So you’re not feeling at the top of your game, and you’re sure that if you started following a healthier lifestyle, you’d feel chock-full of energy and vitality in short order. But when you read some of the health suggestions available online, it seems like you might have your work cut out for you.
While there are many things you can do that will have a positive impact on your health — ranging from taking a Vitamin B3 supplement, to eating more kale, and taking up yoga — there are certain key “cornerstone” actions you can take which can make all the difference in a very short space of time.
Perhaps you have a sense that getting one or two of your ducks in a row would quickly lead to a cascade of positive changes that would set everything else to rights as well, but aren’t quite sure where you start with identifying these magical lifestyle shifts.
Well, here are some suggestions for things to do that can help you to change your life and find health and wellness in a hurry.
Get more sleep
Sleep is, by all accounts, a lot more important than most people seem to think it is. All too often we, in today’s ever-active rat race, will find excuses to cut back on the amount of sleep we enjoy each night, for the sake of being “more productive” or showing our dedication at work, or even just having more free time in the evenings to catch up on our Netflix binging.
Consider, however, the case of Peter Tripp — a radio DJ in the 1950s who decided to do a “wakeathon” that he was warned against by medical professionals.
The result of his experiment was a tragic breaking down of his sanity and well-being. He developed split personality disorder, and even after finishing the experiment and getting plenty of sleep, those close to him reported that his personality had changed permanently.
He lost his job and his family as a result of these changes.
Sleep, in other words, is known to be essential for the proper functioning of the brain, for mood regulation, for organ health, and — in short — for the proper functioning of the body as a whole.
Cut back on your sleep, and you can expect to feel depressed, be less competent at work, and suffer various assorted health problems.
On the other hand, if you begin to get enough sleep each night, everything in your life will likely seem to improve in short order.
Focus on correcting imbalances in small muscle groups
People are often riddled with nagging aches and pains that they just can’t figure out. This is certainly true for the sedentary crowd who spend most of their time hanging out on the couch or hunching forward in a computer chair — but it’s also the case for people with a very acutely developed sense of health and fitness, who workout regularly.
Very often, these niggling aches and pains — which can have a disproportionate impact on a person’s quality of life — are due to imbalances in small muscle groups that you might never have heard of.
The gluteus medius muscles, for example — which are responsible for keeping the hips aligned — are often the source of shooting back pain.
Focus on correcting these small muscular imbalances if you even suspect you might have them. It’s a good idea to consult with a physiotherapist, but even just doing your own research online, and buying the right books, can sometimes help you to alleviate a lot of chronic pain quickly.
Eat in a way that makes you feel good and don’t yo-yo diet
Many of the most popular diets doing the rounds today are quite notorious for being restrictive and difficult to stick with. In fact, many dieters take it as a point of pride that they can push on through with following a routine centred around eating nothing but steamed greens, or a particular type of semi-edible herb.
Many of these diets are ultimately harmful, for various reasons, including assorted nutrient deficiencies, even if their proponents will argue that they are absolutely flawless and fantastic.
There is another problem with restrictive diets, however They promote the phenomenon of yo-yo dieting, in which people will lose a lot of weight on a restrictive diet, gain it all back on a less restrictive diet, and repeat.
Yo-yo dieting is notoriously harmful. Studies like the Minnesota Starvation Experiment, as well as evidence from former contestants of the weight-loss show “The Biggest Loser”, show that crash dieters routinely regain all their old weight and more, and often damage their health in the process.
Eat healthy whole foods that make you feel good in quantities that you find satisfying, instead.