We all want to be healthy. Being healthy means feeling better in body and mind, as well as looking a little more attractive than we might if we were living in a less advisable way. Being healthy is a near-universal goal — yet, many of us routinely fail to do what it takes to get to where we want to be.
Routinely is an important word there. Because while we can do a lot of important things relatively infrequently to stay healthy, such as visit the doctor for screenings and vaccines, you can find a lot more things to do to help or hurt our health every single day. The decisions we make, the habits we let play out while barely thinking about them — these are the most regular and, arguably, the most important things that cause our healthy or unhealthy state.
So if you want to change your body and improve your health, start with the everyday. Here’s what you need to pay attention to.
Making exercise a habit
How much exercise are you getting? Are you getting enough? The bar is actually not all that high. Experts agree that we need about 150 minutes of exercise each week, which works out to be a mere half-hour per day, just five days a week. Easy, right?
Well, not necessarily — at least not when it’s not a habit. If exercise is a serious chore for you, then you’re going to be in danger of missing your targets. Try to find a healthy hobby that you enjoy or, at the very least, work on exercising at specific times and in specific places in a regular schedule. If you can get your body used to your routine, exercise will become a habit — an everyday activity.
Choose to eat the right things
Deprivation diets aren’t healthy, and they usually don’t work. Even when they do help you lose weight, their limited results are likely to wear off fast as soon as you go back to eating what you want and rapidly gain back the weight. So how can you make a lasting change? By choosing to do something right every day, not just for the next few weeks or months.
And the best way to do that is to focus on what you should eat, rather than trying to cut out what you shouldn’t. Try to eat more whole foods, especially vegetables. Because vegetables are less calorie-dense than their processed snack-food counterparts, you’ll fill up and feel satiated while getting more nutrients and fewer empty calories and unhealthy fats.
Take the right supplements and medicines
It’s not just food that you put into your body each day. Supplements and medicines matter, too.
Take CBD, for instance. Experts believe that CBD — an extract of the drug marijuana — can ease symptoms of anxiety without getting its users “high” in the way that marijuana does. Because it’s easy to get CBD oil products and other forms of CBD, and because the supplement is all-natural and widely legal, it’s a breeze to add CBD to your daily health routine. Other smart supplement choices include vitamins, fish oil, and probiotics.
No matter what you take, the experts at a trusted pharmacy in Westfield, NJ, advise, it’s important that you talk to your doctor about your plans. Make sure that your supplements are healthy to take together and in the dosages that you’re using, and check for allergy concerns, interactions with prescription medications, and so on. Your pharmacist is a great resource, too.
Getting (and staying) healthy can be a battle, but it’s not a battle that will be won by big heroic maneuvers. The outcome is determined by the big-picture strategy that you choose — and by how well you stick to your strategy, day in and day out. Make the right choices every day, and you’ll be healthier in the long term.