What does it mean to embrace wellness in your life? Globally, the health and wellness sector is booming as more people focus on improving their health and living longer with fewer health issues. While this is an admirable goal, jumping into a new lifestyle without much thought can lead to disaster and actually put you further away than when you initially started.
Wellness is about achieving a harmonious balance in all aspects of your life, not just focusing on one area. This approach ensures that your mind and body are in the best possible condition, promoting overall fitness and health. It’s about cultivating practical habits that support your lifestyle and align with your life goals. This is not about jumping on the latest fad diet but about making sustainable changes that you can maintain over time.
Let’s explore the flexible and customisable path to wellness, where you can make choices that suit your unique needs and preferences. This journey is not about strict rules or drastic changes but about finding what works best for you and your body.
Nutrition
You are what you eat, and while this is bounded around by many people in different contexts, the reality is that the better you fuel your body, the better you will feel. People who don’t get enough vitamins, minerals, and healthy foods will feel sluggish and potentially struggle with energy levels and motivation, getting stuck into a vicious cycle of eating the wrong things and not wanting to break the cycle.
Instead of overhauling your diet and eliminating “bad” foods or unhealthier options all at once, start by looking for smaller swaps and changes you can make. For example, you might increase the pieces of fruit you eat each day, up your fiber intake, or even add salad or vegetables to each meal to bulk them out and help you feel fuller while still getting nutrition in.
The key is to make small, sustainable nutrition changes and not eliminate entire food groups, especially all at once. Work up to an improved diet slowly for maximum benefit and less risk of falling into old habits.
Move More
Eat less, move more. It’s a saying that is continually rolled out to shame unfit or overweight people into exercising. But it’s not that simple. Not everyone has the same starting point or can move in the same way, and while moving more is a great idea, if you’re not sure how to move more, then it’s kind of irrelevant, isn’t it?
Your body needs to move; that’s a fact, and the old saying “if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it” is applicable here. But you need to move your body in a way that benefits you at your level.
Whether it is chair-based exercises because you can’t walk far, you start swimming for a low-impact exercise, or you increase the number of steps you do each day, you need to find a level of activity and movement that works for you. It all counts, even if it’s moving around your house and doing steps while watching TV.
Once you get the basics in place, you can work up to more strenuous exercises, following the same advice from the above point. Small and often, slow incremental changes that you can sustain and make in your life are the goal.
Eliminate Bad Habits
Those bad habits that make you feel bad or are impacting your health physically or mentally need to go.
While quitting some habits, like stopping drinking, smoking, gambling, etc., might take more than willpower alone, there are many habits you might be guilty of indulging in that you can work on eliminating or changing. The aim here is to improve your mental as well as your physical health, and if something is impacting you mentally, it needs to go.
Whether you stop smoking for tobacco-free options such as fruit-flavoured vape liquids or nicotine pouches, or you swap one alcoholic drink per night for a nonalcoholic version or a soft drink, look at your options and work them into your habits to help you make better choices even if it’s only temporary until you stop completely.
Focus on Sleep
Sleep is the cornerstone of health and wellness, and if you do not get enough sleep or good quality sleep, then the building blocks of anything else you are trying to improve won’t fit into place. Every person needs between 7-9 hours of good quality, unbroken sleep per night, and allowing your body the rest it needs helps you to support other changes going on. Sleep gives your body a chance to rest and rejuvenate, and you benefit from having a better outlook for the next day, improved mental clarity, better control over hunger signals, and more energy. So, if you want to improve health and wellness, starting with sleep is necessary.
