and paying the bills. So what does it really take to improve your health?
In reality, the balancing act between health and responsibilities is much more nuanced. In fact, the most impactful changes individuals can make for their health don’t require a major lifestyle overhaul.
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4 Simple changes to transform your health
Get enough sleep
Even if you function well enough after less than seven hours of sleep, your body doesn’t. Not getting enough sleep is linked to a 33% increase in dementia risk, a 50% increase in obesity risk, and a 48% increase in the risk of developing heart disease. Sleep deprivation also ups the risk of death from unnatural causes like car accidents.
Every adult needs 7–9 hours of sleep per night, but it’s not only quantity that matters. Poor quality sleep leads to the same problems as insufficient sleep, with the added complication that not everyone who gets poor quality sleep knows it. For most people, improving sleep quality is a matter of better sleep hygiene. However, millions of people are living with undiagnosed sleep disorders like sleep apnea. Untreated, such disorders can lead to daytime sleepiness, chronic health problems, skin issues, and even death.
Manage stress
Chronic stress is one reason people struggle to sleep at night, but the impacts of stress extend far beyond insomnia. Chronic stress contributes to health problems including:
- depression and anxiety
- cognition problems
- drug and alcohol misuse
- obsesity
- cardiovascular problems
- immune disorders.
Techniques like mindfulness and deep breathing are useful for acute stress, but they don’t address the underlying cause of chronic stress. For that, individuals must examine their lifestyle.
Work and money consistently rank as leading sources of stress. Not only are people stressed out and dissatisfied at work, but more than half feel stuck in their careers. That’s especially true among workers without college degrees. However, that trend is starting to change during the pandemic, with more adults without college degrees turning to online programs to advance their careers. Not only are online programs more accessible due to flexibility and low cost, but online degrees in business and other applied fields focus on key workplace skills students need for advancement.
Eat healthy foods every day
Eating well isn’t easy, especially when you’re juggling education and a career. However, the biggest mistake people make when it comes to their diets is letting perfect be the enemy of good. In an effort to eat more healthily, dieters cut out any food deemed “bad”—only to abandon the diet after they inevitably succumb to cravings.
When it comes to changing eating habits, sustainability is the most important factor in a person’s success. If eating habits aren’t sustainable, they’re unlikely to be maintained long enough to make a lasting impact. It’s better to eat a balanced diet that includes mostly healthy foods like vegetables, lean proteins, and whole grains along with a few indulgences than to attempt an overly restrictive diet.
Walk more (preferably outdoors)
Millions of people pay for gym memberships they don’t use. While lifting weights and logging miles on a treadmill have their benefits, going to a gym isn’t the only way to stay active. Yet like diets, many people treat fitness as all-or-nothing, enthusiastically joining gyms—and then quit their fitness goals a few weeks later.
Research suggests that reaping the health benefits of an active lifestyle is far simpler (and cheaper) than fitness franchises would lead you to believe. Walking just 30 minutes per day improves weight, heart health, and mental well-being and reduces the risk of dying from any cause. Walkers who log their steps outdoors reap the added benefits of time in nature.
The health and wellness industry is a multi-billion dollar market, yet the most impactful changes people can make for their health don’t require spending money on specialized products or adopting complicated self-care routines. When it comes to health, getting back to basics like sleep, diet, and stress is where truly transformative change is made.
Author Bio
Emma Grace Brown lives her life by her rules; and it works! When she’s not snuggling puppies, Emma promotes female empowerment through her website. Her mission is to help those who live with self-doubt to realize they don’t have to mold themselves to conventionality.
Photo Credit: Unsplash
