We can all remember a time when we looked in the mirror and thought to ourselves, “I just want to feel better.” Maybe your clothes weren’t fitting that great. Indigestion or heartburn were constantly appearing late at night for the past several nights. You walked up a flight of stairs at work and realized just how out of breath you were.
And that left you here, standing in front of the mirror, thinking to yourself of how you’d like to feel better. Time to make a change.
Some people aren’t always ready to make that drastic jump into the deep end right away – and that’s okay, no fear. Even making the smallest of changes can help bring about some improvement in your life!
These changes are small, and easy to incorporate when you put some focus on them.
Drink More Water
Every process that occurs in the body starts with a molecule of H20. Water is absolutely critical to everything that we do, and everything that happens inside of us. Consider water like the oil in your car – you need it to help things move properly. When you’re low on oil, things move a lot slower, and clunkier. That’s a bit how you feel when your water intake is lower: groggy, sleepy, foggy minded, slow.
Increase that water intake to 3L minimum on days you’re not working out. Days when you do get some activity in, add a little extra in to compensate for all the activity you just did. We suggest 4L of water on those days, especially when it’s hot and humid like it is now.
Too much for you? For sure — for some, it’s not a quick and easy fix. If your water intake is extremely low as it is, start small. Aim for 1L when you wake up, and the rest throughout your day. If you have a desk job, you’re doing yourself another favour without even realizing it: Forcing yourself to get up and go to the bathroom numerous times, so you can get some mobility in your day and not just kill hours away sitting all day.
Cut Out The Refined Sugars
It seems like a no-brainer to most, but is arguably the hardest one to do. There is refined sugar in so many things we ingest, and we might not even be aware of it. If you are one of those who often need an afternoon nap, or even feel like you need a nap, consider what you were eating earlier in the day. You might also experience a foggy mind, groggy, or some digestion issues also.
Generally things that are found in the middle isles of the grocery store will have some form of refined sugar, probably disguised to make you think otherwise. Check the ingredient list of the foods you’re buying to look for items that end in -ose. Those are the ones we want to avoid.
Cutting out the refined sugars will show its purpose fairly quickly. You’ll be pleased with the body composition changes you can make with this one small change.
Get Some Zzz’s
Sleep is of the upmost importance when it comes to feeling better. As much as this one might seem like a no-brainer, it’s often the most overlooked. Ensuring you get a high quality sleep, and enough sleep is imperative to what happens the next day. A good sleep will fill up our bucket right to the top. With a full bucket, we will have a lot of energy, we’re able to think clearly, and we most likely will make better choices when it comes to other areas in our lives that will impact our health.
When we have a bad sleep, that pulls a little from our bucket. Add in consistent nights of low quality sleeps, or not enough sleep, and our bucket doesn’t get a chance to refill. As the bucket empties, we continually will handle stress a lot worse, we will experience a lack of concentration, and we’re very likely to make poor decisions that will impact our health.
Those days you experience all the cravings? Check your sleep the night before. What was it like? Chances are it was probably not that great.
Aim for at least 7 hours of sleep each night, and do your best to make it a complete sleep through the night!
Small, But Mighty
These changes are all simple things that get overlooked when people aren’t quite ready to make a large life overhaul. Water intake, refined sugars, and sleep are all basic things that we teach in our Foundations course to our new clients. With some activity in your life, combined with even the basic framework of these three tips, you will be feeling much better than you did on day one when you started!
Want to get started, but need some guidance? Sign up for a FREE No Sweat Intro with one of our staff, and together we will make a plan that you can feel confident with, knowing you can be successful.
