7 Healthy Habits That Will Change Your Life | Divya Toshniwal |
There lives a tribe in the Himalayas named Hunja Tribe. An average life span of a member of this tribe is 160 years and women are said to give birth even after the age of 60s. A few cases of people living until 190 years and women giving birth till 90 have also been heard. They not only live long lives but also lead a healthy life. They have a very specific lifestyle away from the hustle-bustle of cities, they have an all-natural environment and they are very particular about eating specific types of foods grown in their own valley.
We cannot change our entire lifestyle in order to live a healthy life and extend our age. We cannot all shift to the mountains for fresh air leaving the cities. We cannot always eat freshly grown fruits and vegetables because of the unavailability in the cities and also we can not always eat freshly cooked meals. We do not even have the kind of physical exertion that the tribal people do. But we can certainly make specific little changes in our lifestyle to have a healthier life.
Here are 7 healthy habits that I incorporated in my life and since then I have been feeling healthier. How much beneficial they are would be known only in the long run. All I can say right now is that my mind and my body feels happier.
Healthy Habit 1: Drinking-Water
My mother has awesome skin. Even when she is touching 50 people say she looks like my sister (and sometimes younger one). I envy her but that's no solution for my skin. In spite of eating the same food, staying in the same environment and almost using the same cosmetics ( I use a little more than her), what was the difference that made her skin so beautiful and spotless. he one difference that I noted was water consumption. I used to drink water only when I was thirsty while she remembered to drink water every hour. It happened sometimes that I would go without drinking water for 4 or 5 hours and I wouldn't feel thirsty and she would fill two big bottles of water to keep it near her and finish it by the end of the day. Other than drinking water while having meals or working in the kitchen. She would have at least 4 liters of water every day. This one little change has made my skin feel healthier. Though it isn't like my mom yet. That would take some more time of purposely remembering to drink water.
One of the best ways I found for my initial days to build this healthy habit was the wallpaper on my phone:
Healthy Habit 2: No Screens Before Bed
Though I struggle to entirely follow this routine, I have noted one thing. The days when I keep my phone away from me and read a book before I sleep, I sleep better. The blue light emitted from the screens disrupt our sleep and leaves us feeling heavy and tired in the morning. After reading about it I had decided to give it a 7-day trial. During this 7-day trial period, I noticed just one change in my sleep cycle. I started waking up fresh. Earlier while waking up I used to still feel sleepy and would snooze the alarm at least twice. But this stopped because I felt that I had a good and enough sleep and felt active when I woke up. Though there are some days when I still may have to work on a phone or laptop but I try my best to avoid them at least an hour before sleep and instead read a book for some time. Leave them all on the table. Don't bring them to bed with you
Also read : 7 Sleep Mistakes That You Are Making And How To Fix Them
Healthy Habit 3: Intuitive Exercise
I always get bored with hard-set routine exercise. I hate it when I am bound in a fixed routine. I would definitely be enthusiastic about it for a week till I have that initial motivation phase on but then I would start searching for excuses to avoid the exercise routine every day. But the concept of intuitive exercise has changed the way I look at my fitness regime. I don't follow any strict exercise regime, rather, I listen to what my body wants and when it wants. If it demands a jog I go for it, if it demands heavy cardio I do that, if it demands just a stretching session I fulfill its wish if it needs a freestyle dance session I give it that. It allows me to connect to the requirements of my body and understand it better. Also, I do better when I am not bound in terms.
Healthy Habit 4: Intuitive Eating
And the same goes for dieting. If someone says you can't eat rice I am more tempted to eat rice then. So I had to find a solution to it and I decided to listen to my body. I put my faith in my stomach and not my taste buds and started eating what I felt intuitively correct for me to eat. Initially, sometimes I did leave food on my plate as I refused to eat extra but eventually I got to know better how much I would need and took only that much on my plate. We Indians are keen on making people eat and sometimes a few relatives were angry with me as they knew I am not on diet and still I refused to eat the meals they prepared. I could not exactly explain to them what intuitive eating is, but now they get it and a few of them also started following it.
Healthy Habit 5: Including Natural and Fresh Cooked Food Items
Staying away from home, Maggi, nachos, chips, packed juices, and all kinds of instant and packed food had become my go-to meal. I am a very lazy cook and thus I would avoid cooking a meal for myself if it was possible. All these instant food gave me that option. But eventually, I realized that these were making me lazier and my body did not feel good after eating them. That is when I decided to incorporate fresh fruits and juices instead of packed drinks and snacks in my diet. I have heard many dieticians say that you should eat fruit and not make a juice out of it. I agree that may be more beneficial but here too I listen to what my body says. I love having juices so I choose it, but I make sure they are fresh juices and not the tetra packed version. I try to cook all fresh meals and have started avoiding Maggi or any instant food unless there is absolutely no option.
Healthy Habit 6: Self Care Sundays
As a freelancer, the worst thing you face is that you don't have a holiday. The world thinks you have a holiday every day a week as you don't have a job to go to. You can spend all the time at home, work when you want to and enjoy if you don't feel like working. But you know the hard truth that you actually end up working all seven days of the week as you have no designated holiday. This can take a toll on your mental and emotional health as you do not take the required breaks from your work to sit back and relax. This made me stressed too and that's when I decided to give myself the self-care Sundays(sometimes Saturdays depending on my engagements). One day in the week when I don't work and do whatever I feel like. The only rule about the self-care day is that there is no rule. I watch a movie, go for a massage, go visit places that I haven't visited before, I would take a cup of tea and a good book and read, I would do what my heart says to ( as long as it's legal).
Also Read : 8 Types Of Self Care
Healthy Habit 7: Working On My Posture
We all have a job that involves a lot of sitting throughout the day. This wasn't the case with me before I started writing. As a dance and movement therapist, I never sat in one position for more than a couple of hours but as I also started writing I sit at a stretch for longer durations now. though I have a lot of movements involved in my profession but still sitting for longer durations was making my back a little awkward. This is when I noticed my posture. My back was curved when I sat and worked on my laptop. I remembered my mother always sat up straight and she never had back problems. This is when I decided to focus on my posture and it has helped me a lot in the past few months.
These few little changes in the past few months have helped me feel better and healthier about myself and I believe incorporating these few changes do not actually take much effort and are easy to adapt. It is not about leaving certain food items. I haven't taken an oath to never eat chips but I make sure that my body isn't rejecting it and is comfortable eating it. Just making little changes in our lifestyle can help us lead healthier lives. We may not live 150 years like the people in the Hunja Tribe but we definetly would lead a healthier life than we are living now.
We cannot change our entire lifestyle in order to live a healthy life and extend our age. We cannot all shift to the mountains for fresh air leaving the cities. We cannot always eat freshly grown fruits and vegetables because of the unavailability in the cities and also we can not always eat freshly cooked meals. We do not even have the kind of physical exertion that the tribal people do. But we can certainly make specific little changes in our lifestyle to have a healthier life.
Here are 7 healthy habits that I incorporated in my life and since then I have been feeling healthier. How much beneficial they are would be known only in the long run. All I can say right now is that my mind and my body feels happier.
Healthy Habit 1: Drinking-Water
My mother has awesome skin. Even when she is touching 50 people say she looks like my sister (and sometimes younger one). I envy her but that's no solution for my skin. In spite of eating the same food, staying in the same environment and almost using the same cosmetics ( I use a little more than her), what was the difference that made her skin so beautiful and spotless. he one difference that I noted was water consumption. I used to drink water only when I was thirsty while she remembered to drink water every hour. It happened sometimes that I would go without drinking water for 4 or 5 hours and I wouldn't feel thirsty and she would fill two big bottles of water to keep it near her and finish it by the end of the day. Other than drinking water while having meals or working in the kitchen. She would have at least 4 liters of water every day. This one little change has made my skin feel healthier. Though it isn't like my mom yet. That would take some more time of purposely remembering to drink water.
One of the best ways I found for my initial days to build this healthy habit was the wallpaper on my phone:
Healthy Habit 2: No Screens Before Bed
Though I struggle to entirely follow this routine, I have noted one thing. The days when I keep my phone away from me and read a book before I sleep, I sleep better. The blue light emitted from the screens disrupt our sleep and leaves us feeling heavy and tired in the morning. After reading about it I had decided to give it a 7-day trial. During this 7-day trial period, I noticed just one change in my sleep cycle. I started waking up fresh. Earlier while waking up I used to still feel sleepy and would snooze the alarm at least twice. But this stopped because I felt that I had a good and enough sleep and felt active when I woke up. Though there are some days when I still may have to work on a phone or laptop but I try my best to avoid them at least an hour before sleep and instead read a book for some time. Leave them all on the table. Don't bring them to bed with you
Also read : 7 Sleep Mistakes That You Are Making And How To Fix Them
Healthy Habit 3: Intuitive Exercise
I always get bored with hard-set routine exercise. I hate it when I am bound in a fixed routine. I would definitely be enthusiastic about it for a week till I have that initial motivation phase on but then I would start searching for excuses to avoid the exercise routine every day. But the concept of intuitive exercise has changed the way I look at my fitness regime. I don't follow any strict exercise regime, rather, I listen to what my body wants and when it wants. If it demands a jog I go for it, if it demands heavy cardio I do that, if it demands just a stretching session I fulfill its wish if it needs a freestyle dance session I give it that. It allows me to connect to the requirements of my body and understand it better. Also, I do better when I am not bound in terms.
Healthy Habit 4: Intuitive Eating
And the same goes for dieting. If someone says you can't eat rice I am more tempted to eat rice then. So I had to find a solution to it and I decided to listen to my body. I put my faith in my stomach and not my taste buds and started eating what I felt intuitively correct for me to eat. Initially, sometimes I did leave food on my plate as I refused to eat extra but eventually I got to know better how much I would need and took only that much on my plate. We Indians are keen on making people eat and sometimes a few relatives were angry with me as they knew I am not on diet and still I refused to eat the meals they prepared. I could not exactly explain to them what intuitive eating is, but now they get it and a few of them also started following it.
Healthy Habit 5: Including Natural and Fresh Cooked Food Items
Staying away from home, Maggi, nachos, chips, packed juices, and all kinds of instant and packed food had become my go-to meal. I am a very lazy cook and thus I would avoid cooking a meal for myself if it was possible. All these instant food gave me that option. But eventually, I realized that these were making me lazier and my body did not feel good after eating them. That is when I decided to incorporate fresh fruits and juices instead of packed drinks and snacks in my diet. I have heard many dieticians say that you should eat fruit and not make a juice out of it. I agree that may be more beneficial but here too I listen to what my body says. I love having juices so I choose it, but I make sure they are fresh juices and not the tetra packed version. I try to cook all fresh meals and have started avoiding Maggi or any instant food unless there is absolutely no option.
Healthy Habit 6: Self Care Sundays
As a freelancer, the worst thing you face is that you don't have a holiday. The world thinks you have a holiday every day a week as you don't have a job to go to. You can spend all the time at home, work when you want to and enjoy if you don't feel like working. But you know the hard truth that you actually end up working all seven days of the week as you have no designated holiday. This can take a toll on your mental and emotional health as you do not take the required breaks from your work to sit back and relax. This made me stressed too and that's when I decided to give myself the self-care Sundays(sometimes Saturdays depending on my engagements). One day in the week when I don't work and do whatever I feel like. The only rule about the self-care day is that there is no rule. I watch a movie, go for a massage, go visit places that I haven't visited before, I would take a cup of tea and a good book and read, I would do what my heart says to ( as long as it's legal).
Also Read : 8 Types Of Self Care
Healthy Habit 7: Working On My Posture
We all have a job that involves a lot of sitting throughout the day. This wasn't the case with me before I started writing. As a dance and movement therapist, I never sat in one position for more than a couple of hours but as I also started writing I sit at a stretch for longer durations now. though I have a lot of movements involved in my profession but still sitting for longer durations was making my back a little awkward. This is when I noticed my posture. My back was curved when I sat and worked on my laptop. I remembered my mother always sat up straight and she never had back problems. This is when I decided to focus on my posture and it has helped me a lot in the past few months.
These few little changes in the past few months have helped me feel better and healthier about myself and I believe incorporating these few changes do not actually take much effort and are easy to adapt. It is not about leaving certain food items. I haven't taken an oath to never eat chips but I make sure that my body isn't rejecting it and is comfortable eating it. Just making little changes in our lifestyle can help us lead healthier lives. We may not live 150 years like the people in the Hunja Tribe but we definetly would lead a healthier life than we are living now.
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